In Jesus' Name

Many have heard that Jesus’ original name was Yeshua, but how did we get from that name to Jesus, and what lessons can we learn about our faith, from the story?

The first form of Jesus’ name that we find in the Bible is Yehoshua, which we translate “Joshua”, like in the book of Joshua. Yehoshua comes partly from the Hebrew name for God, YHWH, which means, “He is”, or “I am”. Yehoshua means “YHWH is salvation”. During the Babylonian exile, Yehoshua was shortened to “Yeshua”, and this is the name most scholars think was Jesus’ real Hebrew name (but we can’t be absolutely sure – it’s not written in Hebrew in the New Testament).

Yeshua (Joshua) was the fifth most common name in Jesus’ day (behind Simon, Joseph, Judah and John). It appears in many places in our English translations of Josephus’ Jewish histories and the Bible (Old and New Testaments), written as “Jeshua”, “Joshua”, or “Jesus”. These are all really the same name. Aramaic speaking Gallileans would have pronounced it as yesu or yeshu. But Jesus lived at the crossroads of trade routes, and most Jews also spoke or knew some Latin and Greek. Jesus would have heard his name in several different forms. The sign on the cross above Jesus’ head spelled out his name in three languages; Yeshua (Hebrew), Iesous (Greek), and Iesus (Latin).

Greek was the common language of the Roman Empire, and the language of the New Testament. In the New Testament, every time Jesus’ name is spelled out, it is written in Greek as Iesous (pronounced ee-ay-soos). This was the best sound-alike approximation of Yeshua that the Greek language could make. In Greek, there were no “y” or “sh” sounds like there were in Hebrew. The “s” was added at the end because Greek male names usually had to have one.

In the Catholic Church, Greek scriptures became Latin Bibles, and the name Iesous became Iesus (pronounced yee-soos). From there, the change to “Jesus” was because of our evolving English language. About 400 years ago, in the King James Bible, the new English letter “J” took the place of the “I” in Iesus, giving us Jesus. With some further pronunciation changes, we arrived at the name we use today.

It doesn’t matter whether we can correctly spell or pronounce the name Jesus used 2000 years ago. When we pray in Jesus’ name, God understands our prayers no matter what language we speak in. But learning about “Yeshua” reminds us that God’s name, YHWH, is part of Jesus’ name, just as the Son and the Father are parts of the same Trinity. We are reminded that Jesus’ very name means “God is salvation”. The meaning of Yehoshua / Yeshua reminds us what God has done for us through Jesus: given us salvation. Learning about how we got from “Yeshua” to “Jesus” reminds us of the multicultural world in which Jesus lived, and brings to mind the long history of the Church that we as Christians share.