Name of Jesus in the Old Testament
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This article is about the etymology of the name "Jesus":
Other older English transliterations from Yehoshua/Yeshua include Joshua and Jeshua. More modern transliterations include Yahshua, Yahoshua, Yaohushua and other similar variants, though these typically reflect theological rather than linguistic viewpoints. Authors have put forward numerous explanations to explain the origin of the name 'Jesus', and have offered a still larger number of explanations for the meaning of the name. The name is related to the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Joshua, which is a theophoric name first mentioned within the Biblical tradition in Exodus 17:9 as one of Moses' companions (and, according to tradition, later successor). Breaking the name down, we see that there are two parts: יהו Yeho, a theophoric reference to YHWH, the distinctive personal name of the God of Israel, plus the three letter root שוע, relating to the noun shua. Due to disputes over how to render שוע lexically,[1][2][3][4][5] there are a number of generally accepted phrases this combination can translate to:
- Yeho-shua
- Literal meaning:
- "Yhwh" (is) a cry-for-help
- "Yhwh" (is) a cry-for-saving
- "Yhwh" (is) a saving-cry
- That is, when in need of help shout, "God!"
- Figurative meaning:
- Yhwh is salvation
- Yhwh saves
- Yhwh is my help
- That is, God always answers a cry for help.
Like many Hebrew names, the meaning of the name Yehoshua derives from the great desire of a parent (usually a mother) to have a child. Stories abound in the Hebrew Bible about ancient women who go to extraordinary lengths to conceive a child. The parent who has difficulty conceiving a child, shouts to God for help. The newborn child, then, is literally the answer to the parent's prayer. In honor of God's help, the parent names the child thus.
During the Exile to Babylon where the vernacular language of the Jewish people shifted from Hebrew to Aramaic (which was probably Jesus' mother tongue, see also Aramaic of Jesus), יְהוֹשֻׁעַ [yehoshua`] underwent a morphological change into the form יֵשׁוּעַ [yeshua`] Strong's H3442, for example in Ezra 2:2. Theophoric references, where in Hebrew would usually come in the form of יה [yah] or יהו [yahu], in some dialects of Aramaic were יא [ya'] or י [ye]. This shortening also allowed for some confusion, as the 3rd person imperfect form of שוא [shua`] (to save) is ישוע, allowing the Aramaic name to take on the meaning "He will save."[citation needed] (This perhaps makes sense of the angel's discussion with Joseph, in the narrative of Matthew, to name Mary's son "Jesus" because "He will save his people from their sins.")[6]
When the New Testament was complied, ישוע [yeshua`] was transliterated into Koine Greek as closely as possible, the result being Ἰησοῦς [Iēsous]. Where Greek has no equivalent of the semitic, ש [sheen], it was replaced with a σ [sigma], and a masculine singular ending was added. With the range of dialect that existed in 1st Century Judea (especially around Galilee) scholars believe that the final ע [`ayin] was simply dropped altogether. The earliest usage of this transliteration is actually found in the Septuagint and in writings of Philo of Alexandria[7].
From Greek, Ἰησοῦς [Iēsous] moved into Latin with the authorship of the Latin Vulgate and the earlier Vetus Latina. The morphological jump this time was not as large as previous changes between language families. Ἰησοῦς [Iēsous] was transliterated to Latin IESVS, where it stood for many centuries. Minuscule (lower case) letters were developed around 800 and some time later the U was invented to distinquish the vowel sound from the consonantal sound. Similarly, Greek minuscules were invented about the same time, prior to that the name was written in Capital letters like so: ΙΗCΟΥC.
Near the end of Middle English, the vowels changed during the Great Vowel Shift in the 15th century, and the letter J was first distinguished from 'I' by the Frenchman Pierre Ramus in the 16th, but did not become common in Modern English until the 17th century. As such we can see that such works as the first edition of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 continued to print the name with an I. [8]
Finally, after thousands of years and several languages later, the name finally came to rest as the Modern English "Jesus" [ˈdʒi.zəs].
[edit] References
- ^ "שׁוע", Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company 1987)
- ^ Talshir, M. H. Segal, A Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew (Tel Aviv: 1936), p. 146.
- ^ Strong's Concordance H3091
- ^ Philo, De Mutatione Nominum, §21
- ^ Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius, Hebrew and English Lexicon With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic (Hendrickson, 1985), ISBN 0-913573-20-5. Cf. Blue Letter Bible, H3442
- ^ Matthew 1:21
- ^ Philo Judaeus, De ebrietate in Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunted. P. Wendland, Berlin: Reimer, 1897 (repr. De Gruyter, 1962)vol. 2:170-214, Section 96, Line 2.
- ^ Image of the first edition of the King James Version of the Bible, Gospel of Luke. From http://nazirene.peopleofhonoronly.com/. Retrieved March 28, 2006.
