Yeshua (name)

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For the article on the person, teaching, and acts of Jesus Christ, see the Jesus article. For information on the various adherents to the religious teachings of Jesus, see the articles on Christianity and Messianic Judaism. For the article on the Hebrew term 'Yeshu' which may or may not refer to Jesus, see Yeshu.

Yeshua, spelled יֵשׁוּעַ‎ in Hebrew, is believed by some scholars^[1] and religious groups^[2] to be the Hebrew or Aramaic name for Jesus. It is extensively used by Messianic Jews and Hebrew Christians, as well as others, who wish to use what some believe to be the original Hebraic pronunciation of Jesus' name. This pronunciation and spelling, as with many religious and scholarly issues, remains the subject of ongoing debate.

[edit] Etymology

Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) can stand for both Classical Biblical Hebrew Yehoshua (top two) and Late Biblical Hebrew Yeshua (bottom)

Main article: Names and titles of Jesus

Among the Jews of the Second Temple Period, the Biblical Aramaic/Hebrew name יֵשׁוּעַ‎ "Yeshua" was common: the Hebrew Bible mentions ten individuals with this name. This name is a feature of biblical books written in the post-Exilic period like Ezra and Daniel and in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The name יֵשׁוּעַ‎ "Yeshua" (= Jeshua) is a late form of the Biblical Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ Yehoshua (= Joshua), which can also be spelled יְהוֹשׁוּעַ‎. The Late Biblical Hebrew spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric element Yeho-. Thus יהוחנן‎ Yehochanan contracted to יוחנן‎ Yochanan.^[3] There is no other case though of this prefix being shortened to simply "yē-".

The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua": Yeho- יְהוֹ‎ is another form of יָהוּ‎ Yahu, a theophoric element standing for the personal name of God YHWH, and שׁוּעַ‎ shua is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry",^[4][5][6] that is, a shout given when in need of rescue. Together the name would then literally mean, "'God' is a saving-cry," that is, shout to God when in need of help.

Another explanation for the name Yehoshua is that it comes from the root ישע yod-shin-`ayin, meaning "to save". According to the Book of Numbers verse 13:16, the name of Joshua son of Nun was originally Hoshea` הוֹשֵעַ‎, and the name "Yehoshua`" יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ is usually spelled the same but with a yod added at the beginning. "Hoshea`" certainly comes from the root ישע yod-shin-`ayin (in the hif`il form the yod becomes a waw), and not from the word שוע shua`.^[7] although ultimately both roots appear to be related.

In the 1st century, Philo of Alexandria renders this understanding of the name in Greek in an explanation of the name change of the biblical Joshua son of Nun (from Hoshea "He saved" to Yehoshua): "And Iesous [which stands for the Hebrew name Yehoshua] refers to salvation of the Lord" (Ἰησοῦ δὲ σωτηρία κυρίου) (On the Change of Names 21.121).

Similarly, the Septuagint renders Ben Sira as saying: "Iesous the son of Naue [Yehoshua Ben Nun] who according to his name became great unto [the] salvation of his chosen ones" (Ἰησοῦς Ναυῆ .. ὃς ἐγένετο κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ μέγας ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ ἐκλεκτῶν αὐτοῦ) (Ben Sira 46:1-2). However, Ben Sira originally wrote in Hebrew in the 2nd century BCE. The only extant Hebrew manuscript for this passage has "in his days" (בימיו), not "according to his name" (which would be כשמו in Hebrew), ^[8] and thus does not comment on the name Yehoshua as connoting יְּשׁוּעָה‎ "salvation": "Yehoshua Ben Nun, who was formed to be in his days a great salvation for his chosen ones" (יהושע בן נון... אשר נוצר להיות בימיו תשועה גדלה לבחיריו‎). Possibly, the translators understood the phrase "was formed in his days" to refer to being transformed by his name change, and thus has "according to his name" as a paraphrastic translation, or else they were working from a different text.

The name יֵשׁוּעַ‎ Yeshua is not identical to the noun form יְשׁוּעָה‎ yshua ("salvation") or to any verb form such as יוֹשִׁיעַ‎ yoshia ("he will save").

Nevertheless, the letters of the traditional spelling of the name Yehoshua יהושע‎ could be reread midrashically with different vowels and a silent letter He, as if a third person imperfect Hifil verb form of the root ישע‎, so that it could be interpreted improperly as "he will save", yoshia יהוֹשִׁע‎ (properly יוֹשִׁיע‎). Possibly this rereading is behind the Gospel's account where the angel instructs Joseph (Matthew 1:21): "You are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins." If so, this would mean that the author understood the name Jesus to derive from the traditional Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ Yehoshua (= Joshua).

[edit] Pronunciation

The traditional Tiberian Hebrew vocalizes the Late Biblical Hebrew name ישוע‎ as יֵשׁוּעַ‎ Yeshua /je.ˈʃu.aʕ/. (For example: Ezra 5:2.) The yodh is vocalized with the Hebrew vowel, tsere, a long e (IPA /e/) as in "neighbor" (but not diphthongized) not with a shva (IPA /ə/) (as Y'shua) or segol (IPA /ɛ/)(Yesh-shua). The final consonant is the voiced pharyngeal fricative ayin (IPA /ʕ/), sometimes transcribed by "`" (Yeshua`), a sound not found in Greek or English. The "a" represents the patach genuvah ("furtive" patach) indicating the diphthongization of the "u" vowel due to the effect of the final `ayin - in simple terms the "a" is not an additional syllable but indicates a modification of the "u" vowel which due to the `ayin was pronounced somewhat like the oo of English moor as opposed to that of food.

[edit] Yeshua as the original name for Jesus

The claim that the form Yeshua is the original name for Jesus is debatable. The English name Jesus derives from the Late Latin name Iesus, which transliterates from the Koine Greek name Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs.

In the Septuagint and other Greek-language Jewish texts, such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs is the standard Koine Greek form used to translate both of the Hebrew names: Yehoshua and Yeshua. (It was also used for Joshua son of Nun in one verse where today's Hebrew text has the form without the yod.)

Yeshua was a second Temple period form of the name Yehoshua. All occurrences of Yeshua in the Hebrew Bible are in 1 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah where it is transliterated into English as Jeshua. Two of these men (the son of Nun and Joshua the High Priest are mentioned in other books of the Hebrew Bible where they are instead called Yehoshua ^[9] (transliterated into English as Joshua) ^[10]

The earlier form Yehoshua did not disappear, however, and was still used in Chronicles when referring to Joshua the son of Nun. ^[11] The short form Yeshua was used for Jesus son of Sirach in Hebrew fragments of the Book of Sirach. (Some concern remains over whether these fragments faithfully represent the original Hebrew text or are instead a later translation back into Hebrew.^{[citation needed]}) The earlier form Yehoshua saw revived usage from the Hasmonean period and onwards although Yeshua is still found in the letters from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE). Thus, both forms Yehoshua and Yeshua were in use during the Gospel period. No usage of Yeshua is found in the Talmud, except in verbatim quotations from the Hebrew Bible regarding Joshua son of Jehozadak.

In the context of the documentary entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, archeologist Amos Kloner stated that the name Yeshua was a popular form of the name Yehoshua and was "one of the common names in the time of the Second Temple".^[12] In discussing whether or not it was remarkable to find a tomb with the name of Jesus (the particular ossuary in question bears the inscription "Yehuda bar Yeshua"), he pointed out that the name had been found 71 times in burial caves from that time period.^[13]

Clement of Alexandria and St. Cyril of Jerusalem considered the Greek form Iesous to be the original, even going so far as to interpret it as a true Greek name and not simply a transliteration of Hebrew.^[2] (A similar situation is seen in the use of the Greek name Simon as a translation of the Hebrew name Shim'on in texts such as Sirach.) Eusebius related it to the Greek root meaning "to heal" thus making it a variant of Jason meaning healer.

However, the New Testament describes Jesus as part of a Jewish milieu, reading the Hebrew Bible and debating with Pharisees over interpretations of the Jewish legal tradition. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew record several words or expressions spoken by him in Aramaic. Moreover, Eusebius reports that Jesus's student Matthew wrote a gospel "in the Hebrew language". (Every time the word "Hebrew" is used to describe a word or phrase in the New Testament, the word or phrase is actually in what we call today Aramaic.^[14])

An argument in favor of the Hebrew form ישוע Yeshua is that the Old Syriac Bible (c. 200 CE) and the Peshitta preserves this same spelling using the equivalent Aramaic letters ܝܫܘܥ. (The modern Syriac vocalizes the name as Isho, which can be transliterated as יִשׁוֹע, but its ancient pronunciation was similar to Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua`.) These texts were translated from the Greek but the name is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form (it has "sh" instead of "s" and ends with the pharyngeal ‘ayin not found in Greek). It can be argued that the Aramaic speakers who used this name could have had a continuous connection to the Aramaic speaking disciples of Jesus and thus preserved the actual name used for him. However, even if derived from Hebrew Yeshua, the possibility that it was simply chosen based on the correspondence between Iēsoûs and Yeshua in the Septuagint cannot be ruled out.

Yeshua was used as the name for Jesus in the Yosippon; however, its usage here is a translation back into Hebrew of the Greek. The Toledot Yeshu narratives conflate the person or persons designated Yeshu in the Talmud with Jesus but relate that his original name was, in fact, Yehoshua.

The Arabic name for Jesus used by Christians, Yasū‘, derives from Yeshua. However, the Qur'an and other Muslim sources instead use a traditional Islamic title عيسى `Īsā, which can be transliterated as עִישָׂי (the ya is silent) and is similar to the Arabic form عيسو, Isu, of עֵשָׂו‎ ‘Esaw, that is, the biblical patriarch Esau. Some Islamic scholars argue that it derives from the original Syriac Aramaic name Isho‘.^[15] However, the Aramaic has the letter ‘Ayin only at the end, whereas the Arabic has its equivalent letter ‘Ayn only at the beginning. This metathesis of the Aramaic ‘Ayin is improbable linguistically. Other Islamic scholars accept that the Quranic name is a cognate of Esau and not of Yeshua.^[16]

[edit] References

1. ^ Stern, David (1992). Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, Maryland: Jewish New Testament Publications, 4-5. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Origin of the Name Jesus Christ in The Catholic Encyclopedia
3. ^ David Talmshir, "Rabbinic Hebrew as Reflected in Personal Names" in Scripta Hierosolymitana: Publications of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, vol. 37 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press: Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1998)
4. ^ "שׁוּעַ‎", Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company 1987), where it means "a cry for help".
5. ^ "שׁוּעַ‎", William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1971), where it means "a cry for help".
6. ^ "שָׁוַע‎", M. Jastrow, Dictionary of the Talmud reprinted (Jerusalem: Khorev 1990), where שׁוּעַ‎ is explained by the verb "to cry for help",
7. ^ (1901-1906) Jewish Encyclopedia. entry JOSHUA (JEHOSHUA): Funk and Wagnalls. 
8. ^ Segel, Moshe Tsvi (1953). Sefer Ben-Sira Hash-Shalem. Chapter 46 verse 2: Mosad Byalik, 317. 
9. ^ Price, James D. Yehoshua, Yeshua or Yeshu; Which one is the name of Jesus in Hebrew?, accessed March 6, 2006.
10. ^ Lee, Linda The Amazing Grace of the Hidden Word.
11. ^ 1 Chronicles 7:27
12. ^ Mendel, Roi (25 Feb. 2007). "Ha-"chasifa" shel qever Yeshu: qiddum mkhirot". Yedioth Ahronoth. Retrieved on 27 Feb. 2007. 
13. ^ Pilkington, Ed; Rory McCarthy (27 Feb. 2007). "Is this really the last resting place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene - and their son?". The Guardian. Retrieved on 27 Feb. 2007. 
14. ^ (1975) Wycliffe Bible Dictionary. entry HEBREW LANGUAGE: Hendrickson Publishers. 
15. ^ Juferi, Mohd Elfie Nieshaem The Name of Jesus (pbuh), accessed March 6, 2006
16. ^ Ahmad Deedat, Christ in Islam, Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI), pg. 7-8.

[edit] See also

• Yahshua
• Yahshuah

[edit] External links

• Exposing the "Yeshu'a" Name Game A counter missionary article that argues that it is far from proven that the original name of Jesus was Yeshua and moreover unlikely.
• A different view of the name Yeshua The name and the history
• Etymology of the name "Jesus"