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, was a common name among Jews of the Second Temple Period, and 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

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

Main article: Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament

Among the Jews of the Second Temple Period, the Biblical Aramaic/Hebrew name יֵשׁוּעַ "Yeshua`" was common: the Hebrew Bible mentions several individuals with this name. This name is a feature of biblical books written in the post-Exilic period like Ezra and Daniel and was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Strong's Concordance identifies the name יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua`, in the English form Jeshua (as used in multiple instances in Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles), with the meaning "he will save" -- Hebrew word number 3442 and the same lettering in its Aramaic form -- Heb. 3443. "The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers 1990). This comports with the Hebrew rendition of Matthew 1:21: "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus [Yeshua` means "he will save"], for He will save His people from their sins" (NASB).

The name יֵשׁוּעַ "Yeshua" (translated into English Old Testament as Jeshua) is a late form of the Biblical Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua (Joshua), spelled יְהוֹשׁוּעַ. The Late Biblical Hebrew spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric element Yeho-. Thus יהוחנן Yehochanan contracted to יוחנן Yochanan.^[3]

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 deliver" or "to rescue". 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, "yasha", 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 in a Greek exposition offers this understanding of Moses’ reason for the name change of the biblical hero Jehoshua/Joshua son of Nun from Hoshea [meaning "He rescued"] to Yehoshua [meaning “Jehovah will rescue”] in commemoration of his salvation: "And Iesus refers to salvation of the Lord" [Iesus being a Latin translation of both the Hebrew names Yehoshua and the Hebrew/Aramaic name Yeshua] (Ἰησοῦ δὲ σωτηρία κυρίου) (On the Change of Names 21.121).

Similarly, the Septuagint renders Ben Sira as saying (in the Latin form of the name): "Iesus the son of Naue [Yehoshua Ben Nun] who according to his name became great unto [the] deliverer 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 "deliverance": "Yehoshua Ben Nun, who was formed to be in his days a great deliverer 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.

One of the difficulties in determining whether the Greek (Iesous Ἰησοῦς) refers to Yeshua or Yehoshua are the limitations of the Greek language. Greek rules of phonotactics do not allow for the pronunciation of "h" in the middle of a word. Also Ἰησοῦς is transliterated as "Iesous" but it is pronounced Iesus, as οῦ is always pronounced as the Greek diphthong for a double-o (as in "boot"). Thus, Ἰησοῦς could stand for either Yeshua or Yehoshua, and both are so rendered by the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew [OT] Scriptures made several centuries B.C.) and in New Testament writings in reference to Jesus and Joshua.

[edit] Pronunciation

The yodh is vocalized with the Hebrew vowel, tsere, a long e as in "neighbor" (but not diphthongized) not with a shva (as Y'shua) or segol (Yesh-shua). The final consonant is the voiced pharyngeal fricative ayin - ע (a rough breathing guttural sound not found in Greek or English) sometimes transcribed by " ` " (Yeshua`). The "a" represents the patach genuvah ("furtive" patach) indicating the consonant `ayin is pronounced after the "a" vowel, and the word's intonation is moved to the middle syllable (the characteristics of the furtive patach can be seen in other words, such as ruach. Thus, it is pronounced yay-SHOO-a`. http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Three/Furtive_Patach/furtive_patach.html

[edit] Yeshua as the original name for Jesus

The claim that the form Yeshua is the original name for Jesus is a subject of debate. The English name Jesus derives from the Late Latin name Iesus, which transliterates from the Koine Greek name Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs (Koine Greek names that begin with an Iota usually have that letter pronounced with the "Y" sound).

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 to translate the name Hoshea in one verse where this referred to Joshua the son of Nun.)

During the second Temple period (beginning 538 B.C.E – 70 C.E.), Yeshua first became a known form of the name Yehoshua. All occurrences of Yeshua in the Hebrew Bible are in 1 Chronicles, II Chron. 31:15, Ezra, and Nehemiah where it is transliterated into English as Jeshua. Two of these men (Joshua 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).

The earlier form Yehoshua did not disappear, however, and remained in use as well. Joshua the son of Nun in Chronicles was a translation of Yehoshua. ^[10] 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. ^[11]) The earlier form Yehoshua saw revived usage from the Hasmonean period onwards, although the name Yeshua is still found in 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. In the Talmud, only one reference is made to Yeshua, in verbatim quotations from the Hebrew Bible regarding Jeshua son of Jozadak (elsewhere called Joshua son of Josedech).

In the context of the documentary entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, archeologist Amos Kloner stated that the name Yeshua was then 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 -- see 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 in actuality is what we today call Aramaic, a sister language to Hebrew.^[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 equivalent to the same Hebrew letters. (The modern Syriac now vocalizes the name as Isho, which can be transliterated as יִשׁוֹע; however, its ancient pronunciation was very similar to the Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua`.) These texts were translated from the Greek, but the name is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form because its "sh" sound is not expressed in the Greek (although the Greek has a letter sounding like "s"), and ends with the pharyngeal ‘ayin sound, also not found in Greek. It can be argued that the Aramaic speakers who used this name may have had a continual connection to the Aramaic-speaking disciples of Jesus, and thus were able to accurately preserve the actual name used for him.

Yeshua was used as the name for Jesus in the Yosippon; however, its usage here is a translation back into the Hebrew Yeshua from the Greek. The Toledot Yeshu narratives combine the person or persons designated Yeshu in the Talmud with Jesus, but relate that his original name was 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 sort of transposing of the Aramaic ‘Ayin is linguistically improbable. Many other Islamic scholars accept that the Quranic name is actually a cognate of Esau, and not of Yeshua.^[16]

[edit] References

[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"