Jesus () is a masculine given name derived from Iēsous (; Iesus in

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods ...

) the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

form of the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

name

Yeshua Yeshua or Y'shua (; with vowel pointing he, יֵשׁוּעַ, Yēšūaʿ, labels=no) was a common alternative form of the name Yehoshua ( he, יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Yəhōšūaʿ, Joshua, labels=no) in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jew ...

or Y'shua (Hebrew: ). As its roots lie in the name Yeshua/Y'shua, it is etymologically related to another biblical name,

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

. "Jesus" is usually not used as a given name in the

English-speaking world Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest languag ...

, while its counterparts have had longstanding popularity among people with other language backgrounds, such as the Spanish ''Jesús''.

Etymology

Modern linguistic analysis

The modern linguistic analysis of the name ''Yehoshua'' is "

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...

is lordly".

Traditional Christian analysis

There have been various proposals as to the literal etymological meaning of the name ''Yəhôšuaʿ'' (

, he, יְהוֹשֻׁעַ), including Yahweh/Yehowah saves, (is) salvation, (is) a saving-cry, (is) a cry-for-saving, (is) a cry-for-help, (is) my help.Philo, ''De Mutatione Nominum'', §21Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius, ''Hebrew and English Lexicon With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic'' (Hendrickson, 1985), . Cf. ''Blue Letter Bible''
H3442
/ref>

Yehoshua–Yeshua–Iēsous–IESVS–Iesu–Jesus

This early biblical Hebrew name (''Yehoshuaʿ'') underwent a shortening into later biblical (''Yeshuaʿ''/''Y'shuaʿ''), as found in the Hebrew text of verses Ezra 2:2, 2:6, 2:36, 2:40, 3:2, 3:8, 3:9, 3:10, 3:18, 4:3, 8:33; Nehemiah 3:19, 7:7, 7:11, 7:39, 7:43, 8:7, 8:17, 9:4, 9:5, 11:26, 12:1, 12:7, 12:8, 12:10, 12:24, 12:26; 1 Chronicles 24:11; and 2 Chronicles 31:15 – as well as in

Biblical Aramaic Biblical Aramaic is the form of Aramaic that is used in the books of Daniel and Ezra in the Hebrew Bible. It should not be confused with the Targums – Aramaic paraphrases, explanations and expansions of the Hebrew scriptures. History During ...

at verse Ezra 5:2. These Bible verses refer to ten individuals (in Nehemiah 8:17, the name refers to

son of

Nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

). This historical change may have been due to a phonological shift whereby guttural

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...

s weakened, including . Usually, the traditional

theophoric A theophoric name (from Greek language, Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relat ...

element (''Yahu'') was shortened at the beginning of a name to (''Yo-''), and at the end to (''-yah''). In the contraction of ''Yehoshuaʿ'' to ''Yeshuaʿ'', the vowel is instead fronted (perhaps due to the influence of the ''y'' in the

triliteral root The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...

''y-š-ʿ''). Yeshua/Y'shua was in common use by

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

during the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted approximately 600 years (516 BCE - 70 CE), during which the Second Temple existed. It started with the return to Zion and the construction of the Second Temple, while it ended with the First Jewis ...

and many Jewish religious figures bear the name, including

in the Hebrew Bible and

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

.Catholic encyclopedia: Origin of the name Jesus Christ
/ref>Liddell and Scott. ''

A Greek–English Lexicon ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', often referred to as ''Liddell & Scott'' () or ''Liddell–Scott–Jones'' (''LSJ''), is a standard lexicographical work of the Ancient Greek language originally edited by Henry George Liddell Henry George L ...

'', p. 824. During the post-biblical period the further shortened form ''

Yeshu Yeshu (Hebrew: ''Yēšū'') is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in rabbinic literature, which historically has been assumed to be a reference to Jesus when used in the Talmud. The name ''Yeshu'' is also used in other sources ...

'' was adopted by Hebrew speaking Jews to refer to the Christian Jesus, however ''Yehoshua'' continued to be used for the other figures called Jesus. However, both the Western and Eastern Syriac Christian traditions use the

name (in Hebrew script: ישוע) ''Yeshuʿ and Yishoʿ'', respectively, including the ''ʿayin''.Jennings
/ref> The name ''Jesus'' is derived from the Hebrew name ''Yeshua/Y'shua'', which is based on the

Semitic root The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...

''y-š-ʕ'' (Hebrew: ), meaning "to deliver; to rescue." Likely originating in

proto-Semitic Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical reconstructed proto-language ancestral to the Semitic languages. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic ''Urheimat''; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant (m ...

(yṯ'), it appears in several Semitic personal names outside of Hebrew, like in the Aramaic name

Hadad Yith'i Hadad-yith'i (Old Aramaic ', Neo-Assyrian: ') was governor of Guzana and Sikani in northern Syria (c. 850 BCE). A client king or vassal of the Assyrian empire, he was the son of Sassu-nuri, who also served as governor before him. Knowledge of Ha ...

, meaning "Hadad is my salvation". Its oldest recorded use is in an

Amorite The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied lar ...

personal name from 2048 B.C."A.2 The Proto-Semitic root *yṯ' now seems to lie behind Hebrew �שָׁע being attested in proper names in NWSem and most of the ESA languages. The Ug evidence attests to the second consonant being ṯ (Sawyer 1975:78). This new evidence counters some earlier interpretations based on Arb (see B.1). The main arguments outlined by Sawyer (1975) are the evidence of proper names in NW Sem (A.3, A.4, B.3), the collocation of yṯ' terms with deities’ names (as with ישׁע; see A.1, 3, 5, 7-10; also Syntagmatics A.1), chronological evidence (see A.5, 7-10) and phonological equivalence (B.1). Earlier KB (412, along with wasiʿa), Huffmon (1965: 215) and Stolz (1971: 786, citing Sawyer 1965:475-76, 485) had supported this view; and at the conference where Sawyer originally presented his paper T.L. Fenton and H.W.F. Saggs had indicated their strong agreement with it (Sawyer 1975: 83-84). Significantly this view was adopted in the latest Hebrew lexicon to incorporate philological data (Ges18: 510

995 Year 995 ( CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies. * 3 June: Fujiwara no Michikane gain ...

." (Aitken & Davies, 2016) By the time the

was written, the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

had already transliterated ישוע (''Yeshuaʿ'') into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

as closely as possible in the 3rd-century

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

, the result being (''Iēsous''). Since Greek had no equivalent to the Semitic letter ''

shin Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese ...

'' , it was replaced with a ''

sigma Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as ...

'' , and a masculine singular ending was added in the nominative case, in order to allow the name to be inflected for case (nominative, accusative, etc.) in the grammar of the Greek language. The

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

al vowel of Masoretic ''Yehoshuaʿ'' or ''Yeshuaʿ'' would not have been present in Hebrew/Aramaic pronunciation during this period, and some scholars believe some dialects dropped the pharyngeal sound of the final letter ''ʿ

ayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only). The letter represents a ...

'' , which in any case had no counterpart in ancient Greek. The Greek writings of

Philo of Alexandria Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's de ...

Philo Judaeus, "De ebrietate" in ''Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt'' ed. P. Wendland, Berlin: Reimer, 1897 (repr. De Gruyter, 1962) vol. 2:170-214, Section 96, Line 2. and

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

frequently mention this name. In the

Panarion In early Christian heresiology, the ''Panarion'' ( grc-koi, Πανάριον, derived from Latin ''panarium'', meaning "bread basket"), to which 16th-century Latin translations gave the name ''Adversus Haereses'' (Latin: "Against Heresies"), is t ...

Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis ( grc-gre, Ἐπιφάνιος; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gai ...

, the name ''Iēsous'' comes from Hebrew/Aramaic and means "healer or physician, and saviour," and that the earliest Christians were named ''Jessaeans'' based on this name before they were called

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

. This etymology of 'physician' may derive from the sect of the θεραπευταί (

Therapeutae The Therapeutae were a religious sect which existed in Alexandria and other parts of the ancient Greek world. The primary source concerning the Therapeutae is the ''De vita contemplativa'' ("The Contemplative Life"), traditionally ascribed to the ...

), of which Ephanius was familiar.Williams, Frank; translator. "Introduction".
The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book I (Sects 1-46)
'. 1987. (E.J. Brill, Leiden) . From Greek, (''Iēsous'') moved into

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

at least by the time of the ''

Vetus Latina ''Vetus Latina'' ("Old Latin" in Latin), also known as ''Vetus Itala'' ("Old Italian"), ''Itala'' ("Italian") and Old Italic, and denoted by the siglum \mathfrak, is the collective name given to the Latin translations of biblical texts (both ...

''. The morphological jump this time was not as large as previous changes between language families. (''Iēsous'') was

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or ...

to Latin ''IESVS'', where it stood for many centuries. The Latin name has an irregular declension, with a genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative of , accusative of , and nominative of .

Minuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

(lower case) letters were developed around 800 and some time later the U was invented to distinguish the

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

sound from the

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

al sound and the J to distinguish the consonant from I. Similarly, Greek minuscules were invented about the same time, prior to that the name was written in

capital letters Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

() or abbreviated as () with a line over the top, see also

Christogram A Christogram ( la, Monogramma Christi) is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbolism, religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldes ...

. Modern English Jesus derives from Early Middle English ''Iesu'' (attested from the 12th century). The name participated in the

Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through ...

in late

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

(15th century). The letter J was first distinguished from 'I' by the Frenchman

Pierre Ramus Rudolf Grossmann (1882–1942), known by his pseudonym Pierre Ramus, was an Austrian anarchist and pacifist. Early life Ramus was born into a Jewish family, the son of Sofie Polnauer from Moravia and Samuel Grossmann, a merchant from Hungary ...

in the 16th century, but did not become common in Modern English until the 17th century, so that early 17th century works such as the first edition of the

King James Version of the Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

(1611) continued to print the name with an I. From the Latin, the English language takes the forms "Jesus" (from the nominative form), and "Jesu" (from the vocative and oblique forms). "Jesus" is the predominantly used form, while "Jesu" lingers in some more archaic texts.

Declension

In both Latin and Greek, the name is declined irregularly:

Biblical references

The name Jesus (Yeshua) appears to have been in use in the Land of Israel at the time of the birth of

.''Matthew'' by Douglas Hare 2009 page 11 Moreover,

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's deplo ...

's reference in '' Mutatione Nominum'' item 121 to Joshua () meaning salvation () of the Lord indicates that the etymology of Joshua was known outside Israel.''Matthew 1-7'' by William David Davies, Dale C. Allison 2004 page 209 Other figures named Jesus include Jesus

Barabbas Barabbas (; ) was, according to the New Testament, a prisoner who was chosen over Jesus by the crowd in Jerusalem to be pardoned and released by Roman governor Pontius Pilate at the Passover feast. Biblical account According to all four canoni ...

Jesus ben Ananias Jesus ben Ananias (''"the son of Ananias"'' endered as the "son of Ananus" in the Whiston translation was a Plebs, plebeian farmer, who, four years before the First Jewish-Roman War began in 66 AD, went around Jerusalem prophesying the city's d ...

and Jesus ben Sirach. In the

, in Luke 1:31 an angel tells Mary to name her child Jesus, and in Matthew 1:21 an angel tells Joseph to name the child Jesus during Joseph's first dream. Matthew 1:21 indicates the

salvific Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

implications of the name Jesus when the angel instructs Joseph: "you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins".''Bible explorer's guide'' by John Phillips 2002 page 147 It is the only place in the New Testament where "saves his people" appears with "sins".''The Westminster theological wordbook of the Bible'' 2003 by Donald E. Gowan page 453 Matthew 1:21 provides the beginnings of the

Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Ancient Greek, Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, wiktionary:-λογία, -λογία, wiktionary:-logia, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Chr ...

of the name Jesus. At once it achieves the two goals of affirming Jesus as the savior and emphasizing that the name was not selected at random, but based on a heavenly command.''Who do you say that I am?: essays on Christology'' by Jack Dean Kingsbury, Mark Allan Powell, David R. Bauer 1999 page 17

Other usage

Medieval English and Jesus

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...

(1380s) used the spelling ''Ihesus'' and also used ''Ihesu'' ('J' was then a swash glyph variant of 'I', not considered to be a separate letter until the 1629 Cambridge 1st Revision

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

where "Jesus" first appeared) in

oblique case In grammar, an oblique (abbreviated ; from la, casus obliquus) or objective case (abbr. ) is a nominal case other than the nominative case, and sometimes, the vocative. A noun or pronoun in the oblique case can generally appear in any role exc ...

s, and also in the accusative, and sometimes, apparently without motivation, even for the nominative.

Tyndale William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled ''Tynsdale'', ''Tindall'', ''Tindill'', ''Tyndall''; – ) was an English biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his executi ...

in the 16th century has the occasional ''Iesu'' in oblique cases and in the vocative; The 1611

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

uses ''Iesus'' throughout, regardless of syntax. ''Jesu'' came to be used in English, especially in

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

s. ''Jesu'' ( ; from

''Iesu'') is sometimes used as the

vocative In grammar, the vocative Grammatical case, case (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ...

in English. The oblique form, ''Iesu.'', came to be used in

Other languages

Early Syriac alphabet form of the name of Jesus

East Scandinavian The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and several other languages, the name ''Jesus'' is used. Some other language usage is as follows:

References

Bibliography

* * * * *{{cite journal, last=Schochenmaier, first=dr. Eugen, title=How did Jesus get his English name, year=2022 , publisher=Mondonomo Research Articles, issn=2833-6496 , url= https://mondonomo.com/article/How_did_Jesus_get_his_English_name/ Given names of Greek language origin Spanish masculine given names