Jesus (name)

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Jesus
Pronunciation
Yeshua
, Yashu, Jezús, Jézus.

Jesus (

Hebrew name Yeshua (ישוע).[1][2] As its roots lie in the name Isho in Aramaic and Yeshua in Hebrew, it is etymologically related to another biblical name, Joshua.[3]

The vocative form Jesu, from Latin Iesu, was commonly used in religious texts and prayers during the Middle Ages, particularly in England, but gradually declined in usage as English language evolved.

Jesus is usually not used as a given name in the English-speaking world, while its counterparts have had longstanding popularity among people with other language backgrounds, such as the Spanish Jesús.

Etymology

Linguistic analysis

There have been various proposals as to the literal etymological meaning of the name Yəhôšuaʿ (Joshua, Hebrew: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ), including Yahweh/Yehowah saves, (is) salvation, (is) a saving-cry, (is) a cry-for-saving, (is) a cry-for-help, (is) my help.[4][5][6][7] A recent study proposes that the name should be understood as "Yahweh is lordly".[8]

Yehoshua–Yeshua–Iēsous–IESVS–Iesu–Jesus

This early biblical Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ (Yehoshuaʿ) underwent a shortening into later biblical יֵשׁוּעַ‎ (Yeshuaʿ), 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 at verse Ezra 5:2. These Bible verses refer to ten individuals (in Nehemiah 8:17, the name refers to Joshua son of Nun
).

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

triliteral root y-š-ʿ). Yeshua was in common use by Jews during the Second Temple period and many Jewish religious figures bear the name, including Joshua in the Hebrew Bible and Jesus in the New Testament.[2][1]

During the post-biblical period the further shortened form Yeshu was adopted by Hebrew speaking Jews to refer to the Christian Jesus, however Yehoshua continued to be used for the other figures called Jesus.[10] However, both the Western and Eastern Syriac Christian traditions use the Aramaic name ܝܫܘܥ (in Hebrew script: ישוע) Yeshuʿ and Yishoʿ, respectively, including the ʿayin.[11]

The name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew name Yeshua, which is based on the

Amorite personal name from 2048 B.C.[15]

By the time the

Philo of Alexandria[16] and Josephus frequently mention this name. In the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, 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. This etymology of 'physician' may derive from the sect of the θεραπευταί (Therapeutae), of which Ephanius was familiar.[17]

From Greek, Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) moved into

capital letters (ΙΗϹΟΥϹ) or abbreviated as (ΙΗϹ) with a line over the top, see also Christogram
.

King James Version of the Bible (1611) continued to print the name with an I.[18]

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 religious texts.

Declension

In both Latin and Greek, the name is declined irregularly:[citation needed]

Latin Greek
nominative Jēsūs Iēsūs (Iēsus) Ἰησοῦς
accusative Jēsūm Iēsūm (Iēsum) Ἰησοῦν
dative Jēsū Iēsū Ἰησοῦ
genitive
vocative
ablative

Biblical references

A 3rd century papyrus of the Gospel of Luke

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

Jesus ben Sirach
.

In the

salvific 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".[21][22] It is the only place in the New Testament where "saves his people" appears with "sins".[23] Matthew 1:21 provides the beginnings of the Christology 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.[24]

Other usage

Medieval English and Jesus

King James Bible where "Jesus" first appeared) in oblique cases, and also in the accusative, and sometimes, apparently without motivation, even for the nominative. Tyndale in the 16th century has the occasional Iesu in oblique cases and in the vocative; The 1611 King James Version uses Iesus throughout, regardless of syntax. Jesu came to be used in English, especially in hymns
.

Jesu (/ˈz/ JEE-zoo; from Latin Iesu) is sometimes used as the vocative of Jesus in English. The oblique form, Iesu, came to be used in Middle English.

Other languages

Isho or Eesho, the Syriac Aramaic name of Jesus

In East Scandinavian, German and several other languages, the name Jesus is used. Some other language usage is as follows:

Language Name/variant
Afrikaans Jesus[25]
Albanian Jezu[25]
Arabic
عيسى (ʿIsà) (Islamic or classical Arabic) / يسوع (Yasūʿ) (Christian or latter Arabic)[26]
Amharic እየሱስ። (Iyesus)[25]
Aragonese Chesús
Aramaic/Syriac
ܝܫܘܥ (Isho)
Arberesh Isuthi
Armenian Հիսուս (reformed orthography) Յիսուս (classical orthography) (Hisus)
Australian Kriol Jisas
Azerbaijani İsa[25]
Belarusian Ісус (Isus) (Orthodox)[25] / Езус (Yezus) (Catholic)
Bengali যীশু (Yɪśu) (Christian)[25] 'ঈসা (Īsā) (general)
Bosnian Isus[25]
Breton Jezuz
Bulgarian Исус (Isus)[25]
Burmese ယေရှု (Yay-shu)
Catalan Jesús[25]
Chinese simplified Chinese: 耶稣; traditional Chinese: 耶穌; pinyin: Yēsū[25]
Coptic Ⲓⲏⲥⲟⲩⲥ (Isos)
Cornish Yesu
Corsican Ghjesù
Croatian Isus[25]
Czech Ježíš[25]
Dutch Jezus[25]
Estonian Jeesus[25]
Filipino Jesús, Hesús or Hesukristo[25]
Fijian Jisu
Finnish Jeesus[25]
French Jésus[25]
Galician Xesús[25]
Garo Jisu
Georgian იესო (Ieso)[25]
German Jesus[25]
Ewe Yesu
Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs) / Ιησούς[25] (Iisoús) (pronounced [i.iˈsus] in modern Greek)
Haitian Creole Jezi[25]
Lai-Hakha
Jesuh
Hausa Yesu[25]
Hawaiian Iesū[25]
Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
)
Hindi
ईसा (Īsā)
Hmong Daw Yexus[25]
Hungarian Jézus[25]
Icelandic Jesús[25]
Igbo Jesus[25]
Indonesia
Yesus (Christian)[25] / Isa (Islamic)
Irish Íosa[25]
Italian Gesù[25]
Japanese イエス (Iesu)[25]
Jinghpaw
Yesu
Kannada ಯೇಸು (Yesu)
Kazakh Иса (Isa)[25]
Khasi Jisu
Khmer
យេស៑ូ (Yesu), យេស៑ូវ (Yesuw)[25]
Kikuyu Jeso
Kisii Yeso
Korean 예수 (Yesu)[25]
Kurdish Îsa[25]
Latvian Jēzus[25]
Ligurian
Gesû
Limburgish
Zjezus
Lithuanian Jėzus[25]
Lombard Gesü
Luganda Yezu[25]
Māori Ihu[25][27]
Marathi येशू (Yeshu Christa)[25]
Malagasy Jeso, Jesoa, Jesosy
Malayalam
ഈശോ (Īśo) Syriac-origin; യേശു (Yēśu) from Portuguese; കർത്താവ് (Kartāvŭ) from Sanskrit, lit. 'doer', 'creator'.
Mirandese Jasus
Mizo Isua (In Mizo names, an a has to be added behind every male name), Isu
Maltese Ġesù
Mongolian Есүс[25] (Esüs)
Neapolitan Giesù
Norman Jésus
Occitan Jèsus
Piedmontese Gesù
Polish Jezus[25]
Portuguese Jesus[25]
Romanian Iisus (Orthodox), Isus (Catholic)[25]
Russian Иисус (Iisus)[25]
Sardinian Gesùs
Serbian Isus / Исус
Sicilian Gesù
Sinhala යේසුස් වහන්සේ[25] (Yēsus Vahansē)
Scottish Gaelic
Ìosa
Shona
Jesu
Slovak Ježiš[25]
Slovenian
Jezus[25]
Somali Ciise[25]
Spanish Jesús[25]
Swahili Yesu[25]
Tajik Исо (Iso)[25]
Tamil இயேசு கிறிஸ்து (Yesu Christu)
Telugu యేసు (Yesu)[25]
Thai พระเยซู[25] (Phráʔ Yēsū)
Turkish İsa[25]
Turkmen Isa
Ukrainian Ісус (Isus)[25]
Urdu
یسوع[25] (Īsā)
Uzbek Iso[25]
Venetian Jesu
Vietnamese Chúa Giêsu[25]
Welsh Iesu[25]
Xhosa uYesu[25]
Yoruba Jesu[25]
Zomi (Tedim-Chin) Zeisuh (most common), Jesuh
Zulu uJesu[25]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Liddell and Scott. A Greek–English Lexicon, p. 824.
  2. ^ a b c Catholic encyclopedia: Origin of the name Jesus Christ
  3. ^ Robinson 2005; Stegemann 2006.
  4. ^ "שׁוע", Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company 1987)
  5. ^ Talshir, M. H. Segal, A Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew (Tel Aviv: 1936), p. 146.
  6. ^ Philo, De Mutatione Nominum, §21
  7. ISBN 0-913573-20-5. Cf. Blue Letter Bible, H3442
  8. ^ Ayali-Darshan 2018.
  9. ^ Elisha Qimron, The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Harvard Semitic Studies: Scholars Press 1986), p.25
  10. p124 "This is likely an inference from the Talmud and other Jewish usage, where Jesus is called Yeshu, and other Jews with the same name are called by the fuller name Yeshua and Yehoshua, "Joshua""
  11. ^ Jennings
  12. Brown Driver Briggs
    Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon; Hendrickson Publishers 1996
  13. ^ "Strong's Hebrew: 3467. יָשַׁע (yasha) -- to deliver". biblehub.com. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
  14. .
  15. ^ "A.2 The Proto-Semitic root *yṯ' now seems to lie behind Hebrew [ישָׁע], 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 [1995])." (Aitken & Davies, 2016)
  16. ^ 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.
  17. .
  18. . Retrieved March 28, 2006.
  19. page 11
  20. page 209
  21. page 147
  22. page 159
  23. page 453
  24. page 17
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm "Jesus in Every Language". GodWords. 2019-02-05. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  26. ^ "Ihu". Te Aka Online Māori Dictionary. Retrieved 10 June 2021.

Bibliography