Yeshua (Hebrew:יֵשׁוּעַ,romanized: Yēšūaʿ) was a common alternative form of the nameYehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ,Yəhōšūaʿ, 'Joshua') in later books of theHebrew Bible and among Jewish people of theSecond Temple period. The name corresponds to the Greek spellingIesous (Ἰησοῦς), from which, through the LatinIESVS/Iesus, comes the English spellingJesus[1][2], with J as the /dʒ/ sound.
The Hebrew spellingYēšūaʿ (ישוע) appears in some later books of the Hebrew Bible. Once forJoshua the son of Nun, and 28 times forJoshua the High Priest and other priests called Jeshua – although these same priests are also given the spelling Joshua in 11 further instances in the books ofHaggai andZechariah. It differs from the usual Hebrew Bible spelling of Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ,Yəhōšūaʿ), found 218 times in the Hebrew Bible, in the absence of the consonanthe (ה) and placement of thesemivowelvav (ו) after, not before, the consonantshin (ש). It also differs from the Hebrew spellingYeshu (ישו) which is found inBen-Yehuda Dictionary and used in most secular contexts inModern Hebrew to refer toJesus, although the Hebrew spellingYēšūaʿ (ישוע) is generally used intranslations of the New Testament into Hebrew[3] and used by Hebrew-speaking Christians in Israel. The name Yeshua is also used in Hebrew historical texts to refer to other Joshuas recorded in Greek texts such asJesus ben Ananias andJesus ben Sira.[4]
In English, the name Yeshua is extensively used by followers ofMessianic Judaism,[5] whereasEast Syriac Christian denominations use the nameʿIsho in order to preserve the Syriac name of Jesus.[6] The 2004 filmThe Passion of the Christ, which was made inAramaic, used Yeshua as the name of Jesus and is the most well-known western Christian work to have done so.[7]
The nameיֵשׁוּעַ,Yeshua (transliterated in the English Old Testament as Jeshua), is a late form of the Biblical Hebrew nameיְהוֹשֻׁעַ,Yehoshua (Joshua), and spelled with awaw in the second syllable. The Late Biblical Hebrew spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric elementYeho- toYo-. Thus,יהוחנן,Yehochanan, contracted toיוחנן,Yochanan.[8]
Yeshua in Hebrew is a verbal derivative from "to rescue", "to deliver".[9] Among the Jews of the Second Temple period, theBiblical Aramaic/Hebrew nameיֵשׁוּעַ,Yēšūaʿ was common: the Hebrew Bible mentions several individuals with this name – while also using their full name Joshua. This name is a feature of biblical books written in the post-Exilic period (Ezra,Nehemiah, andChronicles) and was found in theDead Sea Scrolls, though Haggai and Zechariah prefer the spelling Joshua.Strong's Concordance connects the nameיֵשׁוּעַ,Yēšūaʿ, in the English form Jeshua (as used in multiple instances in Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles), with the verb "to deliver" (or, "to rescue").[9] It is often translated as "He saves," to conform with Matthew 1:21:[10] "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins".[11]
The nameישוע occurs in the Hebrew of the Old Testament at 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, and also in Aramaic at Ezra 5:2. In Nehemiah 8:17 this name refers to Joshua son of Nun, the successor of Moses, as leader of the Israelites. In earlier English (where adaptations of names of Biblical figures were generally based on the LatinVulgate forms), Yeshua was generally transcribed identically to "Jesus" in English.
The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua":Yeho- (יְהוֹ) is another form ofיָהו,Yahu, a theophoric element standing for the name of God,יהוה (theTetragrammaton YHWH, sometimes transcribed into English asYahweh), andשׁוּעַ,shua' is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry",[12][13][14] that is to say, a shout given when in need of rescue.
Another explanation for the name Yehoshua is that it comes from the rootישע,yod-shin-ʿayin, meaning "to deliver, save, or rescue". According to theBook of Numbers verse 13:16, the name of Joshua, the son of Nun was originallyHosheaʿ (הוֹשֵעַ), and the nameYehoshuaʿ (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ) is usually spelled the same but with ayod added at the beginning. "Hosheaʿ" certainly comes from the rootישע,yasha,yod-shin-ʿayin (in theHif'il form theyod becomes awaw), and not from the wordשוע,šûaʿ.)[15]
In the 1st century,Philo of Alexandria, in a Greek exposition, offered this understanding of Moses's reason for the name change of the biblical heroJehoshua/Joshua son of Nun from Hoshea (similar tohoshiaʿ, meaning "He rescued") to Yehoshua in commemoration of his salvation: "AndΙησους refers to salvation of the Lord" [Ιησους orIesous being the Greek form of the name] (Ἰησοῦ δὲ σωτηρία κυρίου) (On the Change of Names 21.121).[16]
Similarly, theSeptuagint[17] rendersBen Sira as saying (in the Greek form of the name): "Ιησους the son of Naue [Yehoshua Ben Nun] whoaccording to his name became great unto [the] salvation/deliverance 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 second century BC, and the only extant Hebrew manuscript for this passage has "in his days" (בימיו), not "according to his name" (which would beכשמו in Hebrew),[18] and thus does not comment on the name Yehoshua as connotingיְּשׁוּעָה "deliverance": "Yehoshua Ben Nun, who was formed to bein his days a great deliverer for his chosen ones" (יהושע בן נון... אשר נוצר להיות בימיו תשועה גדלה לבחיריו).
Tal Ilan's Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity (2002) includes for "Joshua" 85 examples of HebrewYēšūaʿ, 15 ofYəhōšūaʿ, and 48 examples ofIesous in Greek inscriptions," with only one Greek variant asIesoua.[19] One ossuary of the around twenty known with the name Yeshua, Rahmani No.9, discovered byEzra Sukenik in 1931, has "Yeshu... Yeshua ben Yosef." The "Yeshu..." may have been scratched out.[20] TwoJewish magical incantation bowls have been discovered both bearing variant spellings of Yeshua.[21]
Apart from the "Yeshua... Yeshua ben Yosef" ossuary, the only other known evidence for the existence of a Yeshua form prior to the material related toJesus in the Talmud, is a graffito whichJoachim Jeremias identified inBethesda in 1966, but which is now filled in.[22]
InYēšūaʿ (יֵשוּעַ,[jeˈʃuăʕ]), the Hebrew letteryod (י,/j/ is vocalized with the Hebrew voweltsere (/e/, a 'long'e like the first syllable of "neighbor" but notdiphthongized), rather than with ashva (/ə/, as Y'shua) orsegol (/ɛ/, Yesh-shua). The final letter,ayin (ע) is/ʕ/ (a voiced pharyngeal sound not found in Greek or English), sometimes transcribed"ʿ" (Yeshuaʿ). The final[ăʕ] represents the "patach genuvah" ("furtive"patach), indicating that the consonantʿayin is pronounced after thea vowel, and the word's stress is moved to the middle syllable (the characteristics of the furtive patach can be seen in other words, such asרוח,[ˈruăħ] 'spirit').[23] Thus it is pronounced[jeˈʃu.a(ʔ)] in Modern Hebrew.
The Hebrew name of Jesus is probably pronouncedYeshuaʿ, although this is uncertain and depends on the reconstruction of several ancient Hebrew dialects. Talshir suggests, even though Galileans tended to keep the traditional spelling forYehoshuaʿיהושוע withwaw for/o/, they still pronounced the name similarly to the Judeans, as 'Yeshua'[jeˈʃuaʕ], who tended to spell the name phonetically asישוע, perhaps reducing the name thus:[jəhoˈʃuaʕ] >[joˈʃuaʕ] >[jeˈʃuaʕ], with the/o/palatalizing (viadissimilation) before the/ʃ/.[24]
Qimron describes the general linguistic environment of Hebrew dialects by the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The articulation of the/h/ (along with other guttural phonemes/ʔ/,/ħ/, and/ʕ/, as well as approximants/j/ and/w/)lenited significantly.[25] Thus Hebrew pronunciations became less stable when two successive vowels were no longer separated by a consonant/h/. The speakers optionally either reduced the two vowels to a single vowel or oppositely expanded them to emphasize each vowel separately, sometimes forming a furtive glide in between,[w] or[j].[26] For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls spell the Hebrew wordראוי (/rɔˈʔui̯/, 'seen') variously, recording both pronunciations: reducedראו ([ro]) and expandedראואי ([rɔˈuwi]).[27]
The Hebrew name Yehoshua generally reduced to Yeshua, but an expanded Yehoshua is possible, especially in Galilee, whose traditional orthography possibly reflects this.
The English nameJesus derives from theLate Latin nameIesus, which transliterates theKoine Greek nameἸησοῦςIēsoûs.
In theSeptuagint and other Greek-languageJewish texts, such as the writings ofJosephus andPhilo of Alexandria,Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs) is the standard Koine Greek form used to translate both of the Hebrew names: Yehoshua and Yeshua. The GreekἸησοῦς orIēsoûs is also used to represent the name of Joshua son of Nun in the New Testament passages Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8. (It was even used in the Septuagint to translate the nameHoshea in one of the three verses where this referred to Joshua the son of Nun—Deuteronomy 32:44.)
During the second Temple period (beginning 538 BC–70 AD), Yeshua first became a known form of the name Yehoshua. All occurrences of Yeshua in the Hebrew Bible are in 1Chronicles 24:11, 2 Chronicles 31:15,Ezra, andNehemiah where it is transliterated into English asJeshua. 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[28] (transliterated into English as Joshua).
The earlier form Yehoshua did not disappear, however, and remained in use as well. In the post-exilic books, Joshua the son of Nun is called both Yeshua bin-Nun (Nehemiah 8:17) and Yehoshua (1 Chronicles 7:27). The short form Yeshua was used forJesus ben Sirach in Hebrew fragments of theWisdom of Sirach. (Some concern remains over whether these fragments faithfully represent the original Hebrew text or are instead a later translation back into Hebrew.)[29] The earlier form Yehoshua saw revived usage from theHasmonean period onwards, although the name Yeshua is still found in letters from the time of theBar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 AD).
In the documentaryThe Lost Tomb of Jesus, archeologistAmos 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 theSecond Temple."[30] In discussing whether 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.[31]
Thus, both the full form Yehoshua and the abbreviated form Yeshua were in use during the Gospel period – and in relation to the same person, as in the Hebrew Bible references to Yehoshua/Yeshua son of Nun, and Yehoshua/Yeshua the high priest in the days of Ezra. An argument in favor of the Hebrew reduced formישוע,Yeshua, as opposed to Yehoshua, is theWestern Syriac language, in which the pronunciation isYeshuʿ/jeʃuʕ/.
Aramaic andClassical Syriac render the pronunciation of the same letters asܝܫܘܥyeshuuʿ (yešuʿ)/jeʃuʕ/ andܝܫܘܥishoʿ (išoʿ)/iʃoʕ/. The Aramaic Bibles and the SyriacPeshitta preserve these same spellings. Current scholarly consensus posits that the New Testament texts were translated from the Greek, but this theory is not supported directly at least by the name for Jesus, which is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form as would otherwise be expected, as Greek did not have a "sh"[ʃ] sound, and substituted[s]; and likewise lacked and therefore omitted the finalʿayn ([ʕ]). Moreover,Eusebius (early 4th century) reports thatPapias of Hierapolis (early 2nd century) reports that Jesus's discipleMatthew the Evangelist wrote agospel "in the Hebrew language". (Scholars typically argue the word "Hebrew" in the New Testament refers to Aramaic;[32] however, others have attempted to refute this view.)[33] The Aramaic of the Peshitta does not distinguish betweenJoshua andJesus, and the Lexicon ofWilliam Jennings gives the same form ofܝܫܘܥ for both names.[6] The Hebrew final letterʿayin (ע) is equivalent to finalܥ in Syriac varieties of Aramaic. It can be argued that Aramaic speakers who used this name had a continual connection to the Aramaic-speakers in communities founded by theapostles and other students of Jesus, thus independently preserved his historical name Yeshuuʿ and the Eastern dialecticalIshoʿ. Those churches following theEast Syriac Rite still preserve the nameIshoʿ.
In theTalmud, only one reference is made to the spelling Yeshuaʿ, in verbatim quotation from the Hebrew Bible regarding Jeshua son of Jozadak (elsewhere called Joshua son of Josedech). The Talmud does refer to several people named Yehoshua from before (e.g.Joshua ben Perachyah) and after Jesus (e.g.,Joshua ben Hananiah). In references toJesus in the Talmud, however, where the name occurs, it is rendered Yeshu, which is a name reserved in Aramaic and Hebrew literature from the early medieval period until today, solely for Jesus, not for other Joshuas. Some scholars, such asMaier (1978), regard the two named "Yeshuʿ" texts in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a and 107b) to be later amendments, and not original.[34]
In general rabbinical sources, the name Yeshuʿ is used, and this is the form to which some named references toJesus in the Talmud as Yeshu occur in some manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, though some scholars, such asMaier (1978) have argued that the presence of the name Yeshuʿ in these texts is a late interpolation. Some of the Hebrew sources referencing Yeshu include theToledot Yeshu,The Book of Nestor the Priest, Jacob ben Reuben'sMilhamoth ha-Shem,Sefer Nizzahon Yashan,Sefer Joseph Hamekane, the works ofibn Shaprut,Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas, andHasdai Crescas.[citation needed]
The name Yeshu is unknown in archeological sources and inscriptions, except for one ossuary found in Israel which has an inscription where someone has started to write first "Yeshu.." and then written "Yeshuaʿ bar Yehosef" beneath it.[20] There are 24 other ossuaries to various Yeshuas and Yehoshuas. None of the others have Yeshu. All other "Joshuas" in the Talmud, rabbinical writings, modern Hebrew, are always Yeshua or Yehoshua. There are no undisputed examples of any Aramaic or Hebrew text where Yeshu refers to anyone else than Jesus.[35]
Some of rabbinical sources comment on the reasons for the missingʿayn from Yeshu, as opposed to the Hebrew Bible Yeshuaʿ and Yehoshuaʿ.Leon Modena argues that it was Jesus himself who made his disciples remove theʿayn, and that therefore they cannot now restore it. (Modena was a 17th-century polemicist and does not have reliable linguistic evidence for the claim.) A tradition states that the shortening to Yeshu relates to the Y-SH-U of theyimach shemo, "may his name be obliterated."[36][37] Against thisDavid Flusser suggested that the nameYeshu itself was "in no way abusive," but "almost certainly" a Galilean dialect form of Yeshua.[38] But E.Y. Kutscher showed that theʿayn was still pronounced in Galilee, refuting a thesis by Paul Kahle.[39]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)[Per Philo's interpretation of the name Joshua as "salvation of the Lord"] since Joshua [Hoshea] is such an excellent person, it would be more fitting for him to receive this "most excellent of names" (ὄνομα τῆς άρίστης). [On the Change of Names - De Mutatione Nominum -Mut.]
[New Testament uses Ἰησοῦ as the dative, Septuagint uses] Ἰησοῖ pr noun masc dat sg . . . . Ἰησοῦς