S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

Some people claim that our Lord should not be referred to as "Jesus." Instead, we should only use the name "Yeshua." Some even go so far as to say that calling Him "Jesus" is blasphemous. Others go into great detail about how the name "Jesus" is unbiblical because the letter J is a modern invention and there was no letter J in Greek or Hebrew.

 Yeshua is the Hebrew name, and its English spelling is "Joshua." Iesous is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name, and its English spelling is "Jesus." Thus, the names "Joshua" and "Jesus" are essentially the same; both are English pronunciations of the Hebrew and Greek names for our Lord. (For examples of how the two names are interchangeable, see Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8 in the KJV. In both cases, the word Jesus refers to the Old Testament character Joshua.)

 Changing the language of a word does not affect the meaning of the word. We call a bound and covered set of pages a "book." In German, it becomes a buch. In Spanish, it is a libro; in French, a livre. The language changes, but the object itself does not. As Shakespeare said, "That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet" (Romeo and Juliet, II:i). In the same way, we can refer to Jesus as "Jesus," "Yeshua," or "YehSou" (Cantonese) without changing His nature. In any language, His name means "The Lord Is Salvation."

 As for the controversy over the letter J, it is much ado about nothing. It is true that the languages in which the Bible was written had no letter J. But that doesn't mean the Bible never refers to "Jerusalem." And it doesn't mean we cannot use the spelling "Jesus." If a person speaks and reads English, it is acceptable for him to spell things in an English fashion. Spellings can change even within a language: Americans write "Savior," while the British write "Saviour." The addition of a u (or its subtraction, depending on your point of view) has nothing to do with whom we're talking about. Jesus is the Savior, and He is the Saviour. Jesus and Yeshuah and Iesus are all referring to the same Person.

 The Bible nowhere commands us to only speak or write His name in Hebrew or Greek. It never even hints at such an idea. Rather, when the message of the gospel was being proclaimed on the Day of Pentecost, the apostles spoke in the languages of the "Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene" (Acts 2:9-10). In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was made known to every language group in a way they could readily understand. Spelling did not matter.

 We refer to Him as "Jesus" because, as English-speaking people, we know of Him through English translations of the Greek New Testament. Scripture does not value one language over another, and it gives no indication that we must resort to Hebrew when addressing the Lord. The command is to "call on the name of the Lord," with the promise that we "shall be saved" (Acts 2:21; Joel 2:32). Whether we call on Him in English, Korean, Hindi, or Hebrew, the result is the same: the Lord is salvation.

See http://www.gotquestions.org/Yeshua-Jesus.html

July 01 2013 • 7 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

John-Luke Muresan Supporter Part-time Children and Youth Minister of Arthur Pentecostal

So, in the Hebrew the name Joshua is pronounced "יְהוֹשֻׁעַ" or "Yehoshua" and is alternately pronounced "יֵשׁוּעַ" or "Yeshua", this can be considered an Aramaic variation of the original name.

Now, in Greek we find that Jesus' name is "Ἰησοῦς" or "Y-ei-soos" and taking into account the different phonetics due to transliteration and looking in the Septuagint we find that the name Joshua is transliterated as "ιησοι" in Joshua 1:1 which is a different form (genitive I believe) of "Ἰησοῦς" (which is nominative). In other words, it's the same name.

Now, the reason that we still call Him "Jesus" is because it's the English transliteration of "Ἰησοῦς", His Greek name. In Spain they don't call Him "Jesus" they call him "Jesús" which is pronounced "Hey-soos" and the certainly don't call Him "Ἰησοῦς".

The reason we choose to transliterate Jesus versus Joshua is because the Holy Spirit saw it fit to give us the New Testament in Greek and the Old Testament in Hebrew, when Paul preached the sermon on Mars Hill and when Peter presented the Gospel to Cornelius' house (Acts 17:22-31; Acts 20:23-33) they definitely called Him Ἰησοῦς instead of Yeshua. We have no real evidence to suppose that the New Testament (as a whole) was written in Hebrew and then translated to Greek. So we simply follow in the Holy Spirit's tradition and the tradition of the Church and call Him Jesus Christ instead of Yeshua Meshiach. Much love, God bless.

November 03 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Nathan Toronga Supporter Christian Elder.

I feel duty bound to answer this question, not because it is important in and of itself, but one major cult makes a big issue about Names.

Let me say, the Name of our Lord and Saviour has NOT yet been revealed. I know, I know. That sounds strange. 

The Word "JEHOVAH" in the bible is a statement, not a Name.

Exodus 3:13-14 KJV 'And Moses said unto God, "Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;" and they shall say to me, "What is his name?" what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, "I AM THAT I AM:" and he said, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 'I AM' hath sent me unto you".

From this 'I AM' was derived the various Divine Names - YHWH, JEHOVAH - and other variations. 

The same thing with our Saviour's Name:

Isaiah 7:14. KJV "Therefore JEHOVAH himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

That is a prophecy about the Messiah. 

Isaiah 9:6. KJV "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and HIS NAME shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Another one:
Matthew 1:21-23.KJV 21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22.Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23. "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name 'Emmanuel', which being interpreted is, 'God with us'".

As we can see, His Name is really not yet revealed. You'll also realize that the titles for God and for the Messiah differ from language to language. 'Messiah' in Hebrew is 'Christ' in Greek. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Surely we don't want to 'force' dialects like Chinese to learn to pronounce Hebrew. After all, most of us on this forum can't pronounce Hebrew.

In conclusion, we can call Him by the definition that means the same thing in the original languages, but it seems to me unfair to expect the whole world to pronounce the Name in the same way.

His Name shall be revealed. For now, It is Wonderful, and we must content with the descriptions availed to us.

Bless.

November 04 2013 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Anthony Clinton Supporter Teacher in China

Well if Jesus is the wrong word it certainly would not have helped me when I called upon that wonderful and Holy Name to be saved from my sins and a horror life of drugs. What I mean to imply is that if Jesus is the wrong name there would be very few genuine Christians in all the ages till now. But I read somewhere that the proof that the Name of Jesus was accepted and proven to be accepted even by the Jews of that day, was when they protested about the inscription on the cross.

Joh 19:19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. 
Joh 19:20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. 
They interpreted it as Jesus which to the Jews identified Him properly.

November 03 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Tim Beeker Supporter

The word "Jesus" is simply a fabrication. The Messiah's name is YeHoshua, meaning "Yah is deliverer." Yeshua simply means "deliverance". The Messiah was always about His father's business. It is the Father who saves, through the Son.

The helper of Moshe, YeHoshua, was called Hoshea, prior to his receiving his new name (Num. 13:16). This is critical in understanding doctrine, elsewhere.

"Jesus" means absolutely nothing. Again, Hoshea means "deliverance." YeHoshua means "Yah is Deliverer."

There are many things in the Bible that have been altered, over time. The Messiah's name is simply one of them. Easter for Pesach is another. Xmas for Sukkot is another.

August 13 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Tony Flores Supporter Tony Flores a servant of Jesus Christ

The Scriptures reveal not one, but many names for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Most Christians do not know all His names. The simple names that we all know let us know who we are taking about. If you speak other names of God like Elohim, El Elyon, Jehovah Mekadesh, Jehovah Tsidkenu it could get confusing and you would have to be a Bible Scholar to know the different meaning. I prefer to call Him Jesus, my Savior.

November 03 2013 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Beatrice Picon Supporter I'm a homemaker taking care of what God put in my care.

Brothers & sisters God knows when we call on the name we have received when we first came to the knowledge that we needed salvation from our sins lets just be thankful for the Loving mercy that we can grab on to using Jesus or what ever other name we use in the country we live or the language we speak

January 25 2014 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Alan suthard Supporter

I believe that our Savior was given the Hebrew Name, Yehoshua, (Yehovah is deliverance/salvation) by His earthly parents, but was mostly called by the shorter, Aramaic name, Yeshua. Yeshua was poorly transliterated in Greek to Iesous due to their alphabet's inability to reproduce the Hebrew/Aramaic yod and shin characters, and they added a final sigma to make the Name masculine. The early English bibles including the original KJV used the Latin spelling, Iesus, pronounced yay-SOOS, which somehow morphed into JEEZ-us. 

No, our salvation is not dependent on it, but our alphabet and language allow us to spell and pronounce our Savior's Name just as it was originally. We don't Translate Mikhail to Michael, or Jose or Giuseppe to Joseph, so I see no reason to treat the most important Name of all any differently. Why not honor Him by calling Him by His real Hebrew Name instead of one that bears no resemblance to either that or the Aramaic version?

By the way, the Aramaic Syriac Peshitta has always claimed to have the original NT. Sha'ul (Paul) probably wrote his letters to Greek-speaking people in their language, but the Gospel writers surely must have written in the Aramaic language they spoke. English translations from the Peshitta NT are available which retain the Yeshua Name.

November 03 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Bill Brunson Supporter Theologian, Retired Pastor, Conference Speaker, Psychologist

Remember all Biblical names are in Hebrew or translated into Greek. When the writers of the King James Bible was compiling it they were reading from the Latin Bible. The writers translated Hebrew names into English names, for example Mary was not a Jewish name it would have been Miriam. So Yeshua was translated into its Latin form of Jesus. When we read the Bible we should remember its from a Jewish mind set and not a western point of view.

January 24 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

PREMKUMAR SAMUEL Supporter

As we are so sure that his name is yehoshua or Yeshua, there is nothing wrong in transliterating it correctly so that at least the future generations can learn it correctly. I wish that all the translations carry a foot note about the name and its meaning in the original language so that whatever be the name in various languages, the reader can understand its meaning and significance.

January 24 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

SaintlyMic MicMic Supporter Born Again Christian, Teacher, Student

The name "JESUS" is an English name for the Hebrew name "YESHUA".
I love to make the following statement because it defines WHO Jesus is, and also gives respect to the Hebrew language.
It is as follows:
The Lord Yeshua Jesus Christ is The Lord God Almighty Jehovah Yahweh.

January 30 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Michael Buoy Supporter

I want to start with a question. If his name is Joshua translated to Jesus then why is Joshua still Joshua when referring to other people of the same name in the bible? This urges me to continue my study. I found a site that has some very good info on this at Eliyah.com. Check it out and make your own discovery. It worries me that they only changed the name of Jesus to a different name. Maybe this comes from the father of lies? I believe by faith and ignorance Jesus is still powerful but fully understanding His true name associated with the name of the Father sure makes the Bible mean so much more. Someone responded that the Father's name, is "I AM that I AM" but if you continue reading in Exodus 3:15 it says, "...Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD (actually YAHWEH transliterated) God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." I was convinced when I discovered that the name YHWH (YAHWEH) being changed is even disclosed in the introduction section of most bibles. Study for yourself and find the truth. I know for me, reading the bible by inserting the actual names has made it much more powerful than ever before. With Love in Christ!

January 31 2014 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Walrus theCat Supporter

Because it's English.

March 26 2014 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Lawrence wong Supporter Disciple of iEsou ("Yeh-sou") christou

The question is "If His name was Yeshua/Yehoshua, why do we call Him Jesus?"

This is a very interesting question of 2 parts. Knowing the correct name of a person and its meaning is very important for it sets them apart from all other people. 

To the best of my knowledge The Creator's Son has no name in the Tanach (Old Covenant). Yshral (Israel) looked forward to the arrival of "The Messiah" (the Anointed One), an Almighty King to rule them on earth. "Yehoshua" meaning "YHVH Saves" refers to "Joshua" the person who led Yshral from the wilderness into the Promised Land, Canaan. "Yehoshua" is abbreviated as "Yeshua" became a popular name, and is a proto-type of The Messiah. Obviously, he was not The Messiah. 

The Messiah was named in the first verse of the New Covenant as "iEsou christou" (Mt 1:1) a Greek name. "iEsou" means "He will save His people [Yshral] from their sins" (Mt 1:21) and "christou" is "The Messiah", or Christ (Jo 1:41). It is very normal to name a baby at birth so The Messiah was named "iEsou". There is "no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Ac 4:12).

So, where did the name Jesus come from? Why not use the name "iEsou" which is pronounced "Yeh-sou" according to Strongs concordance.

The answer is actually quite simple. In Greek "iEsou" may also be spelled as "iEsoun," and "iEsous". The Roman Catholics took the name "iEsous" and Latinised it. In Latin, the Greek letter "i" was written as a "J", and the letters "i" and "e" combined are "i.e." meaning "That is" or "in other words to give "Je". The "sous" became in Latin "sus" which means " a pig, hog or swine" or "ZEUS". 

Therefore the name JESUS can mean "This is [a] pig" or "This is Zeus" Alternatively "In other words [a] pig" or "In other words Zeus" 

Repetition of "Jesus" amounts to a salutation "Hail Zeus" or "Hail pig" 

Rome has always worshiped Zeus, the chief of the Greek pantheon from Olympia in Greece. Rome renamed him Jupiter. In 475 C.E. Zeus' statue was destroyed by fire. The Western Roman Church (Latin speaking) agreed with the Eastern Orthodox Church (Greek speaking) to use His image to represent "Christ Pantokrator" (Judge and Ruler of the earth - a title of YHVH - see Isa 33: 22). This explains why all the pictures have Christ have the same look! By doing this they disregarded and broke the 1st three of the Ten Commandments! (Ex 20: 1- 7).

The name Jesus 1st appeared in a later edition of the 1611 Holy Bible authorised by King James. We've been stuck with the name Jesus, and Jesus Christ and "his" image ever since! 

An accepted rule for translators is to use the proper nouns which are indigenous to the original language. "iEsou" is indigenous to the New Covenant and is the name of ALHYM's Son. The Creator, the author of the Holy Bible named His Son "iEsou" 

I personally use "iEsou" (Yeh-sou), my Saviour, my Redeemer. 

Lawrence NZ

August 16 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Marijke Vente Supporter

Consider this:
The name Jesus is not sympathetic (understatement) to the Jews. Horrible things were done to the Jews in that name...

Think back of the story of Joseph (יוֹסֵף) (same pronunciation in English or Hebrew!).
Joseph was given the name: Zaphenath-Paneah by pharaoh. When Josephs brothers came to him in Egypt they did not recognise him.
Only after Joseph had said “I am your brother Joseph" the brothers recognised him.

Let us pray for the Jews to recognise their Jewish Messiah once they realise His Name is Yeshua and not Jesus and He is their Jewish Messiah, their brother....

Another point is interest is: Satans name is the same in any language...

United in His love,

November 12 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Alan Schuetz Supporter

Christ's Name is Yehoshu'a (Gr. 'Iesous/Aram. Yeshua/Eng. Joshua). In Hebrew, His Name means "Yahoah saves," where Yahoah is the proper pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton; the "vav" is pronounced like the "long o" in Torah (tav-vav-resh-he), menorah (mem-nun-vav-resh-he), Eloah (=singular form of Elohim, aleph-lamed-vav-he), and Yehoshu'a (yod-he-vav-shin-ayin). A Dead Dea Scrolls (DSS) fragment in Koine Greek recorded the Tetragrammaton as 'Iaw (iota-alpha-omega); He truly is the "Alpha and Omega" (Revelation 22:13); it's in His Name. The preincarnate Yahoah was the Light and firstborn of Creation; His incarnate Name is Yehoshu'a. "Jesus" originates from the transliteration of the Latin; it is NOT a translation. Just as Joshua, the son of Nun, led the Israelites into the Promised Land, so, too, does Joshua the Messiah lead us to Salvation.

July 19 2018 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht Supporter ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

The name Jesus is the Greek transliteration of either the name יהושע (Joshua) or its shortened form (ישוע) Jeshua, and consists of two elements. The 1st part is the appellative יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton; the name of the Lord: YHWH, or Yahweh.

The 2nd element of the name Joshua/Jesus comes from the verb ישע (yasha'), meaning to save or deliver: (https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Jesus.html)

I know of a name, a beautiful name,
That unto a Babe was given.
The stars glittered bright throughout that glad night,
And angels praised God in Heav’n.

--I KNOW OF A NAME (a hymn by Jean Perry)

“You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

I am so glad I know God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent! I know that Jesus has saved me from my sins. He is the ONLY ONE who could do this, because He is God. He is the God/man who saved me from sin's power and eventually He will save me from the very presence of sins.

Do you know Him today?

January 21 2022 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report