Why Yeshua Became Jesus

Did you know that the name “Jesus” is less than  400 years old? Where did this name come from,   and what was the original name of our Messiah?  The spelling of the name “Jesus” has been in   use for less than 400 years. This can be  seen in the fact that the 1611 King James   Version of the Bible still spelled His name  “Iesous” with an “I”, not “Jesus” with a “J”. The name Iesous was used in Greek,  Latin, and English until the 17th century   when the letter “J” was introduced  as a replacement for the letter   “I” when used as a consonant. However, it  was still pronounced “Yea-soos” for many   years before it eventually took on the hard “J”  sound that we know today in the word “Jesus”. This means the pronunciation of the name  “Jesus” is a very recent development in   the English language. So, what was  the original name of our Messiah? Bible Scholars know His original name,  and the way they know this is because   there is another person in the Bible  who has the same Greek name as Jesus,   and that person is Joshua son of Nun. We see this  in the book of Acts when it speaks about Joshua. “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the  wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to   make it according to the pattern that he had seen,  45 which our fathers, having received it in turn,   also brought with Joshua into the land possessed  by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the   face of our fathers until the days of David,” – Acts 7:44-45  We also see this in the Septuagint, the Greek  translation of the Old Testament. Every time   Joshua son of Nun is mentioned in Greek, his  name is translated as Iesous. So, if Joshua   and Jesus have the same name in Greek, we can  assume they also have the same name in Hebrew. So, what was Joshua’s Hebrew name? We  see in the Hebrew Bible that his name   is written as Yehoshua in  Hebrew and Yeshua in Aramaic.   In the first century, the Jewish  people primarily spoke Aramaic,   so we conclude that our Messiah probably went by  the Aramaic version of his name, which was Yeshua. The English name “Jesus” is a transliteration  of the Greek name “Iesous”, which is a   transliteration of the Aramaic name “Yeshua”.  But how did Yeshua become Iesous? The “Ie”   represents the “Y” sound, the “s” represents the  “sh” sound, the “ou” represents the “ua” sound,   and the “s” at the end makes it masculine. The only way to spell “Yeshua” in Greek is  “Iesous”, which is why the Jewish scholars   who translated the Septuagint used “Iesous”  when translating both Yeshua and Yehoshua   into Greek. Anyone who has studied  Biblical languages understands this. It is interesting to note that the  name Iesous was used in Greek, Latin,   and English until the 17th century,  when the letter “J” was introduced as   a replacement for the letter “I” when used as  a consonant, and thus His name became “Jesus.” So, if Joshua and Jesus share  the same Hebrew and Greek names,   why do they have different English names? Some  people assume there is a great conspiracy involved   in why the names are different, however, it is  a very simple reason. When the Old Testament   Hebrew text was translated into English, they  phonetically translated “Yehoshua” as “Joshua”,   and when they translated the Greek New Testament  into English, they phonetically translated   “Iesous” as “Jesus”, with one exception,  when “Iesous” referred to Joshua son of Nun   the translators chose to continue using  the name Joshua to avoid confusion. In the Bible, names have significant  meanings. For example, the name   Abram means “exalted father”, but the name Abraham   means “father of a multitude”. This is why God  changed his name from Abram to Abraham saying, “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but  your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you   a father of many nations.” – Genesis 17:5  Likewise, the name of our Messiah has  significant meaning. When the Angel of   the Lord spoke to Joseph, he told him what to  name the child, and because Joseph was a Jew,   he would have spoken Aramaic, which means  the name was given to him in Aramaic. “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall  call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people   from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21  This is significant because the  name “Yeshua” means “salvation”.   The Angel was saying, “call Him Salvation,  because he will save His people from their sins.” Is it wrong to call Him Jesus?  No, that is His English name.   But I prefer to call Him by His original  name, Yeshua. To me, it is a more intimate   way to refer to Him, because that is the  name He was known by in the First Century.