Yeshua (name)
Encyclopedia
Yeshua, was a common alternative form of the name Joshua "Yehoshuah" in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple Period
. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous, from which comes the English spelling Jesus
.
The Hebrew spelling Yeshua (ישוע) appears in some later books of the Hebrew Bible once for Joshua the son of Nun, and 28 times for Joshua the High Priest
and (KJV "Jeshua") and other priests called Jeshua - although these same priests are also given the full spelling Joshua in 11 further instances in the books of Haggai and Zechariah. It differs from the usual Hebrew Bible spelling of Joshua
(יְהוֹשֻׁעַ y'hoshuaʿ), found 218 times in the Hebrew Bible, in the absence of the consonant he ה
and placement of the semivowel vav
ו after, not before, the consonant shin ש
. It also differs from the Hebrew spelling Yeshu
(ישו) which is found in Ben Yehuda's dictionary and used in most secular contexts in modern Hebrew to refer to Jesus of Nazareth, though the Hebrew spelling Yeshua (ישוע) is generally used in translations of the New Testament into Hebrew
. and used by Hebrew speaking Christians in Israel. The name Yeshua is also used in Israeli Hebrew historical texts to refer to other Joshuas recorded in Greek texts such as Jesus ben Ananias
and Jesus ben Sira.
In English the name Yeshua is extensively used by followers of Messianic Judaism
as well as other Christian denominations who wish to use what they consider to be Jesus' Hebrew or Aramaic name.
Among the Jews of the Second Temple Period
, the Biblical Aramaic/Hebrew name Yeshua‘ 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
, and Chronicles
) and was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls
, though Haggai and Zechariah prefer the spelling Joshua. Strong's Concordance
connects the name Yeshua`, 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"). It is often translated as "He saves," to conform with Matthew 1:21: "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (NASB).
The name "Yeshua" (transliterated in the English Old Testament as Jeshua) is a late form of the Biblical Hebrew name Yehoshua (Joshua
), and spelled with a waw
in the second syllable. The Late Biblical Hebrew spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric element Yeho- to Yo-.
Thus Yehochanan contracted to Yochanan. However, there is no name (aside from Yehoshua`) in which Yeho- became Ye-.
The name ישוע 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. Note that in earlier English (where adaptations of names of Biblical figures were generally based on the Latin Vulgate forms), Yeshua was generally transcribed identically to "Jesus" in English. It was only when the Protestant Bible translators of ca. 1600 went back to the original languages that a distinction between Jesus and Jeshua appeared in English.
The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua": Yeho- is another form of Yahu, a theophoric element standing for the personal name of God, YAHWEH, JEHOVAH [יהוחYHWH
, and shua‘ is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry", that is to say, a shout given when in need of rescue. Together, the name would then literally mean, "God is a saving-cry," that is to say, shout to God when in need of help.
Another explanation for the name Yehoshua is that it comes from the root yod-shin-‘ayin, meaning "to deliver, save, or rescue". According to the Book of Numbers
verse 13:16, the name of Joshua son of Nun was originally Hoshea` , and the name "Yehoshua`" is usually spelled the same but with a yod
added at the beginning. "Hoshea`" certainly comes from the root , "yasha", yod-shin-`ayin (in the Hif'il form the yod becomes a waw), and not from the word shua` (Jewish Encyclopedia
) although ultimately both roots appear to be related.
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 hero Jehoshua/Joshua son of Nun from Hoshea [similar to hoshia` meaning "He rescued"] to Yehoshua in commemoration of his salvation: "And Ιησους refers to salvation of the Lord" [Ιησους or Iesous being the Greek form of the name] (On the Change of Names 21.121).
Similarly, the Septuagint renders Ben Sira
as saying (in the Greek form of the name): "Ιησους the son of Naue [Yehoshua Ben Nun] who according to his name became great unto [the] salvation/deliverance of his chosen ones" (Ben Sira 46:1-2). However, Ben Sira originally wrote in Hebrew in the 2nd century BC, and the only extant Hebrew manuscript for this passage has "in his days" , not "according to his name" (which would be in Hebrew),
and thus does not comment on the name Yehoshua as connoting "deliverance": "Yehoshua Ben Nun, who was formed to be in his days a great deliverer for his chosen ones" . Possibly, the translators understood the phrase "was formed in his days" to refer to being transformed by his name change, and thus has "according to his name" as a paraphrastic translation, or else they were working from a different text.
The distinction between the longer Yeshoshua and shorter Yeshua forms does not exist in Greek.
's lexicon of Second Temple
period names on inscriptions in Palestine (2002) includes for "Joshua" 85 examples of Hebrew Yeshua, 15 of Yehoshua, and 48 examples of Iesous in Greek inscriptions," with only one Greek variant as Iesoua. One ossuary of the around twenty known with the name Yeshua, Rahmani No.9, discovered by Ezra Sukenik in 1931, has "Yeshu... Yeshua ben Yosef." The "Yeshu..." may have been scratched out. Two Jewish magical incantation bowls
have been discovered both bearing variant spellings of Yeshua.
Apart from the "Yesh.. Yeshua ben Yosef" ossuary, the only other known evidence for the existence of a Yeshu form prior to the material related to Jesus in the Talmud
, is a graffito which Joachim Jeremias
identified in Bethesda in 1966, but which is now filled in.
ized) rather than with a shva /ə/ (as Y'shua) or segol /ɛ/ (Yesh-shua). The final letter Ayin ע is ʕ (a rough, guttural sound not found in Greek or English), sometimes transcribed " ` " (Yeshua`). The final [ăʕ] represents the "patach genuvah" ("furtive" patach), indicating that the consonant `ayin is pronounced after the a 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 as רוח [ˈruăħ] 'spirit').
Thus it is pronounced jeˈʃu.aʕ in Modern Hebrew, approximately .
The Hebrew name of the historical Jesus is probably pronounced 'Yeshua', 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 for 'Yehoshua' יהושוע with the letter Vav for /o/, they still pronounced the name similarly to the Judeans, as 'Yeshua' [jeˈʃuaʕ], who tended to spell the name phonetically as ישוע, perhaps reducing the name thus: [jəhoˈʃuaʕ] > [joˈʃuaʕ] > [jeˈʃuaʕ], with the /o/ palatizing (via 'dissimilation') before the /ʃ/.
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/) weakened
significantly. 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]. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls spell the Hebrew word ראוי /rɔˈʔui̯/ ('seen') variously, recording both pronunciations: reduced ראו [ro] and expanded ראואי [rɔˈuwi].
The Hebrew name 'Yehoshua' generally reduced to 'Yeshua', but an expanded 'Yehoshua' is possible, especially in Galilee whose traditional orthography possibly reflects this.
name , which transliterates the Koine Greek name .
In the Septuagint and other Greek-language Jewish texts, such as the writings of Josephus
and Philo of Alexandria, is the standard Koine Greek form used to translate both of the Hebrew names: Yehoshua and Yeshua. Greek or Iēsoûs 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 name Hoshea in one of the three verses where this referred to Joshua the son of Nun—Deut. 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 I Chron. 24:11, II Chron. 31:15, Ezra
, and Nehemiah
where it is transliterated into English as Jeshua. 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 (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 (I Chronicles 7:27). The short form Yeshua was used for Jesus ben Sirach in Hebrew fragments of the Wisdom of Sirach. (Some concern remains over whether these fragments faithfully represent the original Hebrew text or are instead a later translation back into Hebrew.) The earlier form Yehoshua saw revived usage from the Hasmonean
period onwards, although the name Yeshua is still found in letters from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 AD).
In the context of the documentary entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus
, archeologist Amos 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 the Second Temple
."
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.
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.
Clement of Alexandria
and St. Cyril of Jerusalem considered the Greek form Iesous to be the original, even going so far as to interpret it as a true Greek name and not simply a transliteration of Hebrew. (A similar situation is seen in the use of the true Greek name Simon as a translation of the Hebrew name Shim'on in texts such as Sirach.) Eusebius related it to the Greek root meaning "to heal" thus making it a variant of Jason meaning healer.
However, the New Testament describes Jesus as being a part of a Jewish milieu, reading the Hebrew Bible and debating with Pharisees
over interpretations of the Jewish legal tradition
. The Gospel
s record several Hebrew and Aramaic words or expressions spoken by him. Moreover, Eusebius reports that Jesus's student Matthew
wrote a gospel
"in the Hebrew language". (Note, scholars typically argue the word "Hebrew" in the New Testament refers to Aramaic.)
An argument in favor of the Hebrew reduced form Yeshua, as opposed to Yehoshua, is the Old Syriac Bible (c. 200 AD) and the Peshitta
preserve this same spelling but using the equivalent Aramaic letters . Yeshu /jeʃuʕ/ (Syriac does not use a 'furtive' pathach so extra /a/ is not used) is still the pronunciation used in the West Syriac dialect, whereas East Syriac has rendered the pronunciation of these same letters as Išô‘ /iʃoʔ/. These texts were translated from the Greek, but the name is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form because Greek did not have an "sh" [ʃ] sound, and substituted [s]; and likewise lacked and therefore omitted the final ‘ayin sound [ʕ]. It can be argued that the Aramaic speakers who used this name had a continual connection to the Aramaic-speakers in communities founded by the apostles and other students of Jesus, thus independently preserved his historical name. Alternatively, Talshir (1998) suggests that Aramaic references to the Hebrew Bible had long used Yeshua for Hebrew names such as Yehoshua Ben Nun. So the possibility of Jesus having been Yehoshua remains.
some manuscripts distinguish Joshua
Yeshua (ܝܶܫܽܘܥ) and Jesus
Dyeshua (ܕ݁ܝܶܫܽܘܥ) , however the Lexicon of William Jennings
gives the same form Yeshua for both names. The Hebrew final letter ayin
ע is equivalent to final ܥ in Syriac.
, only one reference is made to the spelling Yeshua, 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
). However in references to Jesus in the Talmud
, 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 of Nazareth, not for other Joshuas. However some scholars, such as Maier
(1978) regard the two named "Yeshu" texts in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a and 107b) to be later amendments, and not original.
; however, its usage here is a translation back into the Hebrew Yeshua from the Greek.
In general rabbinical sources use Yeshu, and this is the form to which some named references to Jesus in the Talmud
as Yeshu
occur in some manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, though some scholars, such as Maier
(1978) have argued that the presence of the name Yeshu in these texts is a late interpolation. Other Hebrew sources referencing Yeshu
include the Toledot Yeshu
, Sefer Nestor ha-Komer
, Jacob ben Reuben's Milhamoth ha-Shem
, Sefer Nizzahon Yashan
, Sefer Joseph Hamekane
, the works of Ibn Shaprut
, Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas
, and Hasdai Crescas
, etc.
The name Yeshu is unknown in archeological sources and inscriptions, except for one ossuary found in Palestine which has an inscription where someone has started to write first Yeshu.. (incorrectly?) and then written Yeshua bar Yehosef beneath it. 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.
Some of rabbinical sources comment on the reasons for the missing ayin
from Yeshu, as opposed to the Hebrew Bible Yeshua and Yehoshuah. Leon Modena argues that it was Jesus himself who made his disciples remove the ayin, and that therefore they cannot now restore it. A tradition states that the shortening to Yeshu relates to the Y-SH-U of the yimach shemo "may his name be obliterated." Against this David Flusser
suggested that the name Yeshu itself was "in no way abusive," but "almost certainly" a Galilean dialect form of Yeshua
.
Second Temple period
The Second Temple period , in Jewish history, is the period between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed. It ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Temple's destruction....
. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous, from which comes the English spelling Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
.
The Hebrew spelling Yeshua (ישוע) appears in some later books of the Hebrew Bible once for Joshua the son of Nun, and 28 times for Joshua the High Priest
Joshua the High Priest
Joshua the High Priest was, according to the Bible the first person chosen to be the High Priest for the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity The name is also spelled 'Jeshua' in some English versions , and, as with the earlier Joshua, is...
and (KJV "Jeshua") and other priests called Jeshua - although these same priests are also given the full spelling Joshua in 11 further instances in the books of Haggai and Zechariah. It differs from the usual Hebrew Bible spelling of Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
(יְהוֹשֻׁעַ y'hoshuaʿ), found 218 times in the Hebrew Bible, in the absence of the consonant he ה
He (letter)
He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician , Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic . Its sound value is a voiceless glottal fricative ....
and placement of the semivowel vav
Vav
VAV as a three-letter abbreviation may refer to* A Volcanic Ash Victim meaning someone who has been left stranded by a volcanic ash cloud that is hindering air travel.* A variable air volume device, used in HVAC systems to control the flow of air...
ו after, not before, the consonant shin ש
Shin (letter)
Shin literally means "Sharp" ; It is the twenty-first letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Aramaic/Hebrew , and Arabic ....
. It also differs from the Hebrew spelling Yeshu
Yeshu
Yeshu is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in Rabbinic literature. The oldest works in which references to Yeshu occur are the Tosefta and the Talmud, although some scholars consider the references to Yeshu to be post-Talmudic additions....
(ישו) which is found in Ben Yehuda's dictionary and used in most secular contexts in modern Hebrew to refer to Jesus of Nazareth, though the Hebrew spelling Yeshua (ישוע) is generally used in translations of the New Testament into Hebrew
Bible translations into Hebrew
-Hebrew Bible:The Hebrew Bible is almost entirely in Hebrew. The few sections that are in Aramaic are in a form of Biblical Aramaic and in square-script which are effectively intelligible to Hebrew readers and do not require translation...
. and used by Hebrew speaking Christians in Israel. The name Yeshua is also used in Israeli Hebrew historical texts to refer to other Joshuas recorded in Greek texts such as Jesus ben Ananias
Jesus ben Ananias
Jesus, the son of Ananias, was a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the Jewish War against Rome began in 66 CE, went around Jerusalem prophesying the city's destruction. The Jewish leaders of Jerusalem turned him over to the Romans, who tortured him. The procurator Albinus took him...
and Jesus ben Sira.
In English the name Yeshua is extensively used by followers of Messianic Judaism
Messianic Judaism
Messianic Judaism is a syncretic religious movement that arose in the 1960s and 70s. It blends evangelical Christian theology with elements of Jewish terminology and ritual....
as well as other Christian denominations who wish to use what they consider to be Jesus' Hebrew or Aramaic name.
Etymology
Among the Jews of the Second Temple Period
Second Temple period
The Second Temple period , in Jewish history, is the period between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed. It ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Temple's destruction....
, the Biblical Aramaic/Hebrew name Yeshua‘ was common: the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
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
Book of Ezra
The Book of Ezra is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Originally combined with the Book of Nehemiah in a single book of Ezra-Nehemiah, the two became separated in the early centuries of the Christian era...
, Nehemiah
Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...
, and Chronicles
Books of Chronicles
The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible. In the Masoretic Text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim . Chronicles largely parallels the Davidic narratives in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings...
) and was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
, though Haggai and Zechariah prefer the spelling Joshua. Strong's Concordance
Strong's Concordance
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, generally known as Strong's Concordance, is a concordance of the King James Bible that was constructed under the direction of Dr. James Strong and first published in 1890. Dr. Strong was Professor of exegetical theology at Drew Theological Seminary at...
connects the name Yeshua`, 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"). It is often translated as "He saves," to conform with Matthew 1:21: "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (NASB).
The name "Yeshua" (transliterated in the English Old Testament as Jeshua) is a late form of the Biblical Hebrew name Yehoshua (Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
), and spelled with a waw
Waw (letter)
Waw is the sixth letter of the Northwest Semitic family of scripts, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic ....
in the second syllable. The Late Biblical Hebrew spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric element Yeho- to Yo-.
Thus Yehochanan contracted to Yochanan. However, there is no name (aside from Yehoshua`) in which Yeho- became Ye-.
The name ישוע 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. Note that in earlier English (where adaptations of names of Biblical figures were generally based on the Latin Vulgate forms), Yeshua was generally transcribed identically to "Jesus" in English. It was only when the Protestant Bible translators of ca. 1600 went back to the original languages that a distinction between Jesus and Jeshua appeared in English.
The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua": Yeho- is another form of Yahu, a theophoric element standing for the personal name of God, YAHWEH, JEHOVAH [יהוחYHWH
Tetragrammaton
The term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
, and shua‘ is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry", that is to say, a shout given when in need of rescue. Together, the name would then literally mean, "God is a saving-cry," that is to say, shout to God when in need of help.
Another explanation for the name Yehoshua is that it comes from the root yod-shin-‘ayin, meaning "to deliver, save, or rescue". According to the Book of Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
verse 13:16, the name of Joshua son of Nun was originally Hoshea` , and the name "Yehoshua`" is usually spelled the same but with a yod
Yod
A yod is a rare astrological aspect involving any celestial body of astrological importance. In astrology a yod is said to form whenever one planet forms quincunxes to another two planets that are separated by only a sextile . If each point of the yod were traced across an astrological chart it...
added at the beginning. "Hoshea`" certainly comes from the root , "yasha", yod-shin-`ayin (in the Hif'il form the yod becomes a waw), and not from the word shua` (Jewish Encyclopedia
Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
) although ultimately both roots appear to be related.
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 hero Jehoshua/Joshua son of Nun from Hoshea [similar to hoshia` meaning "He rescued"] to Yehoshua in commemoration of his salvation: "And Ιησους refers to salvation of the Lord" [Ιησους or Iesous being the Greek form of the name] (On the Change of Names 21.121).
Similarly, the Septuagint renders Ben Sira
Ben Sira
Jesus ben Sirach , commonly known simply as ben Sirach or Sirach and also rendered "Jesus son of Sirach" or "Jesus Siracides", was the author of the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Sirach and possibly the rabbinical Alphabet of Sirach...
as saying (in the Greek form of the name): "Ιησους the son of Naue [Yehoshua Ben Nun] who according to his name became great unto [the] salvation/deliverance of his chosen ones" (Ben Sira 46:1-2). However, Ben Sira originally wrote in Hebrew in the 2nd century BC, and the only extant Hebrew manuscript for this passage has "in his days" , not "according to his name" (which would be in Hebrew),
and thus does not comment on the name Yehoshua as connoting "deliverance": "Yehoshua Ben Nun, who was formed to be in his days a great deliverer for his chosen ones" . Possibly, the translators understood the phrase "was formed in his days" to refer to being transformed by his name change, and thus has "according to his name" as a paraphrastic translation, or else they were working from a different text.
The distinction between the longer Yeshoshua and shorter Yeshua forms does not exist in Greek.
Archaeological evidence
Tal IlanTal Ilan
Tal Ilan is an Israeli-born historian, notably of women's history in Judaism, and lexicographer. She is currently professor of Jewish Studies at the Freie University in Berlin.-Works:* Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity...
's lexicon of Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
period names on inscriptions in Palestine (2002) includes for "Joshua" 85 examples of Hebrew Yeshua, 15 of Yehoshua, and 48 examples of Iesous in Greek inscriptions," with only one Greek variant as Iesoua. One ossuary of the around twenty known with the name Yeshua, Rahmani No.9, discovered by Ezra Sukenik in 1931, has "Yeshu... Yeshua ben Yosef." The "Yeshu..." may have been scratched out. Two Jewish magical incantation bowls
Jewish magical papyri
Jewish magical papyri are a subclass of papyri with specific Jewish magical uses, and which shed light on popular belief during the late Second Temple Period and after in Late Antiquity...
have been discovered both bearing variant spellings of Yeshua.
Apart from the "Yesh.. Yeshua ben Yosef" ossuary, the only other known evidence for the existence of a Yeshu form prior to the material related to Jesus in the Talmud
Jesus in the Talmud
The Talmud contains passages that some scholars have concluded are references to Christian traditions about Jesus.The history of textual transmission of these passages is complex and scholars are not agreed concerning which passages are original, and which were added later or removed later in...
, is a graffito which Joachim Jeremias
Joachim Jeremias
Joachim Jeremias was a German Lutheran theologian, scholar of Near Eastern Studies and university professor for New Testament studies. He was abbot of Bursfelde, 1968–1971....
identified in Bethesda in 1966, but which is now filled in.
Pronunciation
Yeshua יֵשוּעַ jeˈʃuăʕ. The Hebrew letter Yod י /j/ is vocalized with the Hebrew vowel tsere /e/ (a 'long' e like the first syllable of "neighbor" but not diphthongDiphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
ized) rather than with a shva /ə/ (as Y'shua) or segol /ɛ/ (Yesh-shua). The final letter Ayin ע is ʕ (a rough, guttural sound not found in Greek or English), sometimes transcribed " ` " (Yeshua`). The final [ăʕ] represents the "patach genuvah" ("furtive" patach), indicating that the consonant `ayin is pronounced after the a 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 as רוח [ˈruăħ] 'spirit').
Thus it is pronounced jeˈʃu.aʕ in Modern Hebrew, approximately .
The Hebrew name of the historical Jesus is probably pronounced 'Yeshua', 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 for 'Yehoshua' יהושוע with the letter Vav for /o/, they still pronounced the name similarly to the Judeans, as 'Yeshua' [jeˈʃuaʕ], who tended to spell the name phonetically as ישוע, perhaps reducing the name thus: [jəhoˈʃuaʕ] > [joˈʃuaʕ] > [jeˈʃuaʕ], with the /o/ palatizing (via 'dissimilation') before the /ʃ/.
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/) weakened
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
significantly. 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]. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls spell the Hebrew word ראוי /rɔˈʔui̯/ ('seen') variously, recording both pronunciations: reduced ראו [ro] and expanded ראואי [rɔˈuwi].
The Hebrew name 'Yehoshua' generally reduced to 'Yeshua', but an expanded 'Yehoshua' is possible, especially in Galilee whose traditional orthography possibly reflects this.
Original name for Jesus
The English name Jesus derives from the Late LatinLate Latin
Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...
name , which transliterates the Koine Greek name .
In the Septuagint and other Greek-language Jewish texts, such as the writings of Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
and Philo of Alexandria, is the standard Koine Greek form used to translate both of the Hebrew names: Yehoshua and Yeshua. Greek or Iēsoûs 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 name Hoshea in one of the three verses where this referred to Joshua the son of Nun—Deut. 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 I Chron. 24:11, II Chron. 31:15, Ezra
Book of Ezra
The Book of Ezra is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Originally combined with the Book of Nehemiah in a single book of Ezra-Nehemiah, the two became separated in the early centuries of the Christian era...
, and Nehemiah
Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...
where it is transliterated into English as Jeshua. Two of these men (Joshua the son of Nun and Joshua the High Priest
Joshua the High Priest
Joshua the High Priest was, according to the Bible the first person chosen to be the High Priest for the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity The name is also spelled 'Jeshua' in some English versions , and, as with the earlier Joshua, is...
) are mentioned in other books of the Hebrew Bible where they are instead called Yehoshua (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 (I Chronicles 7:27). The short form Yeshua was used for Jesus ben Sirach in Hebrew fragments of the Wisdom of Sirach. (Some concern remains over whether these fragments faithfully represent the original Hebrew text or are instead a later translation back into Hebrew.) The earlier form Yehoshua saw revived usage from the Hasmonean
Hasmonean
The Hasmonean dynasty , was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea...
period onwards, although the name Yeshua is still found in letters from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 AD).
In the context of the documentary entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a documentary co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Canadian documentary and film maker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric...
, archeologist Amos Kloner
Amos Kloner
Amos Kloner is an archaeologist and professor emeritusin the Martin Szusz Department of the Land of Israel Studies at the Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, where he teaches Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine archaeology....
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 the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
."
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.
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.
Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...
and St. Cyril of Jerusalem considered the Greek form Iesous to be the original, even going so far as to interpret it as a true Greek name and not simply a transliteration of Hebrew. (A similar situation is seen in the use of the true Greek name Simon as a translation of the Hebrew name Shim'on in texts such as Sirach.) Eusebius related it to the Greek root meaning "to heal" thus making it a variant of Jason meaning healer.
However, the New Testament describes Jesus as being a part of a Jewish milieu, reading the Hebrew Bible and debating with Pharisees
Pharisees
The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...
over interpretations of the Jewish legal tradition
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
. The Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
s record several Hebrew and Aramaic words or expressions spoken by him. Moreover, Eusebius reports that Jesus's student Matthew
Matthew the Evangelist
Matthew the Evangelist was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the four Evangelists.-Identity:...
wrote a gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
"in the Hebrew language". (Note, scholars typically argue the word "Hebrew" in the New Testament refers to Aramaic.)
An argument in favor of the Hebrew reduced form Yeshua, as opposed to Yehoshua, is the Old Syriac Bible (c. 200 AD) and the Peshitta
Peshitta
The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition.The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from the Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD...
preserve this same spelling but using the equivalent Aramaic letters . Yeshu /jeʃuʕ/ (Syriac does not use a 'furtive' pathach so extra /a/ is not used) is still the pronunciation used in the West Syriac dialect, whereas East Syriac has rendered the pronunciation of these same letters as Išô‘ /iʃoʔ/. These texts were translated from the Greek, but the name is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form because Greek did not have an "sh" [ʃ] sound, and substituted [s]; and likewise lacked and therefore omitted the final ‘ayin sound [ʕ]. It can be argued that the Aramaic speakers who used this name had a continual connection to the Aramaic-speakers in communities founded by the apostles and other students of Jesus, thus independently preserved his historical name. Alternatively, Talshir (1998) suggests that Aramaic references to the Hebrew Bible had long used Yeshua for Hebrew names such as Yehoshua Ben Nun. So the possibility of Jesus having been Yehoshua remains.
Syriac
In the Aramaic of the PeshittaPeshitta
The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition.The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from the Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD...
some manuscripts distinguish Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
Yeshua (ܝܶܫܽܘܥ) and Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
Dyeshua (ܕ݁ܝܶܫܽܘܥ) , however the Lexicon of William Jennings
William Jennings
William Jennings may refer to:*William Jennings , mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA*William Dale Jennings, American author of The Cowboys, The Ronin, and The Sinking of the Sarah Diamond*William M...
gives the same form Yeshua for both names. The Hebrew final letter ayin
Ayin
' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic . It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet...
ע is equivalent to final ܥ in Syriac.
Yeshua, Yehoshua and Yeshu in the Talmud
In the TalmudTalmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, only one reference is made to the spelling Yeshua, 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
Joshua ben Perachyah
Rabbi Joshua ben Perahiah or Joshua ben Perachya was Nasi of the Sanhedrin in the latter half of the 2nd century BC.-With Nittai of Arbela, second of five pairs of scholars:...
) and after Jesus (e.g. Joshua ben Hananiah
Joshua ben Hananiah
Joshua ben Hananiah was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Temple. He was of Levitical descent , and served in the sanctuary as a member of the class of singers . His mother intended him for a life of study, and, as an older contemporary, Dosa b. Harkinas,...
). However in references to Jesus in the Talmud
Jesus in the Talmud
The Talmud contains passages that some scholars have concluded are references to Christian traditions about Jesus.The history of textual transmission of these passages is complex and scholars are not agreed concerning which passages are original, and which were added later or removed later in...
, where the name occurs, it is rendered Yeshu
Yeshu
Yeshu is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in Rabbinic literature. The oldest works in which references to Yeshu occur are the Tosefta and the Talmud, although some scholars consider the references to Yeshu to be post-Talmudic additions....
, which is a name reserved in Aramaic and Hebrew literature from the early medieval period until today, solely for Jesus of Nazareth, not for other Joshuas. However some scholars, such as Maier
Johann Maier (talmudic scholar)
Johann Maier is an Austrian scholar of Judaism, and was founder and for thirty years director of the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne....
(1978) regard the two named "Yeshu" texts in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a and 107b) to be later amendments, and not original.
Rabbinical commentary on the difference Yeshu/Yeshua
Yeshua was used as the name for Jesus in late additions to the YosipponJosippon
Josippon is the name usually given to a popular chronicle of Jewish history from Adam to the age of Titus, attributed to an author Josippon or Joseph ben Gorion....
; however, its usage here is a translation back into the Hebrew Yeshua from the Greek.
In general rabbinical sources use Yeshu, and this is the form to which some named references to Jesus in the Talmud
Jesus in the Talmud
The Talmud contains passages that some scholars have concluded are references to Christian traditions about Jesus.The history of textual transmission of these passages is complex and scholars are not agreed concerning which passages are original, and which were added later or removed later in...
as Yeshu
Yeshu
Yeshu is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in Rabbinic literature. The oldest works in which references to Yeshu occur are the Tosefta and the Talmud, although some scholars consider the references to Yeshu to be post-Talmudic additions....
occur in some manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, though some scholars, such as Maier
Johann Maier (talmudic scholar)
Johann Maier is an Austrian scholar of Judaism, and was founder and for thirty years director of the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne....
(1978) have argued that the presence of the name Yeshu in these texts is a late interpolation. Other Hebrew sources referencing Yeshu
Yeshu
Yeshu is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in Rabbinic literature. The oldest works in which references to Yeshu occur are the Tosefta and the Talmud, although some scholars consider the references to Yeshu to be post-Talmudic additions....
include the Toledot Yeshu
Toledot Yeshu
Sefer Toledot Yeshu is a medieval version of the story of Jesus from a Jewish perspective. The book concerns Yeshu, son of Joseph and Mary, born in Bethlehem, but also makes this Yeshu a contemporary of Queen Salome Alexandra...
, Sefer Nestor ha-Komer
Sefer Nestor ha-Komer
Sefer Nestor Ha-Komer or The Book of Nestor the Priest is the earliest surviving anti-Christian Jewish polemic. The book is in Hebrew, but also exists in an Arabic translation. It cites extensively and critically from New Testament and Church sources...
, Jacob ben Reuben's Milhamoth ha-Shem
Milhamoth ha-Shem
Milhamoth ha-Shem , "The Wars of the NAME", is the title of several Hebrew texts. Among these the most notable are:-Milhamoth ha-Shem of Salmon ben Jeroham, 10th C.:...
, Sefer Nizzahon Yashan
Sefer Nizzahon Yashan
Sefer Nizzahon Yashan “The Book of Victory” is a 13th Century anonymous Jewish apologetic text. In medieval times this was known in Latin as the Nizzahon Vetus. A modern edition was published by Mordechai Breuer in 1978....
, Sefer Joseph Hamekane
Sefer Joseph Hamekane
Sefer Joseph Hamekane the Book of Joseph the Official is a 13th C. Jewish apologetic text. The primary edition is by Judah Rosenthal...
, the works of Ibn Shaprut
Ibn Shaprut
Shem-Tob ben Isaac Shaprut of Tudela was a Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and polemicist. He is often confused with the physician Shem-Ṭob ben Isaac of Tortosa, who lived earlier...
, Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas
Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas
Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas was a Spanish Jewish controversialist of the fourteenth century.An attempt was made to convert him to Christianity by force. Despite persecution, he remained true to his convictions, although he was robbed of his possessions and reduced to poverty...
, and Hasdai Crescas
Hasdai Crescas
Hasdai ben Judah Crescas was a Jewish philosopher and a renowned halakhist...
, etc.
The name Yeshu is unknown in archeological sources and inscriptions, except for one ossuary found in Palestine which has an inscription where someone has started to write first Yeshu.. (incorrectly?) and then written Yeshua bar Yehosef beneath it. 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.
Some of rabbinical sources comment on the reasons for the missing ayin
Ayin
' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic . It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet...
from Yeshu, as opposed to the Hebrew Bible Yeshua and Yehoshuah. Leon Modena argues that it was Jesus himself who made his disciples remove the ayin, and that therefore they cannot now restore it. A tradition states that the shortening to Yeshu relates to the Y-SH-U of the yimach shemo "may his name be obliterated." Against this David Flusser
David Flusser
David Flusser was a professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.- Biography :...
suggested that the name Yeshu itself was "in no way abusive," but "almost certainly" a Galilean dialect form of Yeshua
Yeshua
Yeshua, was a common alternative form of the name Joshua "Yehoshuah" in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple Period...
.
See also
- Aramaic of JesusAramaic of JesusIt is generally agreed that the historical Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic, perhaps along with some Hebrew and Greek . The towns of Nazareth and Capernaum, where Jesus lived, were primarily Aramaic-speaking communities, although Greek was widely spoken in the major cities of the Eastern Mediterranean...
- HosheaHosheaSee also Hosea, who has the same name in Biblical Hebrew.Hoshea was the last king of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel and son of Elah . William F. Albright dated reign to 732 – 721 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 732 – 723 BC.Assyrian records basically confirm the Biblical...
, HoseaHoseaHosea was the son of Beeri and a prophet in Israel in the 8th century BC. He is one of the Twelve Prophets of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, also known as the Minor Prophets of the Christian Old Testament. Hosea is often seen as a "prophet of doom", but underneath his message of destruction is a promise... - JosiahJosiahJosiah or Yoshiyahu or Joshua was a king of Judah who instituted major reforms. Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after...
- YahshuaYahshuaYahshua is an argued transliteration of the original Hebrew or Aramaic name of Jesus commonly used by individuals in the Sacred Name Movement....
- YahshuahYahshuahYahshuah is a form of the Hebrew name of Jesus produced by mystical speculation at various periods of history, but which is rejected by mainstream linguistics and textual scholarship in the field of ancient languages. The essential idea is of an alphabetic consonantal framework Y-H-Sh-W-H, which...
- YosephJoseph (name)Joseph is a name originating from Hebrew, recorded in the Hebrew Bible, as יוֹסֵף, Standard Hebrew Yosef, Tiberian Hebrew and Aramaic Yôsēp̄. In Arabic, including in the Qur'an, the name is spelled يوسف or Yūsuf. The name can be translated from Hebrew יהוה להוסיף Yihoh Lhosif as signifying "YHWH...
- YoshuaJoshuaJoshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...