The name Jesus

THE NAMES JESUS, IESOUS, AND YESHUA

In the New Testament the name of the central character is written in Greek as Iesous. In the first Latin translation of the Biblical texts known as the Vulgate the name became Latinized and appeared as Iesus. This is also the spelling used in the early editions of the first English translation, the King James version of the Bible which appeared in 1611. However there was a change in late Latin whereby initial 'I' had become pronounced and written as 'J', and from about 1629 this was reflected in the King James version. From then on the name was spelled in English as we know it today, Jesus.

The New Testament Iesous is generally taken to be a transliteration of Yeshua, a personal name current in the Aramaic language used throughout Palestine at that time. Behind that lies the more formal Hebrew name Yehoshua, although that form would probably not have been used in everyday life.

It is likely that the New Testament Iesous does stand for Yeshua, but can we be certain that Yeshua is in fact a personal name? The name Yeshua has a meaning - 'Ya saves' - and there is the possibility that Yeshua could be a pseudonym, or even a nom de guerre. A leader might well choose to be identifed with a pseudonym which has relevance to his mission.

Political and religious pseudonyms are commonplace. In modern times we have:

• Stalin (Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili)
• Tito (Josip Broz)
• Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen Sinh Cung)
• Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat)
• Abu Nour (Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi)
• John Paul II (Karol Jozef Wojtyla)

In the New testament period we have:

• Herod (applied to many descendants of 'King Herod', e.g., Antipas and Philip the tetrarchs, but not a formal title)
• Caesar (not an official title, used for all Roman rulers)
• Paul (Saul)
• Cephas ('rock', Simon Peter)
• Boanerges ('sons of thunder', the disciples James and John)
• Barnabas, Barabbas, etc.
• Bartholomew ('son of Tolmai' = 'son of Ptolemy' = 'Egyptian')
• Teacher of Righteousness (from the Dead Sea Scrolls)
• Spouter of Lies (from the Dead Sea Scrolls)

It is also worth bearing in mind that the term 'Saviour' is often used within the Christian church as a pseudonym for Jesus.

In practical terms whether Jesus is a personal name or a pseudonym not does not matter, except we should bear in mind that there is always the possibility that someone referred to by a different name in a different context could in fact be the same person as the New Testament Jesus.

For example we may reject the equation of Jesus with the crucified Judas the Galilean mentioned by Josephus, but we should do it on the historical evidence, not just because they bear different names.