The Original Name of Jesus – What’s in A Name?

The Original Name of Jesus – What’s in A Name?

What’s in a Name? The Journey from Yeshua to Jesus

Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. – Matthew 1:24-25

Across the ages, there have been debates about the name of Jesus Christ as we know it today. The critics of the choice of His nomenclature based their argument on the fact that Jesus was not actually the given name of Christ, it was something else.

While that is true, the real question is, what’s in a name?

This question takes us back to the first-century Galilee. This was the world Jesus called home, where He grew up, preached, healed, and walked its dusty roads. It is important to note that the language of the Galileans and the people during Jesus’ time was not English, Greek, or even the Hebrew of the Scriptures. It was Aramaic. That was the everyday tongue of Jewish families after centuries of empires and migration.

So, what was Jesus actually called in His own day? Scholars point out that His name in Aramaic was “Yeshua,” a name common among many Galilean boys. Some traditions even shortened it further to “Yeshu.” This tells us that the name we cherish today, “Jesus,” has traveled a long way through history, translation, and faith.

While the journey of Jesus’ name began as Yeshua in Hebrew, it evolved into Greek as “Iesous” and then into Latin as “Iesus”. Each evolution of the name reshaped the sound because those languages did not have the same letters or sounds as Jesus’ own native Aramaic. The Greek tongue, for example, lacked both the “Y” and the “sh” sounds, so “Yeshua” was adapted into something the alphabet could handle.

Centuries later, yes, you read that right, it was hundreds of years later when the letter “J” entered the English language that “Iesus” finally became “Jesus.” In fact, early copies of the King James Bible, printed in 1611, still used the old spelling “Iesus.”

All this means that the name “Jesus,” as we know it today, is relatively new in history. Yet the truth behind it has never changed. Whether spoken as Yeshua, Iesous, or Jesus, the name carries the same saving and healing power.

While Jesus’ actual name may have shifted across time and cultures, the Person remains the same. He is the Savior, the Messiah, and the Son of God.

So, what’s in a name? Even as we have seen through the eyes of history how “Yeshua” became “Jesus,” Heaven has shown us something greater over the years:

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore, whatever language, whatever culture, whatever situation, whenever His people genuinely call on Him, He answers.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14

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Jesus Christ: The Fulfilment of Prophecy

Jesus Christ: The Fulfilment of Prophecy

Jesus Christ the Fulfilment of Prophecy: Over 300 Promises Kept in Him

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” – Matthew 1:22-23

Another interesting fact we need to note about Jesus is the number of prophecies that He alone fulfilled. He was an embodiment of prophecies through and through.

Scholars claim that He alone fulfilled approximately 300 prophecies made at different times in the Old Testament, some of which were made thousands and hundreds of years before He was even born.

The predictions made about Jesus dated back to the Garden of Eden when God proclaimed that the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Subsequent encounters between God and His people have also led to references to His coming or His activities on earth, even though the full extent of His mandate has been misunderstood to date by those of His earthly race and those millions of others who claim to follow Him. Notwithstanding, the number of foretells about Him alone is stupendous, and no other person in history commanded such spotlights as Him.

That is why the Scripture says, all the promises of God in Him are both ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ (2 Corinthians 1:20), because He fulfils them all.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14

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The Origin of Jesus – Conception through Ultra Radioactive Technology

The Origin of Jesus – Conception through Ultra Radioactive Technology

The Origin of Jesus – Conception through Supra-Radioactive Technology

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. – Matthew 1:18

Although He was born to a woman, Jesus was not conceived through a natural or biological means. Further, His pregnancy was not conceived like any other pregnancy on earth. In this tech age, His conception can best be described as a consequence of a supra-nuclear or radioactive technology. The kind of innovation that is not yet known to earth or accessible to science.

Read the description below, as His mother was being informed what would happen to her:

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. – Luke 1:35

This passage attests to the point that the conception of Jesus occurred through a highly advanced technology, which resulted from a dynamic combination of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and her being encapsulated by the power of God. There is no record of anyone being born in this manner before Jesus or after Him, despite the vast advancements in science and technology in modern times.

And while there has been significant progress in this age that has led to nuclear or radioactive medicine, a highly specialized field that uses a modicum of radioactive materials to diagnose and treat various medical conditions, it has not advanced to the height of pregnancy conception as described in the above passage.

Therefore, Jesus remains the only person ever conceived through this means because He is of God. The interesting thing is that God has proven to be above all in the business of creation. While Eve remains the one and only human ever to be cloned into existence [please read How God Creates: Creating by Extraction], Jesus also remains the only one ever to be conceived through a nuclear means.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14

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The Imperfect Background of Jesus Christ

The Imperfect Background of Jesus Christ

The Imperfect Genealogy of Jesus Christ: What His Lineage Teaches Us About Grace

Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. – Matthew 1:2-6

Even though He came into the world through a virgin birth and He lived a pure life all through His 33 years on earth, Jesus nevertheless did not have a similar stainless origin.

By the mere fact of coming to earth through a biological process, it is already predisposed that He was bound to have imperfections in His background because the earth, this hemisphere where we humans exist, is only inhabited by imperfect people. There is no perfect person living or who has lived on earth. No, not one. Incidentally, only Jesus Himself had the singular honor of living without sinning. Every other person who had lived before or after Him had failed and fallen at some point in their evolution as a human being.

That is why it is not surprising that in the lineage of Jesus were recorded such social maladies as incest, prostitution, outcast, generational curse, confusion, murder, and adultery. In fact, every time a woman was mentioned in His genealogy as seen in Matthew 1:2 16, it was because there were some abnormalities surrounding the referenced women.

The first woman so referenced was Tamar, who had to sleep with her father-in-law in order to have her own children after the death of her husband. The next woman was Rahab, a very well-known prostitute and a heathen, who nonetheless made enough of an impression on Salmon and gave birth to Boaz for him. Boaz himself followed his father’s footsteps by marrying Ruth, a Moabitess, an accursed tribe, not to mention that Moab itself was a product of incest between father and daughter.

Finally, and perhaps more shocking, was the involvement of David, a great king, the sweet psalmist of Israel and a man after God’s own heart, who had an adulterous affair with the wife of one of his warriors and had the husband killed at the battlefront when he discovered the woman was pregnant.

This, with some confusion thrown into the mix as to which of David’s sons Jesus actually came from, whether it is the womanizing Solomon (Matthew 1) or the unknown Nathan (Luke 3:23-38), adds to the imperfections in the origin of Jesus Christ.

But, through all this, God is perhaps teaching us a lesson we have often heard but do not seem to have imbibed as evidenced in our reactions to scandals or someone’s fall, that imperfections are the mosaic He uses to weave a great destiny as well as accomplish great things on the earth.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14

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The Origin of Jesus Christ – Whose Son was He?

The Origin of Jesus Christ – Whose Son was He?

The Origin of Jesus Christ: Tracing His Lineage to David and Abraham

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. – Matthew 1:1

While we generally accept Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God who came to the earth to fulfill the important mission of redemption and reconciling humankind back with God in a father-child relationship, just as God intended right from the beginning, it is also important to note that Jesus would not have been able to accomplish His mission on earth if He hadn’t come in human form.

It takes an earthling to dwell on the earth. For the duration of time He had to live to complete His assignment on earth, Jesus essentially needed to operate in a human form, even though He was divinity and of God. And, since being an earthling requires traceability, Jesus had to come to earth through the lineage of David, of the tribe of Judah, with Abraham as His earthly ancestor.

That is why, even though there were several generations between Abraham and David, as well as David and Jesus, the writer of the gospel in our reference passage today highlighted the three of them first as the most prominent in their genealogy: Abraham, the ancestor; David, the father; and Jesus, the Son. That is why Jesus was sometimes addressed as the Son of David by people in His time, because He came from a prominent family tree, the lineage of David, an illustrious king in ancient Israel, and someone attested by God as a man after His own heart [1 Samuel 13:14].

To be continued…

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14

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You can now partner with the Daily Dew Ministry by clicking here