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
Also read:
- Jesus Christ: The Fulfilment of Prophecy
- The Sensitivity of the Altar: Serving God on His Terms, Not Ours
- And Then the Rains Came: Finding God’s Peace After Life’s Storms
- Men in the Bible: Adam – A Man with A Large Heart
- The King With Four Wives
- I Could Feel a Fresh Anointing
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