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'Yeshua (ישוע) or Jeshua is believed by many to be the Hebrew or Aramaic name for Jesus. It is extensively used by followers of Messianic Judaism, as well as by others who wish to use what they believe to be the original pronunciation of Jesus' name.

Etymology

The name was common - the Hebrew Bible mentions ten individuals with this name. It is derived from the three-letter root yod-shin-`ayin which has the meaning of "to save", but the name is not identical to the word "salvation" (y'shu`ah) or to any verb form such as "he will save" (yoshia`). It does not contain part of the name of God YHWH as the name Yehoshua` (Joshua) appears to do, although this name (yod-he-vav-shin-`ayin) could be considered a third person imperfect hiph`il verbal form of the same yod-shin-`ayin root.

Pronunciation

The name was pronounced with a tsere, a long e as in "neighbor" (but not diphthongized) not with a schwa (as Y'shua) or segol (Yesh-shua). The final consonant of the name was the voiced pharyngeal fricative consonant `ayin, sometimes transcribed by "`" (Yeshua`) The "a" represents the patach genuvah ("furtive" patach) indicating the diphthongization of the "u" vowel due to the effect of the final `ayin - in simple terms the "a" is not an additional syllable but indicates a modification of the "u" vowel which due to the `ayin was pronounced somewhat like the oo of English moor as opposed to that of food.

Yeshua as the original name for Jesus

The claim that the form Yeshua is the original name for Jesus is debatable - other possibilities are that it was Yehoshua or that the Greek form itself was the original (Greek speaking communities existed in Israel already during the Hellenistic period and moreover our oldest manuscripts of the New Testament are in Greek). However, Jesus and his milieu normally spoke Aramaic, and Eusebius reports that Matthew wrote a gospel in "Hebrew" (a term used at the time for either Aramaic, or the Hebrew language proper). There is also evidence that the Gospel of John was originally written in Aramaic.

In the Septuagint and Greek language Jewish texts such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Iēsoûs is the standard Greek form of the name Yehoshua (Joshua). Yeshua, although also rendered Iēsoûs in the Septuagint, appears to be a shortened form of Yehoshua in the dialect spoken at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and not undisputedly attested in other periods. All occurrences of the term in the Hebrew Bible are in Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. Two of the people bearing this name are mentioned in other books where they are instead called Yehoshua (Joshua son of Nun and Joshua son of Jehozadak). The name is used for Jesus son of Sirach in Hebrew fragments of the Book of Sirach. Based on comparison of texts, scholars agree that the book was originally written in Hebrew but some concern remains over whether the fragments faithfully represent the original Hebrew text. If accurate this would extend evidence of the usage of the name to the early second century BCE. No usage of the name is found in the Talmud except in verbatim quotations from the Hebrew Bible regarding Joshua son of Jehozadak. The name Yehoshua however is used for numerous individuals from the Hasmonean period and onwards.

An argument in favor of the form Yeshua is that the name used for Jesus in the Old Syriac Bible (c. 200 CE) and the Peshitta has the same spelling as Hebrew Yeshua. (The modern Syriac pronunciation of this is Eesho but ancient pronunciation was similar to Yeshua`.) These were translated from the Greek but the name is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form (it has "sh" instead of "s" and ends with the pharyngeal `ayin not found in Greek). It can be argued that the Aramaic speakers who used this name could have had a continuous connection to the Aramaic speaking disciples of Jesus and thus preserved the actual name used for him. Even if derived from Hebrew Yeshua, the possibility that it was simply chosen based on the correspondence between Iēsoûs and Yeshua in the Septuagint cannot be ruled out.

The Arabic name for Jesus used by Christians, Yasū`, is derived from Yeshua but it is not the name used for Jesus in the Qur'an and other Muslim sources. The traditional Islamic name for Jesus is `Isa (`ayn-ya-sin-ya). This superficially resembles the Hebrew name `Esav (Esau, `ayin-sin-vav). Juferi argues that it is derived from the Aramaic `Eesho which he regards as the original name. However, the Aramaic has `ayin only at the end, whereas the Arabic has `ayn only at the beginning.

The Chinese name for Jesus, 耶穌 (pronounced Ye Su in Mandarin and Ye So in Cantonese), also uses Yeshua as the basis for pinyin.

References

1. Price, James D. Yehoshua, Yeshua or Yeshu; Which one is the name of Jesus in Hebrew?, accessed March 6, 2006.
2. [Juferi, Mohd Elfie Nieshaem The Name of Jesus (pbuh), accessed March 6, 2006

See also

• Yahshua
• Yahshuah

External links

• Exposing the "Yeshu'a" Name Game A counter missionary article that argues that it is far from proven that the original name of Jesus was Yeshua and moreover unlikely.
• Who is Yeshua Ha Moshiach?
• A different view of the name YeshuaThe name and the history

• Jesus
• Jewish Christian topics