{"id":12467,"date":"2025-01-28T12:05:42","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T17:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12467"},"modified":"2025-02-21T13:29:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T18:29:02","slug":"scientists-make-big-claim-on-the-real-name-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/scientists-make-big-claim-on-the-real-name-of-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Make Big Claim on the \u201creal\u201d Name of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The name of Jesus is possibly one of the most familiar first names throughout the world, but scientists are pointing out that \u201cJesus\u201d would not have been the name humanity\u2019s savior would have been known by during his own time. Raised as a first century Jew, Jesus\u2019s primary language would not have been English. \u201cWe cannot know for sure which languages Jesus spoke. However, given his family background in Nazareth, we can assume his day-to-day language was Aramaic,\u201d said<\/a> Professor Dineke Houtman of the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands. Further evidence of Jesus speaking in Aramaic can be found in the Greek Gospels, where Jesus is quoted using Aramaic words such as \u201cAbba\u201d for \u201cFather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the hard \u201cj\u201d sound did not exist in Aramaic, Houtman stated that \u201cYeshua\u201d was the most likely name. Archaeologist Rachel Hachlili agreed in her own study, allowing for the shortened version of Yeshua, Yeshu, as a possibility. Yeshua or its variations would have been very common in Jesus\u2019 day. Scientists have also struggled with coming up with possible candidates for Jesus\u2019s last name, which would not have been \u201cChrist,\u201d which served as a title for \u201cGod\u2019s anointed one\u201d or \u201cMessiah.\u201d 1st<\/sup> century names often focused on family heritage, such as where a person came from. \u201cIn the ancient world, most people didn\u2019t have a last name as we understand it today. Instead, they were identified through other means, such as their parentage, place of origin, or other distinguishing characteristics,\u201d said historian Dr Marko Marina, from the\u00a0University of Zagreb. Dr. Marina cited \u201cJohn, the son of Zebedee\u201d or \u201cMary Magdalene\u201d as examples, with “Magdalene” possibly meaning Mary came from the region of Magdala. Since Jesus is often referred to as \u201cJesus of Nazareth,\u201d scientists believe his last name would have been referred to as \u201cNazarene,\u201d making his full Aramaic name Yeshua or Yeshu Nazareen.<\/p>\n

Yeshua would eventually become \u201cJesus\u201d through the process of transliteration, which tries to translate the sounds from one language to the sounds of another. One example would be transliterating Mandarin words into English, with both languages having very distinct alphabets. Rather than simply translating the Mandarin symbol for \u201chello\u201d into English, a transliteration would make the word \u201cNi Hao\u201d to demonstrate how the word sounds in Mandarin. When Greek translators began work on the New Testament, they already had a precedent to follow from the Old Testament, which had been translated from Hebrew into Greek. \u201cBy the first century CE there was already a precedent for transliterating the Aramaic name Yeshua as Iesous,\u201d said Candida Moss, an expert on early Christianity from the University of Birmingham. \u201cSo, when Paul and the evangelists refer to Jesus – Yeshu\/a – they use the already established Greek equivalent of Iesous with an \u2018s\u2019 sound at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the New Testament was translated into Latin there was another slight shift, this time as Iesous was transliterated to Iesus. In the 16th<\/sup> century, \u201cI\u201d and \u201cJ\u201d were interchangeable, with Italian grammarian Gian Giorgio Trissino\u00a0eventually distinguishing the familiar \u201cj\u201d sound so that by the 17th<\/sup> century \u201cJesus\u201d had become the common name. Jesus\u2019s actual name has been a source of contention in some Christian groups, with some pushing to refer to Jesus as only \u201cYeshua\u201d at the risk of worshipping the wrong person. Yet, according to<\/a> the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry (CARM), it\u2019s not the exact name but the recognition of who Jesus is: \u201cSome say that if we don’t pronounce Jesus’ name properly … then we are in sin and serving a false god; but that accusation cannot be made from Scripture.\u00a0It is not the pronunciation of a word that makes us Christian or not.\u00a0It is receiving the Messiah, God in flesh, by faith that makes us a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The name of Jesus is possibly one of the most familiar first names throughout the world, but scientists are pointing out that \u201cJesus\u201d would not have been the name humanity\u2019s savior would have been known by during his own time. Raised as a first century Jew, Jesus\u2019s primary language would not have been English. \u201cWe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":12617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nScientists Make Big Claim on the \u201creal\u201d Name of Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the history of Jesus's name, from its Aramaic roots as "Yeshua" to the transliterations that shaped the name we know today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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