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Yeshua
"Yeshua" is Jesus' name in Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages he spoke; in his thirty-some years on earth people called him Yeshua. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Near East after Alexander's conquests (331-323 B.C.E.). The word "Jesus" represents the efforts of English-speakers to pronounce the name of the Messiah as it appears in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, "lêsous". And the word "Iêsous" represents the ancient Greek-speakers' attempts at pronouncing "Yeshua". The Hebrew word for "he will save" (Matthew 1:21) is "yoshia", which has the same Hebrew root as the name Yeshua. Thus the Messiah's name is explained on the basis of what he will do. Etymologically the name Yeshua is a contraction of the Hebrew name Y'hoshua (English "Joshua"), which means "YHVH saves". It is also the masculine form of the Hebrew word "yeshu'ah", which means "salvation". |