Why Jesus and not Joshua?

Question

Why isn't Jesus' name, in the English Bible, Joshua which is the CORRECT Hebrew tranlation to English? Why does it have to be in Greek?

Answer 1

There is not one correct transliteration from Hebrew to English (consider the many different spellings of the word "Qaballah"). And if you were to pronounce the Greek correctly, it would be "Yay-soos"; transliterated correctly, it would be "Iesous". As for the Hebrew: according to a certain Christian fundamentalist I knew, Jesus' name was spelled "yod he vau he shin vau ayin" in Hebrew, which would be pronounced "Yahwehshwer" (the last syllable pronounced like "er", as in "feather").

I think the subject is important, because the name actually represents the person: that is, it is often the *replacer* of the person Jesus. As Ludwig Feuerbach wrote;

"men, when they know the word, the name for a thing, fancy that they know the thing also. [...] to the ancients, as children of the imagination, the Word was a being – a mysterious, magically powerful being. Even the Christians, and not only the vulgar among them, but also the learned, the Fathers of the Church, attached to the mere name Christ, mysterious powers of healing. [...] The word is the light of the world. The word guides to all truth, unfolds all mysteries, reveals the unseen, makes present the past and the future, defines the infinite, perpetuates the transient. Men pass away, the word remains; the word is life and truth. All power is given to the word: the word makes the blind see and the lame walk, heals the sick, and brings the dead to life; the word works miracles, and the only rational miracles. The word is the gospel, the paraclete [comforter] of mankind. [...] The word has power to redeem, to reconcile, to bless, to make free. [...] religion takes the *appearance* of the human word for its essence; hence it necessarily conceives the true nature of the Word to be a special being, distinct from the human word."
[The Essence of Christianity, Chapter VII.]

The name "Jesus" has a distinct character - a unique personality. Because people are used to it, changing the name would change their idea of the man. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet; but do you envision a rose when I call it a rhodon?

Answer 2

Technically you are right and wrong. Yes Jesus name in Hebrew is Joshua, but the New Testament was written in Greek.

The King James Version translates all the Hebrew names into Greek, though I have no problem with other English translations I do not know why this changed. Examples, Isaiah - Isaius, Jeremiah - Jeremy, Elijah - Elias.

I agree that any specific version of the Bible should be consistent in the use of naming, I'm not sure why they did not change Jesus to Joshua in newer versions of English bibles, perhaps they tried and people didn't like it.

I think it is perhaps because the name Joshua was already in use for boys after the King James was written but not Jesus, so they did not want to switch from Jesus to Joshua in the Bible to profane his name by naming human children after him, though there is nothing wrong with it. Today I think only hispanics name their children Jesus. Until the 1800s it was considered wrong to name a girl Mary.

Answer 3

Should it matter to you?
Besides it helps to make a distinction between the OT Joshua and the NT Christ.

Also, Christ and almost all of the Jews at that time didn't speak Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic, and the Apostles and disciples of the Christ mostly used Greek when they preached the new faith to appeal to a greater audience. There were more Gentile Christians than Jewish ones even at the beginning of the new faith, which means that the Greek pronunciation of the name would be more dominant.

Answer 4

Because English wasn't even invented yet when Jesus lived on Earth. The New Testament was written in Greek, because that was the language of the people in that day. The idea was to get the maximum exposure for the new ideas contained in the NT.

Answer 5

Because most of the New Testament was written in Greek, and that's where the translations come from. If Yeshua was speaking to greeks in his time, and he undoubtedly did, they would have called him Jesus (Yeshus) because that's their version of the name - like Anthony in English is Antonio in Italian or Spanish, John in Portuguese (at least Brasil) is Jaou, and Juan in Spanish, etc.
You can call him by either name and he'll be okay with it.
Also interesting to note that in Hebrew, Yeshua Messiah's name is spelled by adding the letter shin into the center of YHVH, and shin's kabbalistic meaning is fire, and the Master did say I will baptise you with fire, by which he meant the Holy Spirit.
Blessings!

Answer 6

Because somewhere along the way someone screwed up the original meaning of the word just like they did with 90% of the bible. I'll guarantee you that there are millions of people you could put this information in front of and show them proof that the translation is incorrect and they won't believe you. They swear the bible was written in English from the first.

Answer 7

Yehoshua is rendered Joshua, even if that is nonetheless a good question to ask your self why Yeshua isn't rendered as Jeshua. the answer is probable via actual undeniable actuality that the old testomony is Hebrew and the hot became fairly written in Greek. i?sou were given translated as Jesus and the answer lies contained in the translation mind-set to the early church. i'm gazing for a more effective positive answer for this.

Answer 8

jesus means horse. Joshua contains the correct name by which we may be saved. The translators were so bad they cant get something as important as the messiahs name right. Or even close and you think a name is a trivial thing. jesus is a horse of a different color.

Answer 9

Because the Bible was written in several lauguages.
Greek, Hebrew & Aramaic.

The Name was Lost in the translation, I guess!

Answer 10

Because at the time of baptism you are given a new name. For most Christians it is their middle name. When John the Baptist preformed the ritual Joshua became Jesus.