Did you know that there's a chance that no one knows what Jesus' real name was?

Question

First of all, the word Christ is not a last name, like Bob Christ, or anything like that. It is the Greek translation of the word messiah, a title that means "annointed one."

And second, the word Jesus is a derivation of the Aramaic word Yeshua, which can be translated into the name Joseph... or just as easily be translated to mean "the deliverer" or "the saviour."

This means there is a valid argument that can be made that the biblical name Jesus Christ is referring to an unnamed person who was "The annointed saviour" or something to that effect.

To me this lends credence to the idea that there was no Jesus as a person, that he was a literary construct in the same vein as Hercules, Osiris, and Mithras. Or that the person to whom this title was given wasn't important as a mere man, so that aspect of his existence was glossed over and forgotten. It seems entirely possible since the New Testament was compiled centuries after the events that were portrayed in it.

Let the flaming begin! :)

Sorry about that. I actually did mean Joshua was the translation of Yeshua... not Joseph.

All those "J" names start to run together :P

Oh, and I didn't say that the NT was WRITTEN centuries later... I said it was compiled centuries later. And that was from a great number of sources, the only criteria for exclusion being the whims of the church fathers. And this IS well documented.

Answer 1

I think you are right about this, my friend. I have believed for a long time that he was made up, based on a real human being, by folks who never even met the guy but only heard stories. I believe that, due to their religious point-of-views and ignorance, that they (the story tellers and the final writers) embellished what they heard and all this embellishment resulted in the NT version of a non-existent Messiah.

Answer 2

This issue has been debated so many times that it's sickening. You obviously have no understanding of Aramaic, being that Yeshua cannot be translated into the English name Joseph. They are two completely different names. Joseph comes from the Hebrew name "Yosef", meaning "He will add," while Yeshua or more precisely Y'shua comes into English as Jesus and Joshua, but never as Joseph. So the Aramaic title Yeshua M'shikha means "Annointed Salvation". And just to let you know, Yeshua was a fairly common Jewish name during the early centuries C.E. What separated Yeshua the Nazarene from the rest was the fact that he was also called 'Imanu-eyl, meaning "God with us".

Whether you believe he existed or not is between you and God. But your claim that the NT was written centuries after the Messiah is completely unfounded and false. The iron-gall ink in the various extant ancient manuscripts has been dated to the early part of the second century C.E., within 100 years of Christ's death.

Answer 3

Jesus as in Joseph, like named after the man who cared for Him as His earthly father seeing how he was the first born in His family. And His name was Jesus of Nazareth. Most people during that time didn't use last names. They went by the town they were from. Also the meaning of a persons name is very important. Jesus is the Savior therefore His name means Savior. Jacob means deceiver and Jacob of the bible was a deceiver. Chew on this most of the disciples, people closest to the Lord, were killed for preaching the Gospel of Christ. Some many many years after Jesus had been crucified. Why would they give their lives for something that wasn't real. Also Jesus' brother James' bone box was found recently. Because Jesus is real and He lived on this earth and had family. Also it's Christ like as in Jesus the Christ. Not His last name. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18

Answer 4

First of all Yeshua is translated to Joshua not Joseph.

Christ means Messiah and isn't a real last name...ok I think all Christians know that. (or should know it)

Did people even have last names back then? Wouldn't he just have been called "Jesus of Nazareth" or "Jesus of the tribe of Judah"or "Jesus from the house of David" or "Jesus bar Joseph" or something like that? Something related to where he lived or what parent he had or something? But anyways its just a title, like King David....Jesus the Messiah.

As for his first name being Yeshua, it was a common name and if it did mean anointed one then it leads me to believe that was his real name.

Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

Matthew 1:20-23 20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[a] because he will save his people from their sins." 22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"[b]—which means, "God with us."

He was fulfilling prophecy. Kind of narrows down what his name can be.

Answer 5

Jesus' name was Jesus(Yeshua) Bar Joseph (Yusef). Bar was the word meaning "Son of". No one really thinks Jesus' last name was Christ. As you yourself said, the word "Christ" does mean "messiah" or "anointed one" in Greek; so that phrase came into play in Paul's epistles. Paul preached in Greece, so it makes sense that he(Paul) was the first one to refer to Jesus as the Christ. The reason he refered to Jesus that way because Jesus IS the Savior and the promised Messiah.

Answer 6

his family name would have been Ben Joseph. No one has ever thought his family name was Christ

The claim that the form Yeshua is the original name for Jesus is debatable. The English name Jesus derives from the Late Latin name Iesus, which transliterates the Koine Greek name Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs. In the New Testament, this may stand for either Yehoshua or Yeshua or the Greek form itself may be the original name.

In the Septuagint and other Greek-language Jewish texts, such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs is the standard Koine Greek form used to translate both of the Hebrew names: Yehoshua (Joshua) and Yeshua (Jeshua). It was also used to translate Hoshea in some Septuagint verses where this referred to Joshua the son of Nun.

Yeshua was a second Temple period form of the name Yehoshua. All occurrences of it 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).[7] The earlier form Yehoshua did not disappear, however, and was still used in Chronicles when referring to Joshua the son of Nun. [8] The short form Yeshua was used for Jesus son of Sirach in Hebrew fragments of the Book of Sirach. (Some concern remains over whether these fragments faithfully represent the original Hebrew text or are instead a later translation back into Hebrew.) The earlier form Yehoshua saw revived usage from the Hasmonean period and onwards although Yeshua is still found in the letters from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE). Thus, both forms Yehoshua and Yeshua were in use during the Gospel period. No usage of Yeshua is found in the Talmud, except in verbatim quotations from the Hebrew Bible regarding Joshua son of Jehozadak.

Clement of Alexandria and St. Cyril of Jerusalem considered the Greek form Iesous to be the original even going so far as to interpret it as a true Greek name and not simply a transliteration of Hebrew. [9]. Indeed, Greek-speaking communities existed in Israel since the Hellenistic period, and the oldest extant manuscripts of the New Testament are in Koine Greek.

However, the New Testament describes Jesus as part of a Jewish milieu, reading the Hebrew Bible and debating with Pharisees over interpretations of the Jewish legal tradition. The Gospel of Mark may have him speaking Aramaic. Moreover, Eusebius reports that Jesus's student Matthew wrote a gospel "in the Hebrew language" (a term that scholars agree then referred to the contemporary dialect of Hebrew or arguably Aramaic).

An argument in favor of the Hebrew form ישוע Yeshua is that the Old Syriac Bible (c. 200 CE) and the Peshitta preserves this same spelling using the equivalent Aramaic letters ܝܫܘܥ. (The modern Syriac vocalizes the name as Isho, which can be transliterated as יִשׁוֹע, but its ancient pronunciation was similar to Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua .) These texts 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.

Yeshua was used as the name for Jesus in the Yossipon; however, its usage here is a translation back into Hebrew of the Greek. The Toledot Yeshu narratives conflate the people designated Yeshu in the Talmud with Jesus but relate that his original name was, in fact, Yehoshua.

The Arabic name for Jesus used by Christians, YasÅ«‘, derives from Yeshua. However, the Qur'an and other Muslim sources instead use a traditional Islamic title عيسى `Īsā, which can be transliterated as עִישָׂא and seems to derive from the Hebrew name עֵשָׂו ‘Esav, that is, the biblical patriarch Esau. Some Islamic scholars argue that it derives from the original Syriac Aramaic name Isho‘.[10] However, the Aramaic has the letter ‘Ayin only at the end, whereas the Arabic has its equivalent letter ‘Ayn only at the beginning. This metathesis of the Aramaic ‘Ayin is improbable linguistically. Other Islamic scholars accept that the Quranic name is a cognate of Esau and not of Yeshua.

Answer 7

People see Jesus as Jesus. The Christ. The Messiah. I see him as "Yeshua bar Joseph" As his name would have been, had it really been Yeshua.


Who's to say that he isn't just a literary construct. Prove he's not.

Keep it up.

Answer 8

I don't think that Yeshua wasn't a person. I do believe in the story being glossed over, hence the need for parables. men of long ago who decided what would be in the cannon or bible had no idea how it would affect 21st century people. LIFE GOES ON!!!

Answer 9

You bring up an interesting subject , I heard once on a discovery channel program , that back in the same time frame that there were 23 men living in Jerusalum all of whom were named Jesus !

Answer 10

Christ came from KHRIST, Jesus from ISAA or Yeshu /Yeshua.

It can not be translated into Joseph as it was derived from Yusef or Yusuf who was also a prophet.

Therefore it seems that your assumption requires correction.