Are we dishonering Jesus?

Question

Is it a dishoner to call him by an English name (Jesus instead of Yeshua) and to depict him as being Anglo-saxon?

I know the body isn't everything, but isn't his humanness the way people are supposed to be able to connect to him? So shouldn't we depict him the right way, as the right race, and use the correct name?

I know as a little girl I didn't picture a Middle Eastern guy speaking in a foreign language, and I think that actually made me think of him differently than I should have.

Answer 1

I wouldn't stress it. If he's insulted, I'm sure he would have told you...

Answer 2

This is a very interesting question. I do not think the name is as important because people have all different names for God. But in terms of portraying him in the right way, you make a good point. It is clear that Jesus would not have been Anglo-Saxon. I don't know if we are dishonoring Jesus or if we are actually dishonoring a race of people by not portraying him as one of their race.

I do think people get a little too crazy about some of these things sometimes. I thought that chocolate Jesus statue was really neat, and I don't think it's offensive. I saw someone on the news who said that it was offensive because it was anatomically correct. I think that's ridiculous. Wouldn't it be more offensive if he was castrated?? I understand you can have a cloth over the genital area, but come on. It's just a natural part of being a human, and if Jesus was human, it's natural for him to have had male genitals. I don't see what the big deal is with portraying that in a statue. And the chocolate statue looked pretty amazing honestly.

It was like that portrait of the Virgin Mary a few years ago that was in elephant dung where everyone got so mad. But elephant dung is actually used in some cultures in art, and it was not meant to be offensive. People get so stirred up over these things.

What IS very offensive is when people do evil in the name of Jesus. Jesus was a passivist, a peacemarker, and so to do any acts of violence against another person or another country in the name of Jesus is not only offensive but it's heartbreaking and wrong. I think the acts of how we honor Jesus are much more important than the name we call him or the race he is portrayed as or was. Peacemaking, having compassion and love for our fellow humans and animals and the planet, giving of ourselves and forgiving each other is what Jesus was about.

Answer 3

Happy: Jesus [God], is to be worshiped in both, "spirit and truth". It is all about Grace - not RACE !!! Spirituality & Relationship is the focus for Christians - not letter of the Law [legalism] . When you want to really depict Jesus Christ as He is, see the Book of Revelation from the Bibile re: Revelation, chapter 1 verses 13 to 15 ! What Jesus appearence was during His Earthly ministry and what
He appears like now, are opposites. The answer to your question is an emphatic NO - we are nor dishonoring Jesus. Great question !!!

Answer 4

If He cared, He would have left us a record of His *real* name. We don't know for sure how exactly hHis name was pronounced (Yahoshua? Yahshua? Yeshua?...)- it's all just speculation...different scholars have different opinions...but no one knows for sure. In New Testament times, the Apostles had no troubling refering to "Yahweh" as "Kurios" (The Greek word used to represent the tetragrammaton/name of God) and calling Christ "Ieousus". If it's kosher with them, it's kosher with me!
Also, there is a very common myth that "Jesus" is derived from the Greek "Zeus"...but that is a pure myth, circulated by the ignorant. Because of the differences in language, the Hebrew "Yahushua" (or whatever it really was...) was translated into Greek as "Ieousus" because the Greek language does not have the same sounds as hebrews (for instance, there is no "sh" in ancient Greek) and because of the logistics of the language (e.g. it had to have an "s" on the end to make the name masculine in that language...otherwise they would have been calling Him by a feminine name)...the Greek was then later translated into Latin "Iesu" because of the logistics of that language...and eventually filtered down to middle English as "Iesus" (if you look in a real 1611 King James Bible, this is how Jesus is spelled). Eventually, in English, the letter J came on the scene to replace certain sounds that were formerly represented by the "I" (although both the "I" and the later "J" may have originally had a "Y" sound)...and that's how we got "Jesus". Since there were no tape recorders back then, and since languages evolve quite rapidly (the English of today is quite different than it was just 400 years ago), it is just impossible to know the "real names" as originally written.

Answer 5

Christianity, sadly to say, lacks elements of diversity in faith.

i.e. Things like value in diversity was never the forte of the religion.

This is why the religion has fallen into the trap of cultural limits.

People do not relate to things that seem far away from them.

The Europeans have always had a white supremacy inherited from their history. They colonized african and middle eastern cultures, and they made it seem like being dark was the same as being a slave to the white man.

Obviously, the people who followed the religion back then, lacked a LOT of true devoutness and virtue.

And the remnants of their misleading teachings, have still carried on today in our modern world. And were curbed by the indocrination of secularism rather than religious choice in politics.

For good reason.

If the majority of Christians today say: hey dont bother your head with his color and concentrate on his deeds.

Theyre only trying to make up for what people did in the name of his skin color, ages ago and are very naive to think history can be erased like that.

Answer 6

Some argue that we should, but clearly, the practice of the early church was to TRANSLATE the name. "Iesous," from which "Jesus" was derived, is simply the Greek TRANSLATION of his name.

In ancient times names usually had a meaning.This has been lost for the last several centuries, which leaves us with people talking about making the names SOUND THE SAME while IGNORING THE MEANING.

Answer 7

Remeber in Matthew 15: where Jesus referenced Isaiah 29:13, where He spoke of those who honor Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him? Honor Him in your heart and with your life and don't quibble over words. There are those today who say you MUST say His name in Hebrew or He won't hear you, but then that would mean you needed more than faith.

Answer 8

You know how many names Jesus is refered to as?

Jesus, Yeshua, Joshua, Messiah, Lord, Prince of Peace, Christ, iehoa(latin), God..........i dont think he minds.

Answer 9

Don't get caught up in legalism. It was Christ's message to the Pharisees and to all of us tody. Practice relationship not religion.

Answer 10

Yes, I think depicting him in a more accurate light would be better.

Answer 11

Its okay, were just trying to learn, but watch out some people are disusing it in a unpleasant manor.