And You Shall Call His Name Jesus
Our savior's name is in fact not Jesus for the name Jesus was not adopted until about five hundred years ago, and the letter 'J' didn't even exist in the Greek text. Keeping in mind that the son of God was born roughly over 2000 years ago, how could his name be Jesus?
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The Bible is one of the most widely printed and distributed book ever. It has been translated into many different languages. Our modern day bible is a collection of 66 books split into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament was written mainly in Greek and the Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew.
Let's start with the New Testament. Matthew 1:21 says,
"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
In The New Testament, what we translate in English as Jesus would be "le-sous" in Greek. Now the Greeks were translating this word "le-sous" from Hebrew. This was their best attempt at translating the Hebrew name Yeshua, which is similar to the name Joshua. The "Yesh" in Yeshua kinda sounds like a "J" sound if you say it fast a couple of times in a row.
Now in the Old testament the name Jesus isn't specifically mentioned, but there are instances where the name Yeshua or Joshua is referred to, although these references aren't to Jesus Christ but other individuals in the Bible. Consider this though. In the Jewish culture names had great meaning. Every name had a meaning and the name Yeshua was no exception. Yeshua means "God Saves" or "to liberate" or "salvation". Quite a fitting name for Jesus. There are many instances in the Old Testament where it talks about salvation. Isaiah 12:2 says,
'Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation."
Also David talks about salvation in Psalms 9:13-14,
"Be gracious to me, O LORD; See my affliction from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death, 14That I may tell of all Your praises, That in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation."
Therefore if Jesus means le-sous which means Yeshua which means salvation, then you could use them interchangeably. So the Old Testament kinda does have Jesus' name in it.
This may be a bit overwhelming! How do I decide which name to use?! Well, salvation is about a relationship with Christ. When you know someone, I mean really know them, of course you know their name. It might not be the name they were born with, but if it is what they go by or what they have accepted you to call them, then that's what you would use. I guess what I'm trying to say is, even though Jesus as we know him was literally called by Yeshuah or le-sous in his time, we know him as Jesus so thats what we call him.
Maybe you have heard of Jesus, but you don't really know him. You don't really have an intimate, genuine relationship with him. I encourage you to check out my section "What must I do to be saved?"
