Is The Name of Jesus Pagan

Is The Name of Jesus Pagan?

by Matthew Janzen

PREFACE

There have been many comments on the article below concerning the name of the Messiah. Some have been pro some have been con, all have been sincerely given by those in agreement or in opposition. I do feel a need to make clarification on some things so as not to lead people in the wrong direction. I felt I made myself clear enough, but what a person feels he does is not necessarily true in all circumstances, in the ears of other people.

There is absolutely no evidence that the name of Jesus is of pagan origin. This belief stems from an ignorance of the languages of the Bible. However, this does not mean that we should adopt calling the Messiah by the name of Jesus. That is not the intention of the article below. There are people who have approached me after reading my article and asked “So why don’t you use the name Jesus?” This seems they are wondering why I use the name Yeshua after reading my article. Clarification is in then in order.

I refer to the Messiah by the name of Yeshua because that is His name - His name is not pronounced Jesus (Gee-zus). The Messiah was a Hebrew man from the tribe of Judah who was given a Hebrew name by His Mother. It gives Him honor and respect to call Him by His given name rather than using a name He was not given and never referred to by those living around Him at the time. We respect people such as George W. Bush by calling him that no matter what country he ventures to. In China, people call him George W. Bush, the same can be said in Germany, Portugal, Asia, Africa, etc. All around the world this is what people call him because this is his given name and it is respectful to call a person by their name. How much more should we respect the Messiah in calling Him by His name no matter what language we speak? If everyone in the world can say George Bush, even though they do not speak English, why can’t we say Yeshua when we find out that this is the Messiah’s name, even though our inherent language is English? If I told someone my name was Matthew, but they said they would call me a variant - Matt - because that was better for them, I would wonder if they respected me, seeing I told them my name was Matthew and that’s what I want to be called. If a person truly respected my wishes he would call me Matthew and not think twice about it. He would not continue to disregard my wishes and call me Matt or something other than Matthew.

This being said, those of us in English can say the name Yeshua, after all, we use a name very much akin to it a lot when reading the Bible passages in reference to the Son of Nun by saying Joshua. The name Joshua and Jesus are written identical in Hebrew and Greek yet we say Joshua for the Son of Nun and Jesus for the Messiah. If our Bibles can contain Joshua (more correctly Yeshua) for the Son of Nun, why can’t they contain Yeshua for the Messiah? Isn’t this the Messiah’s given name? Do we wish to honor Him by calling Him the name He was given?

The same goes for a name like Sally. If a woman approached me and said her name was Sally, and she was an American, English-speaking woman, I would not try to tell her that her name was something else in Hebrew. Her name would be Sally, period. I would respect her by calling her by her given English name, and not another I deemed more appropriate.

Friends, the Messiah was not English, He was a Hebrew man who’s name was Yeshua. Do you respect Him enough to call Him by His given name? Or do you seek to do what is easiest for you or more agreeable to society?

This article has been taken by some to mean that we can call the Messiah by the name of Jesus, as it is commonly pronounced in the 21st century. Honestly, that is not my intentions in writing the article. I do not believe people should call the Messiah Jesus. The purpose of the article is just as the title says, “Is the Name of Jesus Pagan?” That’s the title, and that’s the purpose. People have been turned away from the truth of the Messiah’s name and the Father’s name because of poor Bible study and teaching and an ignorance of Biblical languages. They realize the falsehood behind such statements that people calling on the name of Jesus are calling on Zeus, Bacchus or Dionysius. Because of this false teaching, people have continued to use the name Jesus. When the truth is dealt with concerning this name, people ought to be able to see the real reason why we should call Yeshua by His name. It’s not because Jesus is pagan, but rather because Jesus is not the Messiah’s name. His name is Yeshua, and we English people ought to respect our Hebrew Messiah even in this regard.

Personally, after thinking this through even more since being approached with questions, will begin to refer to all the people in the Bible by their given names instead of the sounds that come through Greek to Latin to Old English, and finally to modern English. While the Messiah deserves our utmost respect, He being Yahweh’s only begotten Son, I feel other major players in Scripture deserve our respect as well, if even to a lesser degree. If we are going to be consistent then we should call people by their given name to show them respect, just like everybody does with George Bush or any other high ranking figure in the world.

Check out http://www.yashua.org/TheName.html for a modern parable explaining the use of the original name of the Messiah.

Matthew Janzen

Many people in what is commonly known as the Sacred Name Movement have taken the stand that the name which the current English versions of our Bible give as the name of the Messiah is a name of pagan or heathen origin. I have heard or read, by different people, that the name Jesus is a derivative of names Zeus or Dionysius; Zeus being the chief sky god of the Greeks, Dionysius being the son of Zeus.

On the surface we may notice there is a similarity, in some sense, between the sound of the name Jesus and the sound of the names above. The easiest similarity is found in the ending portion of the names with the -us sound. What we need to ask ourselves is this --- is the fact that the name Jesus sounds similar or looks similar in any way to the name of certain pagan deities throughout time evidence that this is where the name originated? That is the question we will attempt to answer in this short article.

I realize the evidence presented in this article will not sit well with most sacred name advocates, nevertheless, every organization I’m aware of has at least some kind of tradition they need to rid themselves of. If this article does not make me “popular” in the eyes of certain people then so be it. Yahweh has called me to preach His word whether it’s popular or not. We must be true to His word, and not to the traditions of men. (Matthew 15; Mark 7)

Yehoshua

I would like to begin our search with the Hebrew name Yehoshua. This is the name that was given to the man who took the place of Moses after his death, to lead the children of Israel. It can be found in the book of Numbers 13:16 which reads:

These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.

Here Moses calls the name of the son of Nun - Jehoshua - or without the English letter J we have the name Yehoshua. Yehoshua’s name beforehand was Oshea spelled in the Hebrew language – הוֹשֵׁעַ. The significance of this is that the name change, made by Moses, was a very minute name change. Moses actually added only one single letter to Oshea’s name. This letter is the Hebrew letter yod. The name Yehoshua in the Hebrew language appears as follows: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ. Once again, notice, that the letter at the beginning of this name (Hebrew being read from right to left) is a very small letter and this letter in Hebrew is called a yod. What Moses did was take a man’s name that meant deliverer or salvation, and changed it to mean Yahweh delivers or Yahweh saves.

The name that Moses gave to the sun of Nun in Numbers 13:16 can be directly transliterated from Hebrew to English quite easily, and we can come up with the name Yehoshua. This is done by taking each letter in the Hebrew name and bringing them down into the corresponding letters in the English language, and also bringing down the appropriate vowel pointing from Hebrew to English.

What we need to do now is acknowledge that the name Yehoshua itself is definitely not the name of a pagan deity at all, but rather a name which means Yahweh saves or delivers, and is the name chosen by the man Moses for the sun of Nun.

Yeshua

Now that we have established Yehoshua as the name of the son of Nun we need to also establish that the son of Nun’s name is Yeshua. “Wait a minute!” you may say, “That’s a double standard!” Before you make such an assertion and accusation, please allow me to explain why I believe both Yehoshua and Yeshua is the name of the son of Nun. Let us begin here by quoting the text of Nehemiah 8:17:

And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.

Notice that the son of Nun is mentioned in this Nehemiah passage. Yes, this is the same man mentioned in Numbers 13:16, spoken of as Oshea and Yehoshua. Here, the KJV of the Bible refers to him as just - Jeshua. Once again, by removing the English letter "J" and replacing it with a Y causes us to get the name Yeshua. In the Hebrew language this name reads as follows: יֵשׁוּעַ. This name in Hebrew has the meaning of “he will save”. What we are looking at here is simply a contracted form of the name Yehoshua into Yeshua. Some comparisons may be found in the name Robert to Bob, Jonathon to John, Samuel to Sam, etc. The son of Nun was called Yeshua in Nehemiah 8:17, and because of that Hebrew rendering we know it was an appropriate practice for people to call him that at the time of the restoration of Jerusalem upon the Jews return from the Babylonian captivity, as recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Evidently, when they said Yeshua, meaning “he will save”, they understood the he had the meaning of Yahweh will save, as is the definition or meaning of the name Yehoshua. For those who may be skeptic of my saying that Yeshua is a contraction from Yehoshua, allow me to quote from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament.

יֵשׁוּעַ [Jeshua], a contracted form of the pr. n. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ used in the later Hebrew, Gr. Ίησοΰς – (1) of Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, Nehemiah 8:17 – (2) of a high priest of the same name; see יְהוֹשֻׁעַ No. 2, Ezra 2:2; 3:2; Nehemiah 7:7 – (3) pr. n. of other men, mentioned in the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

Here we see that not only can we know that Yeshua is a contraction of Yehoshua from Hebrew Scripture, but we also see that much more learned men, such as H.W.F. Gesenius’ (a Hebrew linguist) understand this as well. Therefore we see that Yeshua is simply a shortened form of the name Yehoshua, much as we said before, as Sam is a shortened form of the name Samuel. We should also add that this name – Yeshua – is not a name of paganism, but rather a name used in Scripture that means “he will save.” (Nehemiah 8:17)

Yehoshua & Yeshua in the Septuagint

We need to now turn to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, which began to be accomplished around the middle of the third century B.C. A brief explanation of the reason for the Septuagint will now follow; being taken from the book entitled How We Got the Bible:

The following seems either factual or plausible concerning the Septuagint. Aristeas describes the origin of the Septuagint with the translation of the Pentateuch. This was done in Alexandria, where there was a large Jewish population and where a translation from Hebrew to Greek would be needed. Ptolemy II in some way may have been connected with the translation; he was well known as a patron of literature. Demetrius likewise may have been involved. He may have suggested the translation to Ptolemy I, but the project may not have been completed until the beginning of the reign of Ptolemy II. There are other factors to consider. According to Aristeas, the Pentateuch was translated in the third century B.C. This date is quite reasonable. The names of the translators fit in with known names in the third century B.C.; and Philo reports that in his day, the first century A.D., an annual festival was still being held on Pharos to honor the place “in which the light of that version first shone out”.

Basically, we see that around 250 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt there was a mass of Jewish people who spoke Greek rather than Hebrew and therefore the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek would be very beneficial to these Greek-speaking Jews. Knowing this we should take note that those men who made the translation must have known both the Hebrew and the Greek language, and would therefore be scholarly men, able to make the translation. How did these men treat the names Yehoshua or Yeshua when transliterating them from Hebrew to Greek?

We will use both Numbers 13:16 and Nehemiah 8:17 to make the proper comparisons in the transliterations. In Numbers 13:16 where the name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ appears in the Hebrew Scripture, the name Ίησοΰς appears at this place in the Septuagint. The only difference being that the last letter of this Greek transliteration is the Greek letter nu, which is simply the case ending of the name of Numbers 13:16. What we see here is that this is the transliteration that Hebrew/Greek scholars of the third century B.C., over two hundred and fifty years before Christ, chose to use in transliterating this particular name from Hebrew to Greek.

In looking at Nehemiah 8:17 where we find the contracted form of the Hebrew name of Numbers 13:16 we also find the Septuagint, once again using the Greek name Ίησοΰ, which is simply another form of the above Greek name with simply a different case ending because of its use in the grammar of the Greek language.

Now we need to better define how this particular Greek name is pronounced. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible gives ee-ay-sooce as the pronunciation of this Greek name. Most other Greek lexicons give Iesous as the exact English transliteration of the Greek name. The most proper pronunciation we could give would most likely be pronounced yey-sooce (Yesous). Notice particularly that this transliteration does not come from someone transliterating with the Messiah in mind, but from Jewish scholars of the 3^rd century B.C. which transliterated the name of Moses’ successor. These scholars weren’t trying to pull some kind of “switch-a-roo” with the text of Scripture when they came to such passages as Numbers 13:16 or Nehemiah 8:17; they were simply transliterating the Hebrew name into the Greek language, using the corresponding Greek letters in the best possible way. Why would Jewish scholars transliterate the name of the leader of Israel after Moses incorrectly?

It may be needful at this point to define what exactly transliteration is. Here are the definitions of transliteration in a couple of English dictionaries:

Transliterate… 1: to represent or spell (words, letters, or characters of one language) in the letters or characters of another language or alphabet… {Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1981}

Transliterate… to represent (a letter or word) by the alphabetic characters of another language… {Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary, V2, 1984}

Here we see that transliteration consists of taking a word in one language and spelling it with the corresponding characters of another language. Nothing is stated in these definitions about the sound of the original word being retained as some would suggest, only the letters as best as possible. There is nothing in the meaning of the word transliterate showing that the sound is retained from one language to the next. The sounds from one language to the next may remain the same or similar in many instances, but this is not always the case for all languages do not contain the same sounds. Such is the case with the name at hand. How did the name Iesous come from the name Yehoshua? It did so by the process of transliterating the short form of the name Yehoshua – Yeshua – from Hebrew into Greek. The process would go like this:

יְ - Ίη / שׁ – σ / וּ - οΰ

Here we see the transliteration into Greek as Ίησοΰ but we are missing the final letter of the Greek name. This is known in Greek as the final sigma, and is placed often on the end of male names as it is a Greek ending for masculinity. Thus we get the name Ίησοΰς. Mr. John K. McKee in his article entitled Is the Name of Jesus Pagan explains the transliteration process thusly:

1. y (yod – “ye”) becomes Ih (iota-eta – “ye” or “ee-ay,” Koine or Attic dialect)

2. v (shin – “sh”) becomes s (sigma – “s” [there is no “sh” sound in Greek]

3. w (vav – “u”) becomes ou (omicron-upsilon – “oo”)

4. It is necessary for a final sigma (ς) to be placed at the end of the word to distinguish that the name is masculine

5. Greek grammar rules require that the (ayin – “ah”) sound be dropped

Mr. McKee goes on to write the following:

It is important to note that this same name is used for the title of the Book of Joshua in the Septuagint, which serves as definitive proof that Iesous is not of pagan origin, but rather is indeed a Greek transliteration of Yeshua developed by the Jewish translators! For, Iesous is also the Greek transliteration of Yehoshua [יְהוֹשֻׁעַ] as demonstrated by the Septuagint.

In Old English, “Iesous” was rendered “Iesus” (pronounced Yesus), which is remarkably close to Yeshua. However, it was spelled with a beginning letter “J,” which at the time had a “Y” sound. Later, when the “J” began to have a harder sound, the name became “Jesus.”

Transliteration is not an exact science. However, it does prove that the Greek name Iesous from whence we derive the name “Jesus” is not pagan. Ίησοΰς is the Greek transliteration of [יֵשׁוּעַ], and the English transliteration of Ίησοΰς is Iesus, which became Jesus.

Another author, Dr. Daniel Botkin, in an article entitled, The Messiah’s Hebrew Name: “Yeshua” or “Yahshua” writes the following in association with the issue at hand:

The English form Jesus is derived from the New Testament Greek name Ίησοΰς, pronounced “Yesous.” According the Strong’s, Yesous (Strong’s #2424) is “of Hebrew origin” and can be traced back to Joshua’s Hebrew name, Yehoshua (#3091, יְהוֹשׁוּעַ). But how do we get the Greek Yesous from the Hebrew Yehoshua? Someone armed with nothing more than a Strong’s Concordance may have difficulty answering that question. Someone who reads the bible in Hebrew, though, knows that the name Joshua sometimes appears in its shortened form, Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). In Nehemiah 8:17 it is apparent even in English: “Jeshua the son of Nun.” (The letter J was pronounced like a Y in Old English.) Strong’s does not tell the reader that the Greek Yesous is actually transliterated from this shortened Hebrew form, Yeshua, and not directly from the longer form Yehoshua. The process from “Yehoshua” to “Jesus” looks like this:

Hebrew Yehoshua – Hebrew Yeshua

Hebrew Yeshua – Greek Yesous

Greek Yesous – English Jesus

There is no “sh” sound in Greek, which accounts for the middle “s” sound in Yesous. The “s” at the end of the Greek name is a grammatical necessity, to make the word declinable.

In Nehemiah 8:17, Joshua’s name is 100% identical to the name which today’s Messianic Jews use for the Messiah, Yeshua… Strong’s confirms this pronunciation, and tells us that there were ten Israelites in the Bible who bore this name (#3442). Therefore the shortening of Yehoshua to Yeshua predates the Christian era by at least 500 years, and cannot be the result of a Jewish conspiracy to hide the Savior’s true name. To claim that the shortened form Yeshua is the result of a Jewish conspiracy is to ignore the facts of history and the facts of the Hebrew Scriptures. The form Yeshua existed for several hundred years before the Messiah was even born. Even in the pre-Christian Septuagint we see the Greek form… (Yesous) in the title of the Book of Joshua. (This is also proof that Yesous has no connection to the pagan god Zeus.

We can now conclude that this Greek name Ίησοΰς is not of pagan origin, but was developed by Jewish scholars in the third century B.C. as a transliteration of the Hebrew name Yehoshua or Yeshua into the Greek language. This then is the name that the Christ was given in Matthew 1:21. In Hebrew we could say his name was Yehoshua or Yeshua, in Greek his name would be Yesous, and in English we could legitimately say that his name was Jesus. These names mean Yahweh is salvation or just simply salvation. I feel inclined at this point to show the similarity of the transliteration in the Hebrew name for Moses. In Hebrew this name is Moshe, but when transliterating it from Hebrew to Greek you must drop the –sh sound and then add an s at the end for masculinity and/or declinable purposes. This allows us to get the Greek name Μωϋσής and in turn from Greek to English the name Moses. Even though we do not see a complete and exact pronunciation in English as in Hebrew we do see that Moses is a proper transliteration from Hebrew to Greek to English. The same applies with Yeshua, to Yesous, and finally to Jesus.

Zeus

We should also note that in the Greek language the name Zeus is spelled entirely different than the name Jesus. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon the name Zeus in Greek is spelled Ζεύς and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines it as follows:

G2203 / Ζεύς / Zeus / dzyooce / Of uncertain affinity; in the oblique cases there is used instead of it a (probably cognate) name Δίς Dis deece which is otherwise obsolete; Zeus or Dis (among the Latins Jupiter or Jove), the supreme deity of the Greeks:—Jupiter.

We might also note that the name Dionysius, which some believe Jesus is a derivative of, is also spelled in Greek differently than Jesus. It is spelled - Διονύσιος. Thus we see that the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Yehoshua or Yeshua is not associated with either the Greek name Zeus or Dionysius and did not stem from either, but like we have stated before, is an accurate transliteration (carrying the letters of one language into another) from Hebrew to Greek (Yesous). From the Greek Yesous we get the Old English Yesus and then the English Jesus.

Was the Messiah Given the Name Yahweh in Matthew 1:21?

Now that we have established that the name of Jesus is not derived from Zeus, Dionysius or any other pagan deity, we need to examine the name that the Messiah was given at birth. Some have claimed that Jesus true name was exactly the same as his Father’s. Is this the case? Is the Messiah’s name Yahweh? While it is definitely provable that the Father gave and attributed His name Yahweh to His Son (Matthew 28:19; Philippians 2:9; Hebrews 1:4; etc.) it is another thing to say that the name Yahweh was the given name for the Son of the Almighty.

The question we must answer is this: was the name Yahweh the name given to the Christ at his birth in Bethlehem? Was this the name he was called by others at the time he walked the earth? To this question we must answer in the negative. The reason for this answer will now follow.

People who believe in and use the name Yahweh in reference to the heavenly Father do so because the Hebrew text of Scripture often refers to the Father by using the following Hebrew Characters, יְהֹוָה. These characters, from right to left, are in Hebrew a yod, he, waw, and finally a he. The letters transliterate into the English letters as Y-H-W-H, properly pronounced Yahweh. Those who seek to remove the English words LORD, GOD, or Jehovah where the underlying text reads YHWH are completely correct in doing so. The inspired text reads YHWH and therefore we should have no problem reading this name when we come across a Scripture where it has been improperly or incorrectly substituted. We have no authority to remove from the Lord’s Word what He inspired to be there.

There are some, however, who make a gigantic leap when attempting to call Christ by the name Yahweh, that is, they say that this is the name he was given in Matthew 1:21. While we can look up a Hebrew text of Scripture, such as Exodus 3:15, and find the name YHWH there, we do not find this name in the text of Matthew 1:21 or Luke 1:31, the two Scriptures showing us what the angel told Miriam and Joseph to name the Christ child. What name do we find in Matthew 1:21 and Luke 1:31? Allow me to quote both passages of Scripture, inserting the proper Greek name that appears for the Christ in each Scripture.

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Ίησοΰς, for He will save His people from their sins. {Matthew 1:21}

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Ίησοΰς. {Luke 1:31}

The above name is taken from the actual Greek text of New Testament Scripture. There are no textual variants of the name for Christ in the two Scriptures quoted; all Greek New Testament documents agree that this is the name the angel told Miriam and Joseph to name their son. You should by now be aware from reading this article that this name squares perfectly with the name of the son of Nun, and is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name יֵשׁוּעַ or Yeshua. Thus we could say that the Messiah’s name was Yeshua or in the longer form Yehoshua which has the meaning of “Yahweh will save”.

We have no warrant or authority to disregard the text of Scripture here in the respective books of Matthew and Luke. There is no reason to believe they are forgeries or are not to be trusted. The angel spoke by direct inspiration from Yahweh and told the parents to name their child Yeshua which in the Greek language transliterates into Iesous and then in turn into the Latin and Old English Iesus to the modern English name Jesus. We can legitimately say that in the English language, the angel told Miriam to name her child Jesus.

Although the above evidence appears to be solid there may be some who insist that the Messiah’s name should instead be YHWH. However, the name Iesous (Yesous) appears in the New Testament in relation to other people than the Christ. For us to say that Yesous should be YHWH in Matthew 1:21 would cause us to have to say that it should also appear in other texts of Scripture such as Acts 7:45 in reference to the son of Nun, in Luke 3:29 in reference to an ancestor of Christ, in Acts 13:6 in reference to a man name Bar-Jesus, and to another man – Jesus called Justus - in Colossians 4:11. Each Scripture just given contains the name Ίησοΰς in it. Should all of these Scriptures use the name YHWH instead? Not at all. The earthly name given to the Christ child was a name that was quite common in the 1^st century A.D. as each of the aforementioned New Testament passages show.

What has happened is that the name Jesus came about from going from Hebrew to Greek to English; while the name Joshua or Jeshua came about through going from Hebrew to English. English has pretty much the same sounds in its language as the Hebrew language does for the son of Nun’s name, while the Greek language is lacking to a degree in having the same sounds. All that being said, we can forthrightly say that the Messiah’s name in Matthew 1:21 is Yeshua in Hebrew, Yesous in Greek, and Jesus in English. This is the proper transliterations made from the available sounds of each language.