Jesus: What does this name mean?

The Name of God and the Name of Jesus

When Moses asked God about his name God said: ““eh·yeh; ’ă·šer’eh·yeh (I AM WHO I AM). And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: YHWH (I AM), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:13-15). 

When the angel appeared to Joseph the Betrothed he told him about Mary’s Child: “She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus,because He will save His people from their sins.” (Mathew 1:21)

Yahweh:

This word of 4 letters YHWH is not to be pronounced by the Jews. In Greek, it is called the Tetragrammaton (4 letters),  and contracts the Hebrew sentence: Haya, hove, yi’yeh, translated as  He was, He is, He will be” (cf. the Ainos stichera for Pentecost). It indicates the eternity of God.

The name YHWH, Yahveh, Yehovah, Jehovah, YAHWEH is not static as we showed above, but rather derives from the verb “to be”, from life unending.

Yahoshah, Yeshua, Jesus: God is my Savior

The name Yahoshah, contracted into Yeshua, or Jesus means “Yahweh saves” “I AM Who Saves”. It is formed from the three letters Yod shin ,ain of the verb “to save”.

The name Jesus is hence translated as “God is my Savior”, or “The Lord is my salvation”.

This is exactly what the angel said to Joseph the Betrothed in the New Testament: “you are to give Him the name Jesus,because He will save His people from their sins.” (Mathew 1:21)

In addition, Jesus Christ himself said words that were a stumbling block to the Jews and to many others:

-“I told you you would die in your sin .if you do not believe that I am He. They said to him, who are you? Jesus said to them, Even what I have told you from the beginnin…” (John 8:24-25). 

-Jesus said to them: “When you have lifted the son of man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing on my own…” (John 8:28-29).

- “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham? Truly, truly, I tell you,” Jesus declared, “before Abraham was born, I AM!”) John 8 :56-59).

- “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen. “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.” (Revelation1:7-8).

- “And I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, because You have judged these things (Revelation 16:5).

-“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I AM the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.” (Revelation 22:16).

 

Yahoshua in the Greek Septuagint:

The name “Yahoshua” was translated into the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, in the 3th Century  BC, as Ἰησοῦς (Isous), with the Greek letter sigma “S” replacing the Hebrew “shin”, and adding another “S” to the end of the word accorging to the Greek Grammar.

 

- From Greek to Latin :

The name Ἰησοῦς in Greek was transcripted into Latin as (Iesus). People used to pronounce it this way for centuries. After that, it was replaced by Jesus again in regard of the grammar of the language (vocative: Jesu, accusative: Jesum, and nominative: Jesus).

 

The name Jesus in the Holy Bible and in History

The name Jesus was common in the Jewish society at the time of the Lord Jesus (before and after). Philon of Alexandria, the Jewish philosopher (25 B.C-50 A.D) drew a connection between “salvation” σωτηρία and the name of Jesus (Ἰησοῦς). The name was very common with the Jews in the Diaspora. Besides, we find in the Holy Bible 3 people with the same name: Jesus. We have Joshua Ben Sirakh, Joshua Son of Nun (in the Old Testament), and Joshua Barabbas (in the New Testament). There lived in the Jewish history, in the first century AD, before the Jewish Roman war 66 A.D., a man named Joshua Ben Ananias. He prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews handed him to the Roman authorities to be arrested. He was whipped then set free. But when the Jews found him, they threw a big stone on his head and killed him.

 

Conclusion:

The One who spoke with Moses and the other Patriarchs and Prophets in the Old Testament is Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was before his Incarnation, because the nature of God is triune, and there was no time when one hypostasis was absent from the other two.

 In the Old Testament, Joshua Son of Nun crossed a geographical land with his people, our Lord Jesus Christ crosses with us to the heavenly Jerusalem, the true and real city of peace. The expression “ehye asher ehye”, is, Εγώ έιμι in Greek). In the halo of Christ’s icons, it is written as Ο ΩΝ, to emphasize that what Jesus Christ, the One whose image we write in the icon is God himself (He who was, is and will be forever).

This God became Man like us. He united His divine nature with our human nature, without confusion nor change, without division nor separation. The difference between the two natures does not disappear this unity. The attributes of each nature are kept unchanged. They are united in the person of the second hypostasis Jesus Christ.

Glory be to your divine economy (dispensation) which you have arranged for our salvation O Lord.