The Invention of Jesus
These served in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest and scribe. Nehemiah 12:26 NASB
Jeshua – You will immediately recognize that the Hebrew spelling of this man’s mane is not Jeshua. It is Yeshua. He is not the only Israelite to be named “Yeshua” in the Bible, but it is interesting that no English translation kept the original Y. That’s because the letter J was invented to replace it.
Both I and J were used interchangeably by scribes to express the sound of both the vowel and the consonant. It wasn’t until 1524 when Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian known as the father of the letter J, made a clear distinction between the two sounds. Trissino’s contribution is important because once he distinguished the soft J sound, as in “jam” (probably a loan sound), he was able to identify the Greek “Iesus” a translation of the Hebrew “Yeshua,” as the Modern English “Jesus.” Thus the current phoneme for J was born. It always goes back to Jesus.[1]
But “Jesus” only goes back to 1524. No one before 1524 would have ever recognized the name Jesus applied to any person in the Bible. What does that tell you? Did you think you were speaking biblical truth when you offer prayers in the name of Jesus? Did you imagine that his disciples called him by that name? Did anyone for the first 15 centuries of Christianity ever call the Savior by the name Jesus? I wonder if we haven’t permanently altered his identity by insisting that we call him by a name no one knew. Perhaps you think that it really doesn’t matter all that much. After all, God knows what we mean even if we use the wrong name. Then I suggest that you start signing your checks with another name and see what happens. Maybe you should use something like “Skip” every time you want to sign a legal document. Do you suppose the bankers and attorneys will say, “Oh, well, we all know what he meant to write.”
Just in case you thought this was just trivial linguistic history, let me add this: When the name changed to incorporate a letter that did not exist in the ancient world, didn’t that also assist the process of removing the Bible from its ancient connections to Jewish people? Oh, yes, “Jewish” uses a J, but then in the ancient world these people weren’t called Jews. That’s another J substitution of Y. And, of course, by changing the letter to a J, we lose all connection with the verb yasha, the necessary link in order to understand the play on words in the gospel phrase, “He shall be called Yeshuabecause he will yasha his people from their sins.” No, I’m afraid “Jesus” is a modern invention, now well ensconced in our religious vocabulary—but completely unknown in the Bible.
Topical Index: J, Jesus, Jeshua, yasha, Nehemiah 12:26
[1] https://www.dictionary.com/e/j/
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