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Bible Studies/transliteration of the name of the jewish messiah

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Expert: - 12/24/2011


Question
why is it that the name of the jewish messiah had been transliterated as jesus despite the fact that it is written in the original text or spelled exactly the same as the name of moses' successor joshua?

Answer
razel,

A good question.  I had not thought much about it until you asked the question.

What I was able to discover from some biblical commentators is that the Hebrew for Joshua, (yahowshuwa), was contracted after the Babylonian Captivity to Yeeshua; as you will find it in Neh. 7:7 and many other places in the OT.

In Acts 7:45 and Heb.4:8 the Greek DOES use the same word for Joshua(yaysous) which the rest of the NT uses for Jesus' name.

According to the famous historian of Jesus' time, Josephus, yeeshua had become a common name among the Hebrews.

That's the best that I can do you on this question.  I hope it helps.   Thanks for asking.

Dean  

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Dean Gade

Expertise

I can answer questions concerning the translating of specific words and translations of the New Testament. I can give the etemology of Greek words, primarily in the Koine Greek, but also in Classical Greek. I can also give explanations of much of the Bible having read it many times and written many Bible studies.

Experience

I studied Greek in earning my BA at a university and my DTh. and MDiv. at an accredited seminary. I was a diviity student at both the university and seminary, spending most of those eight years studying the Bible.

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