The following question is to be founded in the archive:
‘During the TV series I, Claudius, mentions of Jesus Christ were mostly couched in allusions to “the Nazarene.” In one of the later episodes, however, he was referred to as “Joshua bar-Joseph.” Was this his true natal name, and if so, how did it get transformed into Jesus? --John S., Chicago’
When I read Cecil’s answer to this question concerning Jesus’ real natal name, I thought reacting. Cecil’s answer, in my opinion, is though not entirely untrue, at the very least feeble. In Cecil’s own words it answers the question ‘roughly’. I’ll hereby add.
According to the first of the gospels, Matthew, which in the opinion of most scholars must have been written somewhere around 75 A.D., Joseph, when encountered with Maria’s unexpected pregnancy, is visited in his dream by an angel sent by the Lord. It speaks: ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take your wife Maria with you, because what is engendered inside her is of the Holy Ghost. She will have a son and you will give to him the name Jesus, because he is the One that will save his people from their sins’. Now why then Jesus? Of course, the New Testament was originally written in Greek. The Greek name that the Latin-spelling ‘Jesus’ was derived from was ‘Ièsos’. ‘Ièsos’, in its turn was derived from the Hebrew ‘Jesjoea’, which means ‘Jahwe (God) is salvation’. It should be noted here that it’s definitely not ‘Jehovah saves’, as this name is a result of a misunderstanding.
One of the problems with the translation of the Old Testament is the name of God. In Hebrew the name of God is indicated by four consonants: JHWH. In rabbinical Judaism this name was forbidden to be spoken out. To make sure one didn’t the rabbi’s that took care of the tradition added the vowels of the word adonai (= Lord) to these consonants, so they could at the same time hand down the name of God and the correct pronunciation of the word ‘Lord’ to following generations without breaking any rules. But later Christian readers, unfamiliar with this phenomenon, incorrectly spoke out the word as ‘Jehovah’, while the most correct thing to do would be to leave the word JHWH as it stood and to speak it out as adonai. In most modern translations of the bible now the word ‘Lord’ is used, where earlier editions often had ‘Jahwe’.
Now for the name ‘Christ’. We will never know for sure what His contemporary followers called Jesus exactly, but a good guess would indeed be ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ (referring to the place in Galilea where his father had his carpentry). In Jewish tradition humanity is to wait for the coming of a savior to relieve it from its sins. This savior is called ‘Masjich’ in Hebrew, or ‘Messiah’ in English. ‘Masjich’ literally means ‘anointed’. This term refers to the ancient practice of the Jews, when they formed for a certain time an independent nation (ca. 1000-586 B.C.), to anoint their kings (like David (arguable) and Salomo) with a special kind of oil. Jesus’ followers believed He was the Messiah, which is why later, though already present in the New Testament, this title was added to his name. And in the New Testament ‘Mesjich’ was translated into the Greek word for ‘anointed’: Christos. Obviously, modern Jews don’t recognize in the person of Jesus the Messiah and are still in waiting.
So now we know the origin of the name Jesus Christ we’re only left to locate the exact roots of the title ‘savior’ or ‘redeemer’ to be complete. Jesus’ followers felt a certain need to express in a concise manner their believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Except for the name Jesus Christ one wanted to symbolize the New Testimonial notions of Jesus as the Son of God and Jesus as ‘the One that saves man from his own sins.’ (see Matthew) Therefore a formula was invented that sounded: ‘Ièsous CHristus THéou Uius Sotèr’ – ‘Jesus Christ, of God the Son, Savior’. The first letters of this formula together form the word ICHTHUS, Greek for ‘fish’. And this is why often the symbol of a fish is used to express the belief in Jesus.