Jee-zus is an English pronunciation of Latin “Jesus”, which is a Latin spelling of Greek “Yesous”, which is a Greek version of Hebrew “Yeshua” (the final “s” being added to make it male in Greek). The same Hebrew name “Yeshua” independently evolved into English “Joshua”.
Kriste is an English pronunciation of Latin “Christ[us]”, which is a Latin version of Greek “Christos”, which is a Greek translation of Hebrew “Moshiach” – “the anointed one”. The same Hebrew word “Moshiach” independently evolved into English “Messiah”.
It should really be “Jesus the Christ”, but Latin doesn’t have a word for “the”.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Jesus’ last name is “Ben Jussef” - son of Joseph. If he was born today (another string) this might be his name, or he would’ve taken the name of the tribe he was in (was it Levi?) , thus something like Joshua Levine.
This is not used by Christians as he is the supposed son of God.
There is a theory that in some early gospels and apocrypha, it was “Jesus the carpenter”, not referencing his paternity (i.e., Jesus the - forgive me - bast***), and later changed to “Jesus the son of the carpenter (Joseph)”.
Christ is a title, like Ceasar. Different cultures employ titles in varied ways: sometimes in front of the proper name, sometime after the proper name, sometimes in the middle, sometimes as part of an apposition.
So, just as I’m sure you’ve heard of Julius Ceasar (Jules, the Emperor), Jesus Christ means Jesus, the Christ (as JWK said).
The bible has both “Jesus Christ” and also “Christ Jesus” many, many times. Also:
So, you can see how it is definitely used as a title, and not as a last name.
Would this be the correct place to ask several questions about Jesus that I have been wanting to ask for quite a long time? Or should I use a different forum?
I and my dictionary like to transliterate the Greek ‘<font face=“symbol”>Cristo</font>ç’ as ‘Khristos’, rather than ‘Christos’. (Pardon the c-cedilla for final sigma.)
I would start a new thread rather than extend this one, but, yes, you could use this forum, as long as it’s a question that can be given a fairly definite answer. That is, if you ask, “Is Jesus God?”, you’re only going to get into trouble, but if you ask, “Do Christians believe that Jesus is God?”, there should be no problem.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Back in those days people were called by the village of their raising (in most instances this would have been their birth as well, but not always) Jesus was in his time known as “Jesus of Nazarath” denoting the town where he grew up and was known by the local populace. That would be as close to a last name as he had.
I too always heard “H” stands for “Holy”. This not being historical but rather coming from those who use it as an exposition.
Jesus was also called “Jesus the Christ”, by the early church for reasons listed above (they considered Him a king, the messiah, ect.). Over time “the” seems to have been dropped leaving “Jesus Christ”, so you see it is not truly meant to be a last name in the sense we have them today.
How come you don’t come across other Isralites or Jews in the Bible named Jesus? Was Jesus a common name? All those other names James, Paul, John, etc. in the Bible, they don’t sound Jewish; were they anglizised from something else in the King James Bible?
As someone previously said, the nazarene carpenter’s son was named “Yeshua” (what we’d call Joshua) by his parents and most likely called that by his peers.
A correct point, but a misleading example. Actually Caeser was Julius’ family name. Because of his fame and the fact the first several emperors were relatives of his, it later evolved into a synonom for Emperor, and became a title borne by later emperors (and is the origin of Kaiser, Czar, and Tsar)
Hey, I forgot about that. Yeah, just like Mary of Magdala was known as Mary Magdalene (as if ‘Magdalene’ was her last name – it wasn’t, it was the town she was from {and you needed that appellation since there are five different Mary’s in the New Testament}), Jesus was also called Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene.
The INRI that you see on crucifixes is the Latin initials for Iesu Nazoreanus Rex Iudeaorum (Jesus Nazorean, King of the Jews).
So, Jesus’ full name with title should be Christ Jesus (H.) Nazorene. Of course, just like the Queen doesn’t use ‘Tudor’, it’s just Christ Jesus.
Praenomen: First name. Only about a dozen were available, which is probably the reason for the complications below.
Nomen: “Gens” name. A “gens” is a sort of super-family. You could almost call it a “clan”.
Cognomen. Originally a nickname, so you could distinguish between Marcus Cornelius with the red hair and Marcus Cornelius with the funny nose, but it usually would eventually evolve into a family name distinguishing a branch of a gens. Not everyone had a cognomen of either kind, though most did by the classical period.
Agnomen. An extra nickname added after a cognomen that had become a family name.
So Gaius Julius Caesar was Gaius, of the family Caesar, of the gens Julia.
For Women:
Little girls didn’t names of their own. They were just called “First,” “Second,” “Third”… When a woman married, her father’s gens name became her first name.
Historic Roman figures tend to be known by all sorts of mix-and-match versions of their proper Latin names, partly Englished, and partly not Englished, so it’s all a dreadful jumble.
By the late Empire, the system had pretty much collapsed except among the more stubborn members of the aristocracy.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
“James” is an anglicized version of “Jacob.” The “k” sound survives in other languages, as in French: “Jacques,” but has also disappeared in other languages like Gaelic: “Seaumus.” [query - spelling of Seaumus?]
“Paul” started out as “Saul,” but he changes his name part-way through the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. For example, when he held the stoners’ cloaks at the martyrdom of Stephen, he is called Saul (Acts, 7:55).
Saying “anglicized from something else in the King James Bible” is a bit muddled. They were names that were adopted by English-speaking Christian parents soon after the English were converted to Christianity. Over the years, what with the Hebrew-to-Greek-to-Latin-to-English transformations, and the general free-and-easiness of English, they tended to wear down, just as “episkopos” (“epi-skopos”, literally “over-seer”, just like “super-visor”) wore down into “bishop”. So by the time of King James, “Mary”, for example, was the correct English form of “Miriam”. Because the Old Testament didn’t go through the Greek step, Old-Testament names tended to filter through into English differently, such as Yeshua/Joshua/Jesus, Miryam/Miriam/Mary, and under Protestant influence, some got into English in a second form.
“John” is also from a Hebrew name, “Jochanon”.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
