# What was Jesus' actual name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 14, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243 "2004-10-14T19:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/1 "2004-10-14T19:06:10Z")
As I understand it, “Jesus” and “Joshua” are the same name… with “Jesus” being the English version of the Greek version of a Hebrew name, and “Joshua” being the English version of the same Hebrew name. What is that original Hebrew name? And how would I pronounce it? In other words, if I happened to be around in Jerusalem at the right time and wanted to call this guy (who would go on to be the root of a major religion) by name, what sounds would come out of my mouth? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/2 "2004-10-14T19:09:34Z")
Yeh-shua bar You-saf (Joshua son-of-Joseph) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/3 "2004-10-14T19:28:43Z")
> [@Skott](#): > > In other words, if I happened to be around in Jerusalem at the right time and wanted to call this guy (who would go on to be the root of a major religion) by name, what sounds would come out of my mouth? Fact is, J.C. got mightily peeved saying “Yeah, what do you want?” all the time, when it turns out folks had just stubbed their toe… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/4 "2004-10-14T20:23:23Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Yeh-shua bar You-saf (Joshua son-of-Joseph) Don’t you mean Yeh-shua bar Yah-weh? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/5 "2004-10-14T20:27:41Z")
Probably Yehoshua (which got clipped to Yeshua in everyday speech) bar Yosef, or bar Miriam if there’s anything to the Virgin Birth stories. This would be the standard Aramaic – substitute “ben” for “bar” to get the Hebrew, which would have been formal Iesous is the rendering into Greek, which became Jesus in later Latin and of course picked up the English J sound /dzh/ when it moved into English. “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” properly is the German pronunciation, roughly, “Yea, Sue!” and in French it would be something like Zhay-zoo. And of course we’ve all heard jokes about the common Spanish name Jesus, pronounced “hay-SOOS” ---
**Author:** ![trupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trupa)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/6 "2004-10-14T20:28:12Z")
If you consider my recollection of “The Passion” movie worth anything, they used: (phonetically, sort of) yeh-shua n’sah-reth Jesus of Nazareth ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/7 "2004-10-14T20:59:52Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Probably Yehoshua (which got clipped to Yeshua in everyday speech) bar Yosef, or bar Miriam if there’s anything to the Virgin Birth stories. Much has been written about the fact that 1st century Jews, who almost always addressed a person by their patronymic (the “bar Joseph”), addressed Jesus as “[the son of Mary](http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=MARK+6:3&language=english&version=NIV&showfn=on&showxref=on)”, leading to some allegations of illegitimacy among his detractors. (I personally discount this since they referred also to his brothers and sisters and it’s hardly likely a woman would have had an entire family of illegitimate children- it’s more likely they were saying “Hey- I know Maryam- that’s her kid who now says he’s the messiah” rather than giving him an insulting matronymic. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/8 "2004-10-14T21:17:36Z")
It was actually Norbert, but all the other Messiahs made fun of him, so he changed it. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/9 "2004-10-14T21:34:00Z")
As a bit of a hijack (plus the Greek jogged my memory), there is of course the second trial in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_. Of course “in the Latin alphabet, “Jehovah” begins with an “I””, or at least the writers think so. What language were they using/talking about if Ieosus (right?) got translated into Jesus for the Latin, but Jehovah begins with an I? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/10 "2004-10-14T21:56:38Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Don’t you mean Yeh-shua bar Yah-weh? 😃 Since you ask, it would have been Yeshua Bar- Abbas. There is a theory among bible scholars that when the crowd demanded “free Barrabas” they were demanding that Jesus Christ be freed. see, for example: [http://www.bibletexts.com/qa/qa001.htm](http://www.bibletexts.com/qa/qa001.htm) [http://www.redbay.com/ekklesia/barabbas.htm](http://www.redbay.com/ekklesia/barabbas.htm) ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/11 "2004-10-14T23:14:59Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > As a bit of a hijack (plus the Greek jogged my memory), there is of course the second trial in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_. Of course “in the Latin alphabet, “Jehovah” begins with an “I””, or at least the writers think so. What language were they using/talking about if Ieosus (right?) got translated into Jesus for the Latin, but Jehovah begins with an I? I’ll use this as a holder until someone who is actually in the know can come along and describe. I seem to remember a college course in which the professor said that the existence of Jehova was the result of a mis-translation of an ancient text. The professor seemed rather convincing, so I bought it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/12 "2004-10-14T23:33:52Z")
I remember reading somewhere that the actual form is given as “Yeschu ha Notri”, which is usually translated as “Jesus of Nazareth”, but which others have suggested ight be something like “Jesus the Nazirite”, imagining him to be member of a sect or group called “Nazirites” (related, they claim, to the word for “branch”.) Apparently there are no contemporary records of a town called nazareth", which makes some folks suspicious. IIRC, Jesus is never referred to as “Jesus bar Joseph” in the canonical texts, although he is caled the son of Mary. This leads to the claims of possible illegitimacy **Sampiro** refers to. The elaborations on this are surprising – there are apparently ancient claims that Jesus’ father was a Roman soldier named Pantera (!).The first time I came acros this I wanted to slap the author of the book I was reading (who gave no further information) and ask for particulars. With the Miracle of the Internet you can no doubt dredge up such info in minutes, but it was years before I found more in those pre-Internet dayd. Have a look at Morton J. Smith’s book **Jesus the Magician**. He gathers all the relevant citations together. But take the book with a considerable amount of salt – I’m no Biblical scholar, but even I can (I think) poke holes in Smith’s arguments. By the way, according to my Bible commentaries, some ancient version of the NT refer to “Barabbas” as “_Jesus_ bar Abbas”, which adds even more to the controversy. ---
**Author:** ![Scarface\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Scarface\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarface_Z)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/13 "2004-10-15T00:02:40Z")
i remember my high school history teacher from way back when mentioning that jesus’s real name was most likely Isa (pronounced eesa). but i think that this is actually the arabic name for him. any help? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/14 "2004-10-15T00:19:24Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > I’ll use this as a holder until someone who is actually in the know can come along and describe. I seem to remember a college course in which the professor said that the existence of Jehova was the result of a mis-translation of an ancient text. The professor seemed rather convincing, so I bought it. “Jehovah” is an English rendering of the Hebrew Tetragammaton, YHWH. Since Hebrew doesn’t have vowels, the Medievel translator didn’t know how to pronounce it and he used the vowels for _A donai_ (“Lord”) to create “_Yahowahi_” in Hebrew which transliterates to “Jehovah” in English. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/15 "2004-10-15T00:27:16Z")
> [@Scarface Z](#): > > i remember my high school history teacher from way back when mentioning that jesus’s real name was most likely Isa (pronounced eesa). but i think that this is actually the arabic name for him. any help? Correct. The Arabic is “Issa.” Jesus’ name in Aramaic was pronounced pretty much phonetically as either “Yeshu” (yes-shoo) or Yeshua (yes-shoo-ah). ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/16 "2004-10-15T01:20:33Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > “Jehovah” is an English rendering of the Hebrew Tetragammaton, YHWH. Since Hebrew doesn’t have vowels, the Medievel translator didn’t know how to pronounce it and he used the vowels for _A donai_ (“Lord”) to create “_Yahowahi_” in Hebrew which transliterates to “Jehovah” in English. Okay, but what is the deal with the whole “But in the Latin alphabet, “Jehovah” begins with an “I”” that I started off with? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/17 "2004-10-15T01:23:30Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Okay, but what is the deal with the whole “But in the Latin alphabet, “Jehovah” begins with an “I”” that I started off with? It’s a Y in Hebrew, an I in Latin and a J in English. Jesus in Latin is Iesus, not Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/18 "2004-10-15T01:43:46Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Correct. The Arabic is “Issa.” Nitpick - that transliteration wouldn’t give a very good pronunciation. It’s more commonly transliterated as “Isa”, pronounced “ee-sa” (imagine the “ee” from “need”). > [@asterion](#): > > Okay, but what is the deal with the whole “But in the Latin alphabet, “Jehovah” begins with an “I”” that I started off with? I’m no expert, but I believe that the Latin language from the conquest of Macedon to the Middle Ages (when it was no longer a first language) lacked the characters J (they only had I), U and W (only had V). This was a problem at the time, as I believe that V had to be used both as a vowel, like the modern U, and as a consonant, somewhere between V and W. What I don’t know is whether there were any Romans who wrote I and pronounced it like a modern J. Perhaps someone who knows more about this can help out. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/19 "2004-10-15T13:46:35Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > It’s a Y in Hebrew, an I in Latin and a J in English. Alas, it’s not so consistent in English. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joshua and Ezekiel all start with the letter _yud_ and vowel _sheva_in Hebrew, but have wildly divergent spellings in English. Go figure… Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/20 "2004-10-15T13:51:09Z")
Bob. Call Him “Bob”. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243.md?page=2)