# 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:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/21 "2004-10-15T14:09:31Z")
Because Bob backwards is still Bob,but Jesus backwards is sausage. ---
**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, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/22 "2004-10-15T14:37:11Z")
> [@Atticus Finch](#): > > 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”). > 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. Latin had no J sound as in “Judge.” But there was no J sound for Jesus’ name in Hebrew or Greek either. That J sound only come from the English. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/23 "2004-10-15T15:12:29Z")
What makes no sense about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is that the Latin language had no character “J”. So why the heck would they have put a “J” on the floor as a trick? > [@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 Adonai (“Lord”) to create “Yahowahi” in Hebrew which transliterates to “Jehovah” in English. It’s not quite right to say Hebrew had no vowels. It has marks to indicate vowel sounds, but they are usually omitted. It is my understanding that when vowels were added to the Hebrew Bible, the vowels of Adonai were deliberately used to remind people to say “Lord” when reading aloud, since to say the true name of God was considered sinful. Later, when the Bible was translated into Latin the translator mistakenly assumed that these were the true vowels, and came up with something that sounded like “Jehovah.” Since YHWH (or YHVH depending on transliteration convention) was never written with the true vowels, and I think was only allowed to be spoken by the high priest in the temple in Jerusalem, no one living today knows how to pronounce it. “Yahweh” is some scholars’ guess, but a lot of people disagree. ---
**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 15, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/24 "2004-10-15T15:35:00Z")
To nitpick the nitpick, it’s my understanding that the vowel marks that are used in Hebrew are a relatively modern invention to help with religious instruction. [This site](http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~hr/bible/hebvow.html) dates them from about the end of the first millennium. As in all Semitic languages, Hebrew and Aramaic words are based on a three (sometimes two) consonant root base. From this root all the variations of languages would spring with different vowel interpolations. These were obvious in the spoken language and understood from context in the written language. So while the languages have vowels as all languages do, they would not have been used in ancient times in writing. That’s where all the confusion comes from, since we don’t have the contemporary spoken language to judge by. Modern written Hebrew may or may not have vowels depending on the target audience. ---
**Author:** ![pestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@pestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/25 "2004-10-15T19:43:14Z")
> [@vanilla](#): > > Because Bob backwards is still Bob,but Jesus backwards is sausage. HAHAHA!! Never hurts to inject a little Subgenius lore into the discussion, now, does it? I remember reading some Subgenius text long ago that mentioned that “Jesus loves you” recorded and played back backwards sounded like “we smell sausage,” whereas “Bob loves you” was simply “we smell Bob.” Sound cards had just become fairly common in PC’s so my friend and I fired up Sound Recorder in Windows 3.1 and tried it. Turns out it’s a bit more like “we smell saus-eej” but the divine message is clear nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243/26 "2004-10-15T20:26:31Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” properly is the German pronunciation, roughly, “Yea, Sue!” Jesus was a personal injury lawyer? I’m gonna have to re-think this whole Christianity-type thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-jesus-actual-name/269243.md?page=1)