How YESHUA became JESUS
Before the birth of Yeshua (His Hebraic name) and following His incarnation, Greek was the lingua franca of the known world by way of Alexander the Great and his promotion of Hellenism. In the Hellenistic world seventy Jewish scholars came together in Alexander Egypt to translate the Hebrew Scriptures (the Torah, Nivim, and Ketuvim or TaNaK what we call the Old Testament) into the vernacular Greek tongue of the day. This was called the Septuagint or “translation of the seventy,” also known as the LXX.
In the Septuagint the Hebrew word mashiach or "messiah" was translated in Greek as christos (see Lev.4:5; 6:15; 21:12; 1 Sam. 24:7, 11; 26:9; 2 Sam. 1:14; 2:5; 23:1; Lam. 4:20; Amos 4:13; Psalm 19:7; 20:6; 88:39; 2 Chron.22:7). Mashiach in Hebrew means “anointed one;” so does the Greek Christos. Eventually with the evolution of the English language, the Hebrew mashiach became "Messiah" and the Greek Christos became "Christ."
The Hebrew name Yeshua appears myriad times in the Greek LXX in the shortened form of Yehoshua or Joshua (see Neh.8:17). When Miriam (Mary) birthed her child, she and Yoseph the surrogate father named Him as commanded by the angel Gabriel (Mat. In due time the entire world would come under the empire of the British and the English tongue. The English language for reasons of linguistics would render the “Y” sound of Yerushalayim, Yericho, Yacov, Yoseph, Yudah, and Yeshua and many other Hebrew words beginning with "Y" with the English “J.” Thus, the Hebrew Y’hudi became Ioudaios in the Greek and eventually to the English Judean or Jew.
Does it matter? We must not become Gnostics says John Parsons, author of "Hebrew for Christians." I agree, and let me assert that Yeshua came as YAHshua, that is, in His Father’s name as He Himself said, and to save sinners. Yeshua was YHWHshua, He was YHWH or Jehovah of the OT as His name declares. Yet, may I contend that it does not matter to our Lord whether we call Him Yeshua (Hebrew), Iesous (Greek), Jesus (English), J’sue (Cajun French), Esous (Swahili), Jesus pronounced Haysus (Spanish), or any other translation or transliterated stem from Y'shua. In fact, should someone be so unforturnate to be mute and unable to speak, it makes not an iota of difference to our Lord, because it is from the heart one acknowledges His Lord and savior as the God of Holy Writ Who came to live for us, die for us, resurrect for us, ascend for us, and does now save us if we cry to Him from our hearts.
Did our lips say Jesus in English or Yeshua in Hebrew the night we heard the Gospel and cried out to Him for salvation? Perhaps, neither, we wept for knowledge of Him and what He had done for us. Let us not get into fruitless debate over any pronunciation of His name, but rather that we know Him -what His name means, that is, "savior." If we must do apologetics let us defend His person and deity; YHWHshua/Jesus has come in flesh and has taken our sins and nailed them to His own body.
