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And
you shall call His name…Jesus? Part I
The old
spiritual hymn says, "Jesus, the sweetest name I know." And, to
countless millions of Christians through the centuries, the name of Jesus is
indeed the most treasured name ever known. Unfortunately, most Christians do
not realize that Jesus is a translation. In fact, it is a translation of yet
another translation. In fact, once we trace the name back to its origins (i.e.
Jesus' original given name), we will find that it has a much richer meaning
than the one we have come to know and love so well.
Liberal
scholarship has made some unfortunate erroneous assumptions as to the origins
of the Gospels and the language of the Jews, including Jesus, during the first
century. Most scholars agree on either a Greek or Aramaic origin of the Gospels
and assert that Jesus spoke Aramaic. Also, it is assumed that New Testament
records and the teachings of Jesus were based on faulty transmissions of oral
reports recorded by a Greek-speaking church far removed from the Judean and
Galilean scene. All of these assumptions have greatly influenced the largely
uneducated evangelical church and are so deeply ingrained that to challenge
this approach is considered heresy. The majority of scholars for the past 200
years have favored Aramaic origins of the Gospels. However, when the evidence
is examined, we learn that there is no strong evidence for that conclusion. In
fact, there is a much stronger case against Aramaic origins.
According
to the Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrius and the Codex Bezai, three of the
most ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, it is stated that the
inscription, "This is the King of the Jews" over Jesus' cross was
written in "Greek, Latin and Hebrew." These manuscripts date back to
the fourth and fifth centuries; so, isn't it significant that they would infer
Hebrew to be more popular than Aramaic?
Professor
David Flusser of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, fluent in Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Greek has stated, "The question of the spoken language (during the
Second Temple period) is especially important for understanding the doctrines
of Jesus. There are sayings of Jesus that can be rendered both in Hebrew and
Aramaic; but there are some that can only be rendered in Hebrew, and none can only
be rendered in Aramaic."
Also,
since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947), even the leading proponents
of the Aramaic theory have begun to modify their view. In Matthew Black's third
edition of his book, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts, he remarks,
"…the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has now placed at our disposal
information of a highly interesting and relevant nature…we must allow more than
has been done before for the use of Hebrew in addition to, or instead of, Aramaic
by Jesus himself (Black, 1967)". It should be noted that during the Temple
Mount excavations in recent decades, coins and other artifacts found at the
site have only Hebrew, Greek, and a few Latin inscriptions. None are Aramaic.
It is
tragic that our seminaries and Bible colleges focus attention on Greek and
Hellenistic theology. Their students are not given the proper tools for doing
serious Biblical study. The Greek of the New Testament manuscripts is not only
poor but most expressions in the New Testament are meaningless in Greek. For
example, Matt. 6:22-23 literally reads: "The lamp of the body is the eye.
If your eye is good, your whole body is full of light; but if your eye is evil
your whole body is full of darkness…" Greek has no such idioms, nor does
English. However, the expressions "good eye" and "bad eye"
are common Hebrew idioms for "generous" and "stingy". This
expression of Jesus is meaningless in both Greek and English but actually makes
perfect sense in Hebrew. A much more detailed analysis of this can be found in
the work of David Bivin and Dr. Roy Blizzard, Understanding the Difficult Words
of Jesus (highly recommended reading), published by The Center for
Judaic-Christian Studies in Dayton, Ohio.
There is
evidence beyond the Biblical references that point to an Hebraic origin of the
Gospels-the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Josephus, the early Church
Fathers, coins, and inscriptions on other artifacts from the period, to name
some. The Dead Sea Scrolls include close to 600 partial manuscripts (Biblical
and non-Biblical) indicated by some 40,000 fragments. All of the Biblical
manuscripts were in Hebrew and only one of the non-Biblical documents was in
Aramaic, the Genesis Apocryphon. It should be noted that Aramaic was a spoken
language until 167 B.C.E. It was then that the Maccabean Revolt against
Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had desecrated the Temple, sparked a revival among
the Jews and Hebrew became the official national language. (Also, Hebrew became
the national language of the Jews after the statehood of Israel was established
in 1948.)
The
writings of the early Church Fathers (pre-325 A.C.E.) are indisputable. They
are important because they carry us back to the earliest centuries of the
Church. Men such as Papias (150 A.C.E.), Irenaeus (120-202 A.C.E.), Origen
(early 3rd century), Epiphanius (approx. 300 A.C.E.), and Jerome (died 420
A.C.E.) contradict the Aramaic theory, which developed no earlier than the
Middle Ages. Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, mid-second century, states:
"Matthew put down the words of the Lord in the Hebrew language, and others
translated them as best they could (Ecclesiastical History, ch.3, p. 39)".
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in France, states, "Matthew, indeed, produced
Gospel written among the Hebrews in their own dialect (Ecclesiastical History,
ch.5, p. 8)". Origen, in his commentary on Matthew, states, "The
first Gospel, composed in the Hebrew language, was written by Matthew for those
whom came to faith from Judaism (Ecclesiastical History, ch.6, p. 25)".
Eusebious, Bishop of Caesarea, (325 A.C.E.) writes, "Matthew had first
preached to the Hebrews and when he was about to go to others, he transmitted
his Gospel in writing in his native Hebrew language (Ecclesiastical History,
ch.3, p. 24)". Jerome, who composed the Latin Vulgate directly from
Hebrew, which to this day is the authoritative Bible of the Roman Catholic
Church, writes concerning Matthew's Gospel, "Matthew was the first in
Judea to compose the Gospel of Christ in Hebrew…who it was that later
translated into Greek is no longer known with certainty. Furthermore, the
Hebrew text itself is still preserved in the library at Caesarea which the
martyr Pamphilus assembled with great care,"(DeViris Inlustribus, ch.3).
Again,
artifacts discovered in archaeological expeditions provide a rich source of
evidence for the use of Hebrew during the time period. In fact, the Hebrew name
for Jesus was found on an ossuary (a small casket representation for the bones
of a loved one recovered one year after burial) in a rock cut tomb near
Jerusalem. The inscription is pronounced Yeshua (English transliteration) from
which we derive the name, Jesus.
The
question remains, why is this important to us today? The answer is, because
this is our heritage in the faith. Paul tells us that we are "heirs
together with Israel" (Eph. 3:6), that "our forefathers were all
under the cloud and…they all passed through the sea" (1 Cor. 10:1), that
we as "wild olive branches" were "grafted into the natural olive
tree" (Rom. 11:17), and that the root of that tree supports us, not us
supporting the root (verse 18). Episcopal Bishop John Spang clearly stated,
"The Bible is a Hebrew book, telling the story of the Hebrew people. Jesus
was a Hebrew Lord. If the Bible is going to be properly understood, we must
develop 'Hebrew eyes' and 'Hebrew attitudes' toward life." New Testament
scholar Stuart Rosenberg reminds us "before one can become fully
Christian, one must also know what it means to be a Hebrew," and, "…the
stronger a man's faith, the more Hebraic he will regard himself."
So, we
must emphasize this point: the Bible reflects a view of reality that is
essentially Hebraic. Indeed, for the earliest church, to think
"Christianly" was to think "Hebraicly." This becomes very
significant to us when we realize the name, Jesus, is the western, Anglican
rendering of the Hebrew name Yeshua. It is unfortunate that the people of the
church never thought to wonder if the name "Jesus" might have been
derived from another, more appropriate, name or if He may indeed be unlike the
man we see depicted in paintings hanging in our homes and churches.
So, how
do we get Jesus, the name we see in our Bibles? As stated, His Hebrew name is
Yeshua (English transliteration). In Galilee, where He lived, the 'a' at the
end was left silent so the pronunciation would have been Yeshu, in that region.
Of course, as we have seen, the Hebrew story of the life of Jesus was very
soon, after His death and resurrection, translated into Greek. In the translation,
Yeshu(a) became Iesus. In Greek, there is no 'sh' sound thus the 's' in the
middle, and in the Classical period, it was typical to add an 's' to the end of
male names, thus we get the Greek pronunciation easoos (Iesus). From there it
is easy to see how we get Jesus as a transliteration of Iesus. The 'J'
corresponds to the 'Y' in Hebrew and the 'I' in Greek. For example, the Hebrew
name Yeramiah becomes Jeremiah in English or Yahweh becomes Jehovah. So, Jesus
is the name we have come to love, but His given name was actually Yeshua, and
perhaps it is this latter name on which we should focus.
This is
important for us because Hebrew is the key to becoming more authentically
Biblical. In Hebrew, the phrase,"and she shall call his name Jesus, for He
will save His people from their sins," is actually a play on words.
"…and she shall call His name Yeshua for He will yoshea His
people…(Matt.1:21). Both are derived from the root "yesha", to save.
So Yeshua means savior, the implications of which are astounding.
To grasp
the full depth of meaning, we must research the Biblical text from the
beginning and what we will find is the redemptive plan of a loving and gracious
G-d. This we will attempt in Part II. Shalom.
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1:Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus. David Bivin and Dr. Roy Blizzard
Jr., Ch. 2, pp. 25-26.
2:Ibid, p. 30.
3:Jewish Sources in Early Christianity. Prof. David Flusser, ch. 1, pg. 11.
4:Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, ch.5, pp. 46-47
5:Ibid
6:Ibid
7:Ibid
8:Ibid
9:This Hebrew Lord, New York Press, 1974, p. 31
10:The Christian Problem: A Hebrew View, 1986, pp. 222-223.
11:Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, Dr. Marvin Wilson,
ch. 1, p. 12.