The word history is derived from the Ancient Greek “historía” which means 'inquiry”. Knowledge acquired by the investigation is the systematic study and documentation of the human past. Historians seek knowledge of the past using reliable sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art, material artifacts, and ecological markers.
The study of religion attempts to understand the various aspects of a particular religion, through other intellectual disciplines. Each discipline enlisted to study religion has distinctive methods and topics. The questions about the origins and functions of religion have often been conflated with questions about the truth of information and documents received, and sometimes questions about religions and this has led to controversies that tend to hinder the development of common concepts, methodologies, and problems.
Christian Historians and Theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis, and argument. For issues related to “Jesus”, Christians developed the study of Christology, which is the study of Jesus who Christians believe to be the Messiah or Christ. Theologians who participate in Christological discourse are concerned about the dynamics between Jesus Christ's deity and humanity and how his works on earth give evidence of his true nature.
In this short communication, I will make an effort to briefly you regarding the name of Jesus, his original name, and how history played a role in defining the name “Jesus”.
Historically, the name of Jesus is not his birth name, this is well-known by theologians and historians, both Christians and non-Christians alike. So, what was his real name? The language of Jesus and his community including his disciples was the Aramaic language. It seems that many Christians don’t know that the name of Jesus that was known during his time is the Aramaic name “Isa”. The name Jesus came very late, specifically during the 16th century when the Bible was translated into the English language for the first time from Douch and Latin languages. The Aramaic name “Isa” was translated into Hebrew as “Isho”, and not Yashua as many people pronounced it – The confusion came very late in History when people translated “Isa” or “Isho” into different languages and pronounced it “Yashua” mistakenly because of the “Language Barrier”, especially people in Western Europe during Middle Age were not familiar with Aramaic Language.
This Hebrew name “Isho” was translated to the Greek name “Iésoús” pronounced “Iesous” Shortly, the Greek name was in turn translated to the Latin name “Iesus”, as Romans wanted to symbolize the ancient goddess “Iesus” of Samaritans and Greeks known as “God King Zeus” who was considered as the sky father and thunder god ruled as king of gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus was assigned as the “Father” of the nation and his followers were “Children”. Similar Theology was also adopted by Romans during the 4th Century in Churches that God is “Father” and the rest are Children and they are the “Image” of God. However, this theology was completely unknown by Jesus or disciples or followers of Jesus. The Latin name “Iesus” started to be used during 380 A.D. when the Roman Church abandoned the original Aramaic name Esa and the Hebrew name Isho.
The Latin name Iesus was modernized to the English name “Jesus” during the translation of the Bible into English in which the letter “I” was replaced with “J”. The Aramaic and the Hebrew names are pronounced very similarly and have the same meaning “Salvation”. However, the Latin name Iesus has a different meaning, it is the “God King Zeus”, the ancient deity that is a Myth.
It is very important to understand this because we Christians always call “Jesus”, but by using this Latinized name, we are calling the ancient goddess Iesus.
Jesus (or his true name Isa) never asked people to change his name, and it is the matter of disrespect to call a person a name other than his own name or his nickname that he approved, and Isa never asked anyone to call him as Jesus. The name Jesus was never known by him, or by his family, or by his disciples. Moreover, the Aramaic language does not have any alphabetic letter pronounced: “J”. So how come the name Jesus be known?
It surprised me that we are, as we are calling ourselves, the followers of Jesus and we even don’t bother to know his actual name!
In my opinion, calling him by a different name than his actual name is disrespectful, but calling him God or Son of God, which he never claimed himself to be, is the BIGGEST disrespect and a major Sin and Blasphemy.
I am saying this because when we properly study the Bible and the history of the Scriptures, we don’t find that Jesus called himself “God” or “Son of God”. What we actually find that he called himself as a “Messenger of God” and “Son of Man”. His divinity was only added to him late in history, centuries after he was gone. People wrote about him as they wanted him to be, but not as he wanted to be. He identified himself as a Messenger of God on many occasions in the New Testament, for example: “By myself, I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear and my judgment is just, for I seek not to myself but God who sent me” (John 5:30), so he clearly said God sent me. He also said: “For I have come here from God, I have not come on my own, God sent me” (John 8: 42).
In the modern Bibles in the New Testament, Jesus referred to himself about 83 times as the “son of man”. For example, we read: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the “Son of Man” be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). For decades after Jesus, disciples, and his followers were also calling him “man” or Servant of God”, for example: “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified His “Servant” Jesus, whom you betrayed and rejected in the presence of Pilate, even though he had decided to let him go” (Acts 3:13).
Therefore, Jesus himself as well as his followers were very clear in their minds about all the above. In the New Testament, Greek words translated as ‘son’ are ‘pias’ and ‘paida’ which mean a ‘person in the sense of Servant’ when speaking of the relationship between God and humans. However, in the New Testament, these are translated to ‘son’ in reference to Jesus, while translated to ‘servant’ in reference to other people in most translations of the Bible. Consistent with other verses, Jesus was merely saying that he is ‘God’s Servant’ and not ‘God’s Son’.
The Hebrew word translated as ‘son’ is ‘abd’ which only means ‘Servant’; and sometimes used word ‘bene’ which merely means ‘Servant of God’.
The Aramaic word used is ‘bar’ has multiple meanings, depending on the context, it means ‘son’, it means ‘slave’, and it means ‘servant’. When speaking in relation between God and humans, it only means ‘Servant’.
Christians who came from a Greek or Roman background later (Gentiles) during the third and fourth centuries, clearly misused this term. In their heritage, the ‘son of god’ signified an important person(s) or as they believe an incarnation of a god. This can be seen in the Bible itself “When the crowd saw Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in human form’, Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them” (Acts 14: 11-13). So, when Paul and Barnabas preached in a city of Turkey, they were called gods incarnate by pagans because they were important people and Paul was the chief speaker.
Similarly, there is also doubt about Jesus using the name “Father” to call for God because in those languages merely meant “Lord” rather than Father in a true sense. In many instances, a clear name of God was used in older scriptures in both Aramaic and Hebrew, for example: “Elaha and Alah” are still found in Aramaic scriptures; as well “Elohim, Elohism, and Alah” are still found in Hebrew scriptures”. All these terms are forgotten in the translated Bibles and instead translated to “God”, which caused so much confusion to ordinary Christians and their beliefs.
I rest my case...!
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References:
The Bible.
Christian Theology, St. Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology; John Templeton Foundation, U.K. Published in 2022.
Philosophy of Christian Theology, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, U.K. Published in 2021.
Bible Translation into English, Wikipedia; https://en.m.wikipedia.org.
Christian Theology, Wikipedia; https://en.m.wikipedia.org.
Zeus, Wikipedia; https://en.m.wikipedia.org.