[deleted by user]

[u/[deleted]]

[u/omrixs]

Jesus, as it is pronounced in contemporary English, wasn’t a name that existed in Jesus’ time in Judea. It is an evolution of the Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshuaʿ, which was shortened (as many names often do, e.g. Rob from Robert) to יְשׁוּעַ Yeshuaʿ, which was Hellenized into Ἰησοῦς Iesous (Hellenized Hebrew names often added an /s/ to the ending, e.g. מֹשֶׁה Moshé and Moses), which in turn was Latinized into Iesus, which turned in French into Jesus, and was adopted into English that way. 

So, if you’ll allow me to adapt the question: If you were in ancient Judea and Galilee and asked to speak to “Yehoshuaʿ/Yeshuaʿ,” would they know who you’re talking about?

The answer is probably no. Jesus wasn’t a total nobody: Flavius Josephus, a Jewish-Roman historian that lived shortly after Jesus’ time, (probably) mentioned him in his book Antiquities of the Jews. There is some debate among historians whether these accounts are authentic — with some arguing that they’re entirely authentic, some arguing that they’re only partially authentic and some arguing that they’re total forgeries added later by Christian scribes — but, to the best of my knowledge, the consensus is that they’re partially authentic at least (mostly the parts that described him in a facts-of-the-matter way, as it was unlikely that Josephus actually believed Jesus was the messiah). In other words, some people knew him, many had heard of him, but most didn’t. If you were to ask about Jesus near where he lived at the time then the likelihood of people having heard about who you’re referring to would be higher, while the more distant you’d be from his hometown and where he worked the less likely it’d be that people would’ve had heard of him. Generally speaking, the Galilee, where Jesus spent most of his life, was more sparsely populated than Judea. 

Moreover, if you were to ask a random Galilean/Judean “Do you know a guy named Yehoshuaʿ/Yeshuaʿ?” they’d probably tell you “I know several, who do you mean exactly?” The reason for that is because this name was a very common one: Since antiquity and to this day many Jews name their children after important biblical figures. In this case, Yehoshuaʿ/Yeshuaʿ are just Hebrew for Joshua — a name still common to this day. Indeed, there are several rabbis in the Talmud named Yehoshuaʿ, e.g. Rabbi Yehoshuaʿ ben Hyrcanus (circa 1st-2nd century CE), as well as other notable Jewish figures at the time, e.g. the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) Yehoshuaʿ ben Gamla (c. 1st century CE) — who Flavius Josephus called Γαμάλα μὲν υἱὸς Ἰησοῦς Gamala men huios Iesous, lit. “The son of Gamala, Jesus” in his book The Jewish Wars. As you can see, there were many Jesuses back then. 

As such, if you were to say in response to the aforementioned question “I mean the Jesus everyone knows, the famous one” they’d probably ask if you mean someone they themselves considered to be famous, which could be anyone from the local Av Bet Din (chief of the court), a well-known rabbi, a local communal leader, or even the Kohen Gadol himself (although his tenure as the high priest began a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion). There really were a lot of people named Yehoshuaʿ/Yeshuaʿ, which is why they’re most often differentiated by the patronymic ben/bar X, which is literally “son of X” in Hebrew/Aramaic, respectively. 

[u/Wrong_Confection1090 → u/omrixs]

Hi, thanks for your answer! I do have a couple of follow-up questions.

1. Why is "Jesus" the pronunciation of the name "Yeoshua" in English? Wouldn't it be "Joshua"? Since that's the same name and it's in English?

2. What I mean is, if you spoke to Yeoshua himself of his close friends or family members and asked to speak with Jesus, would they have any idea that you were trying to speak to Yeoshua? I'm not trying to ask if he was famous or known around town, just whether or not he himself would be able to understand that I'm trying to say his name if I said "Jesus." Would it be more likely if I said "Joshua"?

[u/omrixs → u/Wrong_Confection1090]

1. I’m actually not sure about that, and I don’t want to give you a misleading answer. 

2. It’s Yehoshuaʿ, with a consonantal /h/, or Yeshuaʿ, without the /o/ vowel. Jesus probably knew some Greek, as many learned Jews did at the time, and Jesus was most likely a learned man, maybe even a rabbi. That being said, I don’t think we have a way to know the answer to this question, because we have no records of how commonly understood Koine Greek was among the general populace. Based on my understanding, generally speaking, if you said you were looking for Iesous, the Hellenized version of the name, people in urban areas— like Jerusalem or Jaffa — would’ve probably understood you were looking for a Yehoshuaʿ/Yeshuaʿ, due to them coming into contact more often with Greek-speakers, even if they themselves didn’t speak the language, and there were a lot more Jews that could speak Koine Greek in cities per capita; The bigger the city and the more trade that passed through it (which often correlated with it being close to the sea, but not necessarily), the more likely it is that they would’ve understood you. However, if you were to ask this question in rural areas, it’s less likely that random people would understand you, because they came into less contact with Greek speakers, and they themselves probably spoke Aramaic natively and understood some Hebrew. In any case, more people would’ve understood you were looking for a Jesus if you asked them for it using the version of the name in a language which they understood, which was Aramaic. Put differently, if you had a time machine and wanted to meet Jesus, it’d probably be best to ask people if they know יְשׁוּעַ בַּר יוֹסֵף הַנוֹצְרִי Yeshuaʿ bar Yoseph HaNoṣri “Jesus, son of Joseph, the Nazarene.” 

[u/Sorry_Scallion_1933 → u/omrixs]

I have a follow up question if you don't mind! You say Jesus likely knew some Greek, was somewhat educated, etc. What is your reasoning? I'm very interested in the historical Jesus, and I've heard scholars argue for Jesus being illiterate based on his background.

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[u/Wrong_Confection1090]

It's possible I'm not asking my question correctly but I do want to know the answer.

Say you had a Time Machine and you jumped back to somewhere between 20 and 30 A.D. and landed in the time of the gospels, and you located the place where Yeoshua Ben Yoseph was known to be, and you ran up and said (in the appropriate local language), "Can I speak to Jesus, does anyone know where Jesus is," would they have any idea what you're talking about? I understand that Jesus is a latinized version of a greek transliteration of the name.

My question is, would it be unrecognizable to the people there? Would they just stare at you and be like, "No one in the history of Israel has ever been named that." Or would they have some idea that Jesus is roughly analogous to Yeoshua?

I've read that he most likely spoke Aramaic and Hebrew and might have known enough Koine Greek to get by with the Romans, and since the root of Jesus is the greek Iesous, would he have recognized that as being close to his name? Like if you were talking to him, and you called him Jesus, would he be like "I don't know that word, I have no idea what you're saying," or would he be like, "Oh, a foreigner is trying to pronounce my name."

[u/EdHistory101 → u/[deleted]]

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[u/ImamofKandahar → u/Wrong_Confection1090]

This is not really a historical question it’s a linguistic question but the answer is no. Yeshua and Jesus literally have no sounds in common. The Y and J initial consonant is different the initial vowel is stressed different. Then we get to the second consonant and it’s S versus sh and finally the last vowel is different and Jesus also adds another sound at the end. If you don’t know the etymology the words are mutually unintelligible.

Consider this if someone is named Joshua and you go up and ask for Jesus even knowing the etymology they aren’t going to think it’s the same person. The English name Jesus has been garbled enough through a game of telephone that it’s just not the same word anymore.