Excerpts
The name: Yeshua ha Nazorean
The evolution and meaning of the names and titles for Jesus
“For this I was born, and for this I have come into society: to witness to the truth.”
Yeshua ha Nazorean from the P52 papyrus fragment, c. 125 C.E.
Yeshua. The popular name of Jesus among first century speakers of Hebrew or Aramaic would be Yeshua or Yehoshua. The Hebrew pronunciation is Ye-SHU-ah, with the accent on the second syllable.
The Hebrew letters - יֵשׁוּעַ - are read from right to left, yod-shin-waw-ayin. The “yod” indicates the God YHVH, a word that is never spoken aloud in full in the Jewish tradition. “Shua” means deliverance, thus Yeshua means “god’s deliverance,” or simply “saviour.” Yeshua was a common name in first century Israel and Judea. Jewish historian Josephus tells of Yeshua Ananias, about 30 years after the time of Jesus, who provoked Jewish and Roman authorities, was arrested, flogged, and released. For an analysis of the name Yeshua, Yeshu, Yahshua, or Yehoshua, see:
Scott Nelson.
The Nazarene Way
Dr. James Price supports the “Yehoshua” transliteration
Dr. Daniel Botkin supports the “Yeshua” transliteration
Greek translators used a transliteration of the vocal sounds from common Hebrew. Greek masculine names never end in a vowel sound, so the Greeks added an “s” to arrive at Iêsous. Fifth century Latin scribes transliterated the Greek to “Iesus,” common for 1,000 years, until 1526 when William Tyndale’s English Bible first employed the Germanic-English “J” to give “Jesus,” pronounced “Hay-soos,” later “Jay-soos,” and eventually the Americanized “Jee-zuz.” There is no “J” sound or letter in Hebrew or Aramaic. Names such as Jehovah, Jesus, and Judas use the Germanic-English “J” in place of the Hebrew “Y” sound.
Christos: In his letter to the Thessalonians, written about 50 C.E., Saul of Tarsus, “St. Paul” promises that Jesus will return soon to rescue the congregation “from the wrath that is coming.” In the first verse, he introduces the title “Kyrioi Iêsous Christos,” (“Lord Jesus Christ”), history’s earliest reference to Jesus as a “Christos,” an “anointed one,” a messiah. Jesus never makes this claim.
The tradition of applying the “Christos” title to Jesus may have begun among Greek speaking Jews in Antioch, where Paul – a former persecutor of Jesus followers – became prominent. Christos derives from the Greek chrism, oil, and means “anointed with oil.” In the Jewish scriptures (Old Testament) Samuel anoints Saul with oil, proclaiming him a Jewish king. A woman, likely Mary Magdalene, allegedly anointed Jesus, with oil from an alabaster jar, invoking images of Anath, the daughter of the Queen of Heaven, selecting a peasant king. Thus, anointing might imply both royal and peasant leadership.
Traditional anointed heroes and messiahs of Jewish history were typically rebel leaders, who repelled invaders and protected the homeland. Five influential messiahs besides Jesus appear in the historic record between 4 BC and 70 CE: Judas of Galilee; Simon, a rebel slave in Perea; Athronges, a Judean shepherd; Menahem the grandson of Judas; and Simon bar Giora. From humble beginnings, bar Giora became a military leader and defender of Jerusalem against the Romans. He achieved minor guerilla victories and finally surrendered to Roman soldiers on the temple mount, dressed in purple robes, declaring himself “king of the Jews,” a career arc patterned after the archetypal Jewish messiah, king David.
Early peasant Jewish followers of Jesus, such as the Ebionites, the “poor ones,” did not consider Jesus a messiah or Christos, and so were not “Christians.” They admired Jesus as their founder and teacher, but not as a diety. They believed that Jesus was a man, chosen by their God for a special purpose because of his righteousness. In the Jewish tradition, being chosen by God does not necessarily imply special priviledges, but rather special responsibilities to the community. The Ebiontes felt the “presence” (“parousia”) of Jesus among them by living as he did and performing good deeds, but they did not believe in a physical resurrection.
Nazorean (Nazarene, Notseri, Nazoraioi): The Gospel of Philip, written between 150-250 CE in Syria, refers to Jesus as “Yeshua Christos Nazorean,” and explains that “Christos” means messiah, and “Nazorean is “he who reveals what is hidden.” The Hebrew root “Nazar,” means to set apart or consecrate. The Nazoreans were likely an ascetic sect “set apart” in special knowledge, religious purity, and asceticism.
Nazorean is a title, not a name, and does not likely refer to a town of Nazareth. The text evidence suggests “Jesus the Nazorean,” not Jesus from Nazareth, as in Acts of the Apostles 24:5, where the first followers of Jesus were called nazoraioi (nazoreans). The passage does not suggest that they all came from the same town, but rather that they belonged to the same religious group.
J. Spencer Kennard Jr. from Benedict College says:
“The tradition that Jesus lived at one time in Nazareth rests upon a misinterpretation of the term Nazorean, which … is not derived from “Nazareth.”
Nazorean and Nazareth, J. Spencer Kennard Jr. Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Mar., 1947), pp. 79-81.
Was Capernaum the Home of Jesus?, J. Spencer Kennard Jr., Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Jun., 1946), pp. 131-141.
The Names “Nazareth”and “Nazoraean,” by W. F. Albright, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Dec., 1946), pp. 397-401.
Judith Romney Wegner, at Connecticut College, suggests that the name may come from the Hebrew Natsar, to guard, or protect, a keeper of something hidden, or a watchman. It is possible, therefore, that the Nazoreans saw themselves as “guardians” of righteousness or of hidden teachings. This interpretation also supports the Gospel of Philip explanation: “he who reveals what is hidden.” Wegner says:
“There is NO epigraphic evidence [stone engravings, for Nazareth] before 3rd Century CE! The textual evidences from the manuscripts support the attribution (Jesus the Nazorean).
“Later, when there WAS a city called Nazareth, it is easy to see how people could have imagined that Notzerim meant “Nazarenes,” i.e., guys from Nazareth.”
Nazareth: Assigning “Nazareth” to a first century town raises three problems:
1. The difficulty of reconciling Mark 1:9, “Nazareth” with “Nazorean” used elsewhere, a title, not a reference to a town, suggesting to some scholars that Mark 1:9 is a later addition.
2. The lack of historic corroboration of a first century Nazareth. Jewish historian Josephus names 45 first century towns in Galilee, but no Nazareth. The Old Testament mentions no town of Nazareth, and neither do Paul’s letters, the Talmud, or ancient historians before the fourth century, when emperor Constantine’s mother Helena allegedly discovered the site and reported her find to court historian Eusebius (Historia Ecclesiastica, 1:7-14).
3. Scarce archaeological evidence: It is possible that a small village of Nazareth existed in the first century, and that Jesus lived there, but excavations have produced little evidence. Excavations by Benedict Vlaminck (1892), Prosper Viaud (1889-1909) and Bellarimo Bagatti (1950s) uncovered pre-Israelite, Canaanite tombs (2000-1000 BCE) and some Israelite tombs from about 200 BCE. The citizens of Yafa, about one kilometer away, used caves in the Nazareth region for burial. Some structural evidence suggests human habitation “near the time of the gospels“ (Richard Carrier) and “in the Roman Period” (Jack Finegan), i.e. 70 CE to the fourth century. After 135 CE, Jewish refugees from Roman violence settled the Nazareth site, leaving pottery, lamps, and glass vessels.
See Jack Finegan’s summary, “Nazareth in History and Archaeology,”
Useful books about Biblical archaeology:
The Archaeology of the New Testament, Jack Finegan (Princeton University Press, 1969, 1992)
Excavations in Nazareth, Bellarmino Bagatti (Franciscan Press, 1969)
Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus, Jonathan Reed (Trinity, 2000)
Excavating Jesus, John Dominic Crossan & Jonathan L. Reed (Harper, 2001)
The Jewish Jesus:
Rabbi Jesus, Bruce Chilton (Image, 2002)
Jesus the Jew, Géza Vermes (Fortress, 1981) and Jesus in His Jewish Context (2003)
Jesus and Judaism, E. P. Sanders (Fortress, 1987)
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, Paula Fredriksen, (Vintage, 2000)
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, John P. Meier, three volumes