GakuseiDon

The Hebrew word "Messiah" became "Christos" in Greek, and, according to Tertullian, the name "Christ" was sometimes confused with "Chrestus" ("good") in Latin.

According to Strong's, Jesus means "Jehovah is salvation". I was wondering if something similar ever happened when "Yeshu" was transliterated into Greek or Latin as "Jesus", etc? Were there any variations to the name "Jesus" in Greek or Latin that did have meaning attached to them?

Peter Kirby

Yeshua is a short form of the name Yehoshua, which has the meaning indicated.

I don't know of any meaning of IHSOUS in Greek. There is a word for savior, though, and it is SWTHR (soter).

best,
Peter Kirby

CX

No. IHSOUS is a straight transliteration of the Hebrew. It has no meaning in Greek.

spin

Just to throw a little spanner in the works, Liddell & Scott give Iasw as the name of a goddess of "healing and health" and is found in Pausanius Descr. 1.34.3, as IASOUS. The Ionian form has an eta instead of the alpha, so if Pausanius had been writing in Ionian one would expect IHSOUS.

And the brother of Onias III, whose name was Yeshua, was called Jason in Greek texts. For Jason, Homer gives IHSWN in Odd. 12:72.


spin

GakuseiDon

Thanks all for your replies.

spin

I wonder, through the process of overdetermination (ie nothing is ever done for a single simple reason but is overladen with reasons), whether the choice of the name IHSOUS, as a name for the xian saviour who went around healing people, was influenced by the fact that IASIS (in Ionic, IHSIS) meant "healing".


spin

Vorkosigan

Hey spin, didn't Onias III appear to the Maccabees after he was 'cut off' (Dan 9:26)?? I seem to remember....

Vorkosigan

spin

The term "Maccabees" is a misnomer. There was only one, Judas, the Hammer (Maccabee). The rest are of the Hasmonean family, to which Judas was later added apocryphally. However, Onias III did appear to Judas, 2 Macc 15:12ff.


spin

Mathetes

Probably not what you are looking for, but χÏ?ηστός is actually a relatively common Greek adjective that means "useful, good, kind, proper". It is quite reasonable to believe that it passed from Greek to Latin, and not the other way round.

It has been suggested that the real original title of Jesus was "Jesus the Good" instead of "Jesus the Messiah", and then someone confused the two words and forced later apologists to insert Jesus into Jewish credentials that were alien to him at the beginning of the cult.

This, of course, is speculation.

Edited to add: trying to answer the question, I cannot think of anything meaningful that Ἰησοῦς may mean in Greek.

Angyson

To this day, to celebrate Easter according to the Greek Orthodox calendar, Greeks announce : Xristos Anesti or Christ has Risen ! We light candles that are passed from person to person and crack Easter eggs against each other.