VoxRat

If Jesus = Joshua, I guess it's still a common name.

But it's interesting that in English-speaking cultures, no one names their kid Jesus. At least in some Spanish-speaking cultures (Mexico for sure; I don't know about others) it is common.

A little thought experiment: what effect would being named "Jesus" have on your typical American youngster?

Clouseau

Another test would be to translate it, and 'Joshua', too. So when Jesus and Joshua turn up at school for roll call, they would answer 'God is salvation' or 'Yahweh is salvation'.

Gorit Maqueda

In Spain it's a very common name. My nephew, a colleague of mine, my baker, all of them are called Jesus. Manuel (Emmanuel) is even more common: my boss, two colleagues, a neighbor, two friends, all of them are called Manuel. When I first noticed that Jesus was a kind of taboo word in English-speaking countries, I was very, very surprised.

Clouseau

It's taboo as a name. I think most English-speakers are surprised to find that Spanish-speakers dare to use the name of the (supposed) deity as an ordinary name, when it is not an ethnically derived one.

VoxRat

Which is the exception: Spanish speaking cultures or English speaking cultures?

squiz

I think TJ is Traditional Jesus but I am not sure what FJ is. Could you please outline this for those of us who have missed the original thread? Maybe it deserves a thread of its own.

I am not sure exactly what you mean here, but doesn't Paul refer to Apollos who came before him, but who only knew of the baptism of John?

squiz

I believe the Spanish are the exception. I know of no other culture who would name someone Jesus. The Italians don't and the Germans certainly don't. Not sure about the French though, but I am not aware that they do.

spin

FJ (fictional Jesus) is a conspiracy theory. Someone or some bunch just made him up for whatever reasons the theorists imagine, dupe the masses, control them, as a joke, as an intellectual exercise, whatever.

The baptism movement existed beside christianity. John is independently testified to by Josephus. Christianity, in the guise of the gospels, admits that baptism was already there. Apollos, according to Acts, is evidence that the baptism movement existed at the time of Paul and the baptism movement struggled on without Jesus until the present age with the Mandaeans in Iraq, if they haven't been disappeared.

It is christianity which has yoked baptism to itself. That doesn't mean that baptism is solely a part of christianity. Christianity is in fact incidental to the baptism movement.


spin