Greek Name
Iēsous / Jesus
Iēsous
Ἰησοῦς
- Meaning
- Greek transcription of Yeshua; same meaning — 'YHWH saves'.
- Occurrences
- ~917 times in the Greek New Testament
- First occurrence
- Matthew 1:1
- Languages
- Koine GreekLatinEarly Modern English
Pronunciation
ee-ay-SOOS in Koine; the English 'Jesus' comes via Latin Iesus and the later J/I split.
Origin
Used in the Septuagint for Joshua from at least the 2nd century BCE. Latin took it as Iesus; medieval and early modern printers differentiated consonantal I as J, producing 'Jesus' in English by the 17th century — the KJV's 1611 first edition still printed 'Iesus'.
Usage & scribal practice
The universal New Testament form; the manuscripts abbreviate it as a nomen sacrum (ΙΣ or ΙΗΣ with an overline).
Cross-references
Matthew 1:21
The naming and its explanation.
Philippians 2:9–11
'the name that is above every name' — Kyrios applied to Jesus.
Acts 4:12
'there is no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved.'
How translations render it
Theories, myths & conspiracy claims
Each claim is stated as its proponents state it, then assessed against the manuscript and linguistic evidence.
Nomina sacra
The claim: Early Christian scribes abbreviated divine names with contracted forms and overlines.
Assessment: Verifiable in almost every early New Testament manuscript, including P46, P66, and Codex Sinaiticus. It is one of the earliest indicators that scribes treated 'Jesus' as a divine name.
The letter J was invented, so 'Jesus' is fake
The claim: Since J did not exist until the 16th century, the name is a modern fabrication.
Assessment: A change in orthography is not a change in referent. By the same reasoning 'Jerusalem', 'Judah', and 'John' would all be fabrications. Names legitimately change form across languages and centuries.