Jesus

Jesus (Greek: Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs), also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, is Christianity's central figure, both as Messiah and, for most Christians, as God incarnate. In Islam he is regarded as a very important prophet.

Names and titles

Main article: Names and titles of Jesus

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Jesus is derived from the Koine Greek Ιησους (Iēsoûs) via Latin. The earliest uses of Iēsoûs are found in the writings of Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and the Septuagint, as a transliteration of the Hebrew name Yehoshua (יהושע—known in English as Joshua when transliterated directly from Hebrew), and also Yeshua (ישוע). Jesus' original name is not reported by contemporary or near-contemporary sources, but modern scholars have suggested that Jesus' name was the Aramaic ישׁוע / Yēšûaʿ (as in the Syriac New Testament) a shortened form of Yehoshua used in Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles), which was a fairly common name at the time. Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, mentions no fewer than nineteen different people with this name, about half of them contemporaries of Jesus of Nazareth. Other Aramaic forms of the name include Yeshu`, Ishu`, and Eshu`. His patronymic would have been, bar Yosef, for "son of Joseph".

Related Topics:
Koine Greek - Latin - Philo of Alexandria - Josephus - Septuagint - Transliteration - Hebrew - Joshua - Hebrew - Yeshua - Aramaic - Syriac - Ezra - Nehemiah - Chronicles - Patronymic

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Some scholars speculate that Jesus was also known as "Bar Abba" ("Son of the Father") because many times in the Gospels he addressed God as "Father". The Aramaic word for "father" (Abba) survives still untranslated in Mark 14:36. Such speculations are largely in connection with further theories concerning Barabbas.

Related Topics:
Abba - Barabbas

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The Arabic form of the name used by Christians, following Syriac, is Yasu`. Muslims, following Qur'anic usage, refer to him by the name `Isa (possibly cognate with the Hebrew name Esau).

Related Topics:
Arabic - Syriac - Qur'an - Isa - Esau

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Christ is not a name but a title, which comes from the Greek Χριστός (Christos) via Latin, meaning anointed with chrism. The Greek form is a liberal translation of Messiah from Hebrew mashiach (משיח) or Aramaic m'shikha (משיחא), a word which occurs often in the Hebrew Bible and typically refers to the "high priest" or "king". The word mashiach in Hebrew means anointed (a cognate in English is "massage," from the Arabic for "vigorous rubbing with aromatic oils") , because the Israelite kings were anointed with oil. The title does not imply, either in Greek or in Hebrew, a divine nature for the possessor of it. In fact, it would seem prima facie that an inherently divine being would not be in need of being anointed. The title Christ is also sometimes identified with the Greek chrestos, meaning "good", although the words are unrelated in terms of etymology, and Chrestus was often used as a pet name for slaves.

Related Topics:
Christ - Greek - Latin - Anointed - Chrism - Hebrew Bible - King - Israelite - Prima facie - Etymology

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The Gospels record Jesus referring to himself both as Son of Man and as Son of God, but not as God the Son. However, some scholars have argued that Son of Man was an expression that functioned as an indirect first person pronoun, and that Son of God was an expression that signified "a righteous person". Evidence for these positions is provided by similar use by persons other than Jesus at a similar time to the writing of the Gospels, such as Jewish priests and judges.

Related Topics:
Son of Man - Son of God

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In the Gospels, Jesus has many other titles, including Prophet (a title that he applied to himself, unlike others), Lord, King of the Jews, and Rabboni. Together, the majority of Christians understand these titles as attesting to Jesus' divinity. Some historians argue that when used in other Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the time, these titles have other meanings, and therefore may have other meanings when used in the Gospels as well.

Related Topics:
Prophet - Lord - King of the Jews - Rabboni

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The title Jesus the Nazarene may be a reference to a place of origin called Nazareth, or to a Jewish sect called the Nazarenes. It is often translated Jesus of Nazareth to support the former hypothesis.

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Raymond E. Brown in Theological Studies #26 (1965) pp. 545–73, Does the NT call Jesus God? wrote that Mk 10:18, Lk18:19, Mt 19:17, Mk 15:34, Mt 27:46, Jn 20:17, Eph 1:17, 2 Cor 1:3, 1 Pt 1:3, Jn 17:3, 1 Cor 8:6, Eph 4:4–6, 1 Cor 12:4–6, 2 Cor 13:14, 1 Tm 2:5, Jn 14:28, Mk 13:32, Ph 2:5–10, 1 Cor 15:24–28 are "texts that seem to imply that the title God was not used for Jesus" and are "negative evidence which is often somewhat neglected in Catholic treatments of the subject." Also: "Jesus is never called God in the Synoptic Gospels, and a passage like Mk 10:18 would seem to preclude the possibility that Jesus used the title of himself. Even the fourth Gospel never portrays Jesus as saying specifically that he is God. The sermons which Acts attributes to the beginning of the Christian mission do not speak of Jesus as God. Thus, there is no reason to think that Jesus was called God in the earliest layers of New Testament tradition. This negative conclusion is substantiated by the fact that Paul does not use the title in any epistle written before 58." In his An Introduction to New Testament Christology, Appendix III, p.189, he wrote: "n three reasonably clear instances in the NT and in five instances that have probability, Jesus is called God. The use of God for Jesus that is attested in the early 2nd-century was a continuation of a usage that had begun in NT times. There is no reason to be surprised at this. Jesus is Lord was evidently a popular confessional formula in NT times, and in this formula Christians gave Jesus the title kyrios which was the Septuagint translation for YHWH. If Jesus could be given this title, why could he not be called God (theos), which the Septuagint often used to translate Elohim? The two Hebrew terms had become relatively interchangeable, and indeed YHWH was the more sacred term."

Related Topics:
Raymond E. Brown - Synoptic Gospels - Acts - New Testament - Paul - Pliny the Younger - Septuagint - YHWH - Elohim

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