Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Kevin L. Barney wrote:

> 1.  Is Yeshua simply a shortened Hebrew variant of Yehoshua, or is it an
> Aramaic form?  (Orthographic differences between Hebrew and Aramaic often
> seem to revolve around the letter hey, so I would guess it's Aramaic, but
> that is just a guess.)

Neither. Yehoshua (Joshua) can be broken up into:Yeho (Yahweh) + shua ("is 
salvation" or "is
opulence" - either a verb or noun)

Yeshua (Jesus), however, is simply a noun meaning "salvation" or "victory". 
There is no theophoric
(divine name) element in Yeshua as there is in YEHOshua. However, there is a 
suggestion that it is
simply an abbreviated form of Yehoshua. Either is possible.

> 2.  How do we derive Yeshua as the Semitic name of Jesus?  Do we work
> backwards from the Greek transliteration Iesous based on the names of other
> people named Yeshua, or is there some other evidence scholars have brought
> to bear on this question?

You can do that. But "Yeshua" was a very popular name in Jesus' day. There 
were numerous historical
persons bearing this name whom Josephus mentions. In addition, we have the 
evidence from Ezra and
Nehemiah of the priest "Yeshua" whose name is rendered into Greek as IHSOUS 
(eg, Ezra 3:2)..
Best regards
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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