Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl01107)

In message <9606292159.AA31931@toto.csustan.edu>, Jerry Hejka-Ekins
<jhe@toto.csustan.edu> writes
>
>Abrantes writes:
>Jesus means in Hebrew: "God saves."

This is the meaning of the Hebrew name usually rendered "Joshua" but if
pronounced letter for letter in English comes out as Yehoshua.

> At the annunciation, the
>>angel Gabriel gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which
>>expresses both his identity and his mission.[18]

"Jesus" is reported to have been born at a time when the common language
of the people of Galilee was Aramaic, and it is still the Armaic form of
his name which is used by the remanant Aramaic speaking churches.  This
is spelt Yod Shin Wau Aleph, but as Aramaic sticks an Aleph on the end
of just about every noun, the root of the name is Yod Shin Wau, which,
if you hear it pronounced by an Aramaic speaker comes out something like
"Ishoo" - similar to a sneeze.  It means, not "God saves," but "He
saves," which ties in with the NT idea (skip the Angel Gabriel stuff,
which is almost certainly a later story tacked onto the beginning of the
Churches' gospels of Matthew and Luke.)
>
>Since Jesus, is a Greek name, it is more likely that Gabriel gave
>the savior in the Christian New Testament a Hebrew name such as
>Joshua or Jehoshua.  Jesus is a Greek translation of these.

Well ... more like a transliteration.  It comes in two spellings, with
and without the final 's'. (In the Greek).  In two sections of Matthew's
gospel, he is first said to have been called Jesus at the behest of the
messenger of YHWH (1:21) but later (1:23) he is also a fulfillment of a
prophecy which says he shall be called "Immanuel" (God with us).  Matt.
1:18-21 is seen as a different section of original text from 1:22-25.
The gospel accounts *as we have received them* are well know by scholars
to be rescensions (edited versions) of earlier material, and the
earliest complete surviving text is as late as 208 c.e. (a.d.).  That
these stories contain eye-witness accounts is probable, but these will
not have survived the passage of time very well.  John's account is the
most interesting - no birth stories, but he knows *how many jars* there
were at the wedding feast at Cana ...
>
>>436 The word "Christ" comes from the Greek translation of the
>>Hebrew Messiah, which means "anointed". It became the name
>>proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the
>>divine mission that "Christ" signifies.
>
>Yes, one is a "translation" of the other, but the words do not
>have quite the same meaning, so the translation is not a very
>good one, but perhaps the closest they could come.  The Messiah
>in Hebrew tradition is anointed with oils, and refers to a
>political King who was to bring world peace.

Well, in Israelite tradition, any old king, whether he brought peace or
not.  They had their own version of the "divine right of kings."

>  The reason why the
>Jews never accepted Jesus as their expected Messiah is because he
>was not a King in the political sense, and he did not bring
>peace.

Some "Jews" did, and some of them were Pharisees, but - my own research
suggests they would have understood Messiah/Christ in the metaphysical
sense anyway.

Alan.
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