Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Shocker: Jesus wasn't called "Jesus?"

ARAMAIC WATCH!! Scientists reveal Jesus' REAL name - and say it wasn't 'Jesus' after all (Wiliam Hunter, Daily Mail).

The Mail has noticed that the name "Jesus" would have been pronounced differently in first-century Aramaic:

Jesus, as we would say it today with a hard 'J', wasn't a name that existed at the time of Jesus' life.

Instead, Jesus himself would have used a name in his native language of Aramaic.

Professor Houtman says: 'His name would probably have been in Aramaic: Yeshua.

'It is likely that this is also how he introduced himself. Another possibility is the shorter form Yeshu which is the form used in later rabbinic literature.'

Yes, all well and good. And the article includes some useful background information.

The amusing part is the way the Mail, and the media who have picked up the story, are treating this as a groundbreaking new discovery. The headlines especially, but the articles themselves leave that impression.

Experts Have Discovered Jesus’ Real Name, Which Was Not Jesus (Nathan Falde, Ancient Origins)

Jesus’ real name wasn’t Jesus, scientists claim — here’s why (Ben Cost, New York Post)

Scientists claim to have discovered the real name of Jesus Christ and it's not what we thought. The real name, according to the language Jesus spoke, could be Yezhua (AUSTIN CALDWELL, Marca)

As I said, the information is generally accurate. But the media's sensationalist framing is both funny and sad.

UPDATE: Richard Bauckham has written to point out that I could have clarified that the name Jesus/Yeshua is Hebrew, not Aramaic, and that most ancient Aramaic-speaking Jews had Hebrew names.

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