While it is important not to belittle those who don’t yet know better, the fact remains that the Savior’s Name isn’t ‘Jesus’ and never was till within the last 500 years.
Yet it is also not true that Jesus derived from one of the various names of lesser gods or demi -gods of the Greek pantheons. And it does not originate from a term meaning “hail zeus” as is often claimed among many Messy-anics.
A small amount of knowledge in philology is all it takes to suss out the source of ‘Jesus’ if one is seriously seeking truth over tradition.
The letter “j” didn’t exist 600 years ago but it wasn’t invented to manufacture another letter of the alphabet. As so often happens especially in English a new symbol developed out of use and misuse of a language. “I” and “i” began to be written as “J” and “j” in the beginning of words but still sounding like “Y.”
“Iesus” was the Latin transliteration of the Greek “iesous” which was their best transliteration of Yeshua. There’s no “sh” in Greek and “a” endings are feminine in Greek while “us” are masculine so what would otherwise have been “iesua” based on sound alone became “iesous” instead under Greek grammar rules.
What happened to change the pronunciation of “j” was the Norman invasion.
The French ruled England for 300 years and imposed French language and culture on the English. The French pronounced “Jj” as a sound we don’t have in English sort of like a soft “g” with how we think of “j” sounding plus a bit of “sh” sound thrown in.
The English in an attempt to speak the French way of saying “iesus” in an English manner hardened the “J” and thus was born “Jesus”.
Feliz Navidad.
Then the British empire in time took the KJV around the world to all their colonies and presto chango “Iesus” became “Jesus.”
Ignorance and stubbornness backdated Jesus onto the first century Yeshua and His new believers are none the wiser today. But no.
Jesus has no meaning.
Iesus has no meaning.
Iesous has no meaning.
They are only sounds from one language attempting to replicate the sounds from another language. Simple and straightforward.
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