Jesus or Yashua?
This is a very strange discussion for me. I mean, you'd think that we can at least get the name of our Lord and Savior right. Right?
And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
- Luke 2:21 (KJV)
Most people use the name Jesus, or some small variant to that, but the new name for Jesus that has surfaced recently, Yashua (Hebrew), sounds nothing like Jesus. To make matters worse, some people now think that the name Jesus is blasphemy, e.g. coming from the Greek god Zeus or something. How weird is that?
Which one is correct?
The New Testament is written in Greek, and there are literally thousands of manuscripts that prove that. No Hebrew manuscripts of the New Testament have ever been found.
It wasn't uncommon for people to speak multiple languages in those days (lots of trade, etc). The apostles spoke Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.
This means, that the Greek name for Jesus found in the New Testament is the closest we have to Jesus' real name.
Note that we have no way of knowing exactly how Jesus' name was pronounced 2,000 years ago, but the Greek New Testament is simply the closest we can get. That's how the apostles wrote it down in all the books of the New Testament.
The Greek name for Jesus is Iésous. The King James Version then translated that to Jesus. Both the Greek and English version use this name consistently throughout the New Testament.
Please note that at first Jesus was translated as Iesus, and later as Jesus. This is because the J was only added later to the English alphabet. I don't think it really matters because Iesus sounds very similar to Jesus.
So you see, if you track the progression from the Greek word to the English word, you can see that Jesus is correct.
Think about it. Did the New Testament really get it wrong? Did the apostles make a mistake when they wrote down the name of Jesus?
The King James Version was translated by people that had the Holy Spirit on them. Did they get it wrong too?
No way, Jesus is the rightful name of our Lord and Savior, the Son of God.
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
- Acts 4:10-12 (KJV)
Almost all languages in the world use something that is very similar to Jesus.
For more information on this, please click here.