How many Jesuses?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=120 BGCOLOR="#FFCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0443f781egdyul.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" ><B>Proclaim His Praise in the Islands - the Hallowells</B></FONT> <B> </B><B>|    </B><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Proclaim His Praise in the Islands the "><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=360 BGCOLOR="#CCFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> How many Jesuses?</div> <bR> <div> Last Sunday, March 4, 2007, our church bulletin included an <A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="070304 FDFC Bulletin Insert"><U>insert I had written on 2/28/07 in relationship to the </U></A><A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="070304 FDFC Bulletin Insert"><U><I>Lost Tomb of Jes</I></U></A><A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="070304 FDFC Bulletin Insert"><U>us to be shown later that day on the Discovery Channel</U></A>.  That bulletin insert included the following:</div> <div> <I><B>“P.S.  Just for fun: In the New Testament, how many different men with the name 'Jesus' are mentioned?  I have a prize for the first person who approaches me before 12 noon today with the right answer.”</B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" >Here is my answer:  </FONT>(<A HREF="id148.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jesuses in NT short"><U>a shorter answer</U></A>)</div> <bR> <div> It seems like such a simple question.  Yet, the challenge of finding the answer illustrates both the difficulty and joy of reading and studying the Bible.</div> <bR> <div> The basic problem is simple: the Bible wasn't originally written in English.  There is a related problem.   The Old Testament and the New are not originally written in the same language (OT: mostly Hebrew with some Aramaic; NT: Greek with a few Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin words).    </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" >The name “Jesus” is the English equivalent of the Greek name “</FONT> )Ihsou=$”.  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#009900" FACE="Arial" > For those who don't know the Greek alphabet, this is “Iesous” in the English alphabet and pronounced something like “ee-ay-sooce”.   [Don't spend too much time learning this pronunciation.  It is not likely that Jesus' family used Greek in their daily conversation.  So, when Mary called Jesus in to eat dinner, she almost certainly would have used the Aramaic, something like `Yehoshua' (Joshua)].</FONT></div> <bR> <div> So, it would be possible to interpret my question in the bulletin insert as a trick question and to say that no one in the Bible was called `Jesus', since no one was called by our English version of the name.  This is not an insignificant point - the makers of the “<I>Lost Tomb of Jesus</I>” have precisely the same challenge.</div> <bR> <div> Several answered my question by using an English Concordance.  This is a great approach!  But, to use this approach changes the question to “To how many different men in the New Testament does the <I>King James Version</I> (or the version the concordance you used is based on) give the English name `Jesus'?”</div> <bR> <div> The answer to this question would be 2, 3, or 4.</div> <bR> <div> All the English translations I know of refer to two men with the name “Jesus” in the NT:</div> <div> 1)  Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, as we would all expect!</div> <div> 2)  A Jewish colleague of Paul when he wrote to the Colossians, also called “Justus” (Col. 4:11)</div> <bR> <div> Few English translations have the third `Jesus':</div> <div> 3)  Jesus Barabbas in Matthew 27:16-17.  The NKJV preserves his whole name in a footnote.  For historical reasons, though, most English translations simplify this man's name to merely “Barabbas”.  Pilate essentially asked the crowd, “Which Jesus do you want to be freed?”</div> <bR> <div> 4?)  There may be a fourth `Jesus'.  That may be the father of Elymas, the Jewish sorcerer in Paphos, Cyprus, as mentioned in Acts 13:6-8.  That would be case if his name `Bar-Jesus' (which means `son of Jesus') refers literally to his father and isn't just a nickname (like Barnabas, “The son of encouragement”, a nickname for Joseph of Cyprus, a character in the same story).  It is possible that the father of Elymas was named `Jesus'.  We'll never know.  Sources like Kittel's 10 volume <I>Theological Dictionary of the New Testament</I> and <I>Nelsons New Bible Dictionary</I> would not, though, assume that `Bar-Jesus' refers to a man named `Jesus'.</div> <bR> <div> But, my question was <I>“In the New Testament, how many different men with the name 'Jesus' are mentioned?”</I>   I assumed, perhaps unfairly, that since `Jesus' is the English version of the Greek `Iesous', the answer should be based not on the English translations, but on the Greek text.  `Iesous' is also the Greek version of the Hebrew name (<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="PCSB Hebrew" >u^Wvohy= </FONT>Yehowshuwa` or Yehowshu`a) that we call in English “Joshua”.  There are two additional men mentioned in the New Testament with the Greek name `Iesous'.  They are: </div> <div> 1)  Iesous the son of Nun, successor to Moses, and conqueror of the holy land (Acts 7:45, Heb. 4:8), who we know better as Joshua, which is why virtually all our English Bibles bypass the Greek and just call him “Joshua” to avoid language confusion.</div> <div> 2)  Iesous the father or ancestor of Er and son or descendent of Eliezer in the genealogy of Jesus, Luke 3:29.  Almost all English Bibles again skip the Greek version and just use `Joshua' as the English version (my NASB-Updated has `Jesus' as a footnote here).</div> <bR> <div> The answer I was looking for on March 4 was five, though I would have also accepted six.  No one had either answer, so I ended up not giving any prizes.  </div> <bR> <div> Of course, the main point of the exercise is that even if all you have is an English Bible (and a concordance), you would find at least 2-4 men named `Jesus' in the Bible.  Access to Greek (or merely use of a decent Bible Dictionary, something every Christian ought to have) would give you 5-6.  We know from other sources that `Jesus' was a very common name, as it continues to be in much of the Hispanic world.  To find a first century tomb in Israel where someone called `Jesus' (if that is indeed the actual inscription), or even `Jesus the son of Joseph', is buried is not too different in principle than finding graves marked `John Smith' in an American cemetery.  (I'm not sure we have enough of the raw data necessary to calculate the statistical likelihood of either of those cases.  It is enough to say there would be no reason to be surprised by either.)  </div> <bR> <div> I started this answer with the premise that “the challenge of finding the answer illustrates both the difficulty and joy of reading and studying the Bible.”</div> <bR> <div> The challenge is simple: it can take a lot of hard work to study a book written to people very different from me, who spoke another language in another time and place.  Who has time or interest in that?  Many say "I am too busy trying to survive here and now.  Give me something practical."  </div> <bR> <div> Of course, God wants all of us see things from His perspective, in light of eternity and all of his creation, so the Bible works pretty well in forcing us out of the tyranny of our here and now, at least if we let it.</div> <bR> <div> The joy is also simple: no book is written to answer every question.  I don't read the manual that came with our car to discover tips and tricks for loving my wife.  It would be ridiculous to do so.  Nor are the books in the Bible written to answer every question.  The New Testament was NOT written to answer the question “How common was the name `Jesus' in that time and place?”.  </div> <bR> <div> But, if you want to know “Who is Jesus and why should I consider following him?” then the gospels give a clear and compelling answer that is accessible in English (and other modern languages!) without knowledge of Greek.  </div> <bR> <div> If you want to know “How did God work in history so that the Jews were able to come to know Him and that the way was prepared for Jesus to come?” then the Old Testament isn't really that difficult to figure out.  </div> <bR> <div> If you want to know, “Now that I am part of a group that is following Jesus together, what should we do?” then the letters in the New Testament have answers that are pretty easy to understand (though not necessarily easy to actually do).   </div> <bR> <div> The answers to these and similar questions are wonderful news.   This good news can put us into a wonderful relationship with the triune God, the creator and sovereign Lord of all.  Joy, now and forever.  </div> <bR> <div> God has acted!  God has spoken!  To us, here and now, and to all His people anywhere at any time!  I struggle to think of something more practical than that.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> by Jay and Amor Hallowell</div> <div> Last update: March 7, 2007</div> <div> --------------------------------- end of Hallowell content ----------------------------------------------</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>