The Name of Jesus
by Wally Jungers
by Wally Jungers
"The angel said to her,
'The Holy Spirit will come upon
you,
And the power of the Most High will
overshadow you;
Therefore the child to be born will be
holy;
He will be called Son of
God'."
Lk 1:35)
"After eight days had
passed,
It was time to circumcise the
child;
And he was called Jesus."
(Lk 2:21)
The name, Jesus, is of course a Greek
name, taken from Luke's Greek text. What Luke was translating was the Aramaic
name, Yesua, a late form of the Hebrew, Joshua. The name Yesua, or Yeshua, was
very common in New Testament times; it meant "Yahweh is salvation", which is
alluded to in Luke 2:21, and Matthew 1:21. Later, a title was attached to
Jesus' name, that of "Christos", which translates the Hebrew "Mesiah", the
"Annointed One". By saying the name Jesus Christ, Christians confessed their
belief that Yesua of Nazareth was Jesus the Messiah, the Annointed One.
Therefore, a very common Aramaic name,
Yesua, became an exalted name with a spiritual meaning: Yesua is the Annointed
One, the Messiah.
Jesus' name is mentioned by three Roman
historians:
1) Suetonius (Life of Claudius) says
that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of riots instituted by
Chrestos (sic);
2) Tacitus (Annals, 15,14) gives the
name by referring to "Chrestiani";
3) Pliny the Younger (Epistles, 10, 96)
writes that the Christians assemble on certain days before sunrise and sing
hymns in honor of Christ as a god.
The writing of the life of Jesus Christ
has been a major problem for New Testament scholars for the last one hundred
years. The consensus is that the life cannot be written because the data needed
for an historical biography does not exist. When the four Evangelists wrote
their gospels, they were not trying to write an historical biography, but,
rather, to present the object of Christian faith and preaching. The gospels were
written to be read aloud to small groups of the faithful in the manner of the
synagogue.
However, the compelling personality of
Jesus Christ that emerges from the Gospels is vividly real, reflecting his
historical presence.
Those who knew him and gave anecdotal
details about him (from which the Gospels were eventually written) understood
that there were depths in Him, which they could never hope to comprehend. And
so, too, it is with us, who study the Gospels and try to fathom the depths. We
might say with St. Paul:
"O bathos ploutou
Kai sophios
Kai gnoseos Theou".
Oh, the depths of
the riches
And the wisdom
And the knowledge of
God.
(Comments to Wally at wjungers@rcn.com.)