Discover the hidden meanings with Hebrew
Many of us know that the meaning of Jesus’ name is “savior,” but this is only half of the truth. It may come as a surprise that Jesus of Nazareth was not actually called Jesus. The English name Jesus is based on the Greek pronunciation of his real Hebrew name, which was יהושע Yehoshua. In his own lifetime, his disciples probably referred to him using an abridged form of the name: Yeshu.
In the original Hebrew, the authentic meaning of Jesus’ name is “The Lord” (Yeho) “is salvation” (Yeshua). This is similar to countless other names in the Bible that begin with the letters Yeho, always a shorthand for the Lord’s sacred name Yahweh. For example, the name of Saul’s son, Yehonatan or Jonathan, means “the Lord has provided” and the name of the last king of Judah, Jehoiachin, means “the Lord has appointed”.
So, Jesus’ real name is the same as Joshua, a biblical hero who conquered Canaan more than a thousand years earlier. Since it begins with the sacred Hebrew letters יהו Yeho, Jesus’ identity is eternally tied to that of God. Touch the genuine world of the Bible by being able to utter biblical names in the original language of Israel. Enroll today in our live online Biblical Hebrew course and understand the depth of meaning in the Bible.