The RAVYN Blog

It’s the question of the century: Where did the name ‘Jesus’ come from?

There are groups of people who argue against the validity of Christ using the idea that, because the letter ‘J’ wasn’t invented until 1524, Jesus didn’t exist. 

While highly compelling, this argument isn’t quite an accurate depiction of where we get the name ‘Jesus’ from, nor is it a sustainable argument against the existence of Christ. 

However, the problem lies within the context of why we use the name Jesus … or if we should be using it at all. 

Why Use ‘Jesus’?

Here are two things we can take away from this: 

• We currently ascribe ‘Jesus’ to the Messiah and Son of God, who came, died, and was resurrected during the first century AD. 
• Jesus is a transliteration of his actual given name—and we know what his given name is.

However, I beg to ask: should we continue using the name ‘Jesus’ now that we know His true name? 

The short answer is that it’s okay to use the name Jesus as long as you know the original name, its significance to your faith, and its meaning. 

The long answer? Well … it’s wrapped up in this mini series right here. 

Our Mini Series Discussion

Throughout this series, we’ll look at five important details:

• The name given to Moses during the Exodus and how it shaped the Israelites’ identity in God
• The Angel of the Lord in both Exodus and Judges
• The Erasure of God’s name during the Babylonian Exile and how it was restored in Isaiah
• The name given to Mary in 4 BCE, Judea, during Roman occupation
• The Etymology and History of the name of Jesus

The History of the Letter ‘J’

Before we begin, we need to clarify a popular misconception. The misconception is that ‘J’ wasn’t invented yet; thus, words that we now use that begin with ‘J’ never existed. This is far from the truth. The letter ‘J’ represents a consonant sound used throughout history.

In fact, while J didn’t exist in the English alphabet, the letter ‘I’ did. Initially, the letter ‘J’ represented the sound that ‘Y’ would make (example, in the word ‘yet’), and there was no distinction in pronunciation between J and I, which were commonly used interchangeably. 

We still have many languages (take, for example, Spanish) that pronounce the letter ‘J’ like our English ‘Y’. When this letter was used, its pronunciation was similar to other letters representing the ‘Y’ sound. It wasn’t until later that J carried a distinct sound for itself. 

In Roman history, ‘I’ had a vowel sound (y as in ‘yet’) and a ‘G’ consonant sound (as in ‘ginger’). The letter ‘I’ took on both these identities because early Greek and Roman writing didn’t have a distinct ‘Y’ sound for the vowel sound of the letter ‘I’. 

Slowly, I would morph into a letter looking like ‘J’, usually due to creating a distinction between the capital ‘I’ and the lowercase ‘i’. However, both J and I represented the same vowel and consonant sounds for some time. 

Slowly, ‘J’ began to take on a distinct ‘dz’ sound (as in Beijing), for which it would stand until later, when its consonant sound slowly took on a harder and sharper variant of the ‘dz’ sound (as in ‘juice’). 

How Does a Letter Impact What We Know of Christ?

It shouldn’t, but this is an argument that is made by many when it comes to the word ‘Jesus’. Before the letter ‘J’ was introduced, ‘Jesus’ was spelled as ‘Iesus’, and how this was pronounced is quite unclear. 

‘I’ was used for ‘Y’ as the Greek didn’t have this letter, while the Aramaic and Greek alphabets did. However, because I was used both for the ‘Y’ sound and the distinct ‘dz’ (or ‘J’) sound, how the Greeks might’ve pronounced it would perhaps differ from person to person. 

We’ll dive more into how the name Jesus came about when we deal with the name’s etymology. However, understanding these minute differences in letter pronunciation and how various letters were used can give you a footing on navigating arguments stemming from the name ‘Jesus’. 

Until Next Time…

I’ll be doing this short series alongside the All About the Trinity series that’ll take place next week. The purpose of doing this would be to mitigate having to explain the name ‘Jesus’ within the Trinity Series and give curious minds a head start on who Christ is and what He means to us. 

What’s in a Name Sessions will take place every Wednesday at noon as a part of my Lunch and Learn Bible Study Sessions. Here, we talk about topical situations and how our faith in Christ would challenge how we view them. Some For Inquiring Minds Only questions will also be answered as a mini-series during the Lunch and Learn Sessions. 

I welcome healthy discussions in the comments section and encourage you to share your thoughts and insights on the blog. 

Remember that our best teacher and guide is the Holy Spirit. Pray for clarity and understanding before reading through a session, and feel free to ask questions. 

Signed,

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