Editing Yeshua (section)

==Etymology==
{{Main|Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament}}
[[File:Yeshua hebreo.jpg|thumb|The Greek transliteration {{lang|grc|Ἰησοῦς}} ({{Transliteration|grc|Iēsous}}) *jesu-os → {{IPA|el|jeˈsus|}} can stand for both Classical Biblical Hebrew {{Transliteration|he|Yəhōšūaʿ}} {{IPA|he|jəhoˈʃuaʕ|}} (top two) and Late Biblical Hebrew {{Transliteration|he|Yēšūaʿ}} {{IPA|he|jeˈʃuaʕ|}} (bottom). This later form developed within Hebrew (not Aramaic).<ref name="Scripta Hierosolymitana">{{cite book |author=David Talmshir |orig-date=or David Talshir |chapter=Rabbinic Hebrew as Reflected in Personal Names |title=Scripta Hierosolymitana: Publications of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem |volume=37 |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Magnes Press: Hebrew University of Jerusalem |year=1998}}</ref> All three spelling variants occur in the Hebrew Bible, including when referring to the same person. During the Second Temple period, Jews of Galilee tended to preserve the traditional spelling, keeping the {{lang|he|ו}} letter for the {{IPA|[o]|cat=no}} in the first syllable, even adding another letter for the {{IPA|[u]}} in the second syllable. However, Jews of Jerusalem tended to spell the name as they pronounced it, {{IPA|[jeˈʃuaʕ]}}, contracting the spelling to {{lang|he|ישוע}} without the {{IPA|[o]}} letter. Later, Aramaic references to the Hebrew Bible adopted the contracted phonetic form of this Hebrew name as an Aramaic name.]]

The name {{lang|he|יֵשׁוּעַ}}, {{Transliteration|he|Yeshua}} (transliterated in the English Old Testament as Jeshua), is a late form of the Biblical Hebrew name {{lang|he|יְהוֹשֻׁעַ}}, {{Transliteration|he|Yehoshua}} (Joshua), and spelled with a {{Transliteration|he|waw}} in the second syllable. The Late Biblical Hebrew spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric element {{Transliteration|he|Yeho-}} to {{Transliteration|he|Yo-}}. Thus, {{lang|he|יהוחנן}}, {{Transliteration|he|Yehochanan}}, contracted to {{lang|he|יוחנן}}, {{Transliteration|he|Yochanan}}.<ref name="Scripta Hierosolymitana"/>

Yeshua in Hebrew is a verbal derivative from "to rescue", "to deliver".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |title=[[Brown-Driver-Briggs]] [A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament] |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |year=1996 |isbn=1-56563-206-0}}</ref> Among the Jews of the Second Temple period, the [[Biblical Aramaic]]/Hebrew name {{lang|he|יֵשׁוּעַ}}, {{Transliteration|he|Yēšūaʿ}} was common: the Hebrew Bible mentions several individuals with this name – while also using their full name Joshua. This name is a feature of biblical books written in the post-Exilic period ([[Book of Ezra|Ezra]], [[Book of Nehemiah|Nehemiah]], and [[Books of Chronicles|Chronicles]]) and was found in the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], though Haggai and Zechariah prefer the spelling Joshua. [[Strong's Concordance]] connects the name {{lang|he|יֵשׁוּעַ}}, {{Transliteration|he|Yēšūaʿ}}, in the English form Jeshua (as used in multiple instances in Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles), with the verb "to deliver" (or, "to rescue").<ref name="ReferenceA"/> It is often translated as "He saves," to conform with Matthew 1:21:<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|1:21|NASB}}</ref> "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins".<ref>"The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers 1990)</ref>

The name {{lang|he|ישוע}} occurs in the Hebrew of the Old Testament at verses Ezra 2:2, 2:6, 2:36, 2:40, 3:2, 3:8, 3:9, 3:10, 3:18, 4:3, 8:33; Nehemiah 3:19, 7:7, 7:11, 7:39, 7:43, 8:7, 8:17, 9:4, 9:5, 11:26, 12:1, 12:7, 12:8, 12:10, 12:24, 12:26; 1 Chronicles 24:11; and 2 Chronicles 31:15, and also in Aramaic at Ezra 5:2. In Nehemiah 8:17 this name refers to Joshua son of Nun, the successor of Moses, as leader of the Israelites. In earlier English (where adaptations of names of Biblical figures were generally based on the Latin [[Vulgate]] forms), Yeshua was generally transcribed identically to "Jesus" in English.

The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua": {{Transliteration|he|Yeho-}} ({{lang|he|יְהוֹ}}) is another form of {{lang|he|יָהו}}, {{Transliteration|he|Yahu}}, a theophoric element standing for the name of God, {{lang|he|יהוה}} (the [[Tetragrammaton]] YHWH, sometimes transcribed into English as [[Yahweh]]), and {{lang|he|שׁוּעַ}}, {{Transliteration|he|shua'}} is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry",<ref>"וֹשֻׁשׁוּעַ", Ernest Klein, ''A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language'' (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company 1987), where it means "a cry for help".</ref><ref>"וֹשֻׁשׁוּעַ", William L. Holladay, ''A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament'' (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1971), where it means "a cry for help".</ref><ref>"שָׁוַע", M. Jastrow, ''Dictionary of the Talmud'' reprinted (Jerusalem: Khorev 1990), where שׁוֹשֻׁוּעַ is explained by the verb "to cry for help",</ref> that is to say, a shout given when in need of rescue.

Another explanation for the name Yehoshua is that it comes from the root {{lang|he|ישע}}, {{Transliteration|he|yod-shin-ʿayin}}, meaning "to deliver, save, or rescue". According to the [[Book of Numbers]] verse 13:16, the name of Joshua, the son of Nun was originally {{Transliteration|he|[[Hoshea]]ʿ}} ({{lang|he|הוֹשֵעַ}}), and the name {{Transliteration|he|Yehoshuaʿ}} ({{lang|he|יְהוֹשֻׁעַ}}) is usually spelled the same but with a {{Transliteration|he|[[yodh|yod]]}} added at the beginning. "Hosheaʿ" certainly comes from the root {{lang|he|ישע}}, {{Transliteration|he|yasha}}, {{Transliteration|he|yod-shin-ʿayin}} (in the [[Hif'il]] form the {{Transliteration|he|yod}} becomes a {{Transliteration|he|waw}}), and not from the word {{lang|he|שוע}}, {{Transliteration|he|šûaʿ}}.)<ref>{{cite book |title=Jewish Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Funk and Wagnalls]] |date=1901-06-19 |entry=JOSHUA (JEHOSHUA) |entry-url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=544&letter=J&search=Joshua%20bin%20Nun}}</ref>

In the 1st century, [[Philo of Alexandria]], in a Greek exposition, offered this understanding of Moses's reason for the name change of the biblical hero [[Jehoshua]]/Joshua son of Nun from Hoshea (similar to {{Transliteration|he|hoshiaʿ}}, meaning "He rescued") to Yehoshua in commemoration of his salvation: "And {{lang|grc|Ιησους}} refers to salvation of the Lord" [{{lang|grc|Ιησους}} or {{Transliteration|grc|Iesous}} being the Greek form of the name] ({{lang|grc|Ἰησοῦ δὲ σωτηρία κυρίου}}) (''On the Change of Names'' 21.121).<ref>{{cite book|last=Farber|first=Zev |title=Images of Joshua in the Bible and Their Reception |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9rKvDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 |date=11 July 2016|publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-034336-6 |page=159|quote=[Per Philo's interpretation of the name Joshua as "salvation of the Lord"] since Joshua [Hoshea] is such an excellent person, it would be more fitting for him to receive this "most excellent of names" (ὄνομα τῆς άρίστης). [On the Change of Names - De Mutatione Nominum - ''Mut.'']}}</ref>

Similarly, the [[Septuagint]]<ref>{{citation |last=Taylor |first=Bernard Alwyn |title=Analytical lexicon to the Septuagint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JNaDupoSycMC&pg=PA286 |year=2009 |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |isbn=978-1-56563-516-6 |page=286 |quote=[New Testament uses Ἰησοῦ as the dative, Septuagint uses] Ἰησοῖ&nbsp;&nbsp;pr noun masc dat sg . . . . Ἰησοῦς}}</ref> renders [[Ben Sira]] as saying (in the Greek form of the name): "{{lang|grc|Ιησους}} the son of Naue [Yehoshua Ben Nun] who ''according to his name'' became great unto [the] salvation/deliverance of his chosen ones" ({{lang|grc|Ἰησοῦς Ναυῆ .. ὃς ἐγένετο κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ μέγας ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ ἐκλεκτῶν αὐτοῦ}}) (Ben Sira 46:1–2). However, [[Ben Sira]] originally wrote in Hebrew in the second century BC, and the only extant Hebrew manuscript for this passage has "in his days" ({{lang|he|בימיו}}), not "according to his name" (which would be {{lang|he|כשמו}} in Hebrew),<ref>{{cite book |last=Segel |first=Moshe Tsvi |title=Sefer Ben-Sira Hash-Shalem |publisher=Mosad Byalik |year=1953 |entry=Chapter 46 verse 2 |pages=317}}</ref> and thus does not comment on the name Yehoshua as connoting {{lang|he|יְּשׁוּעָה}} "deliverance": "Yehoshua Ben Nun, who was formed to be ''in his days'' a great deliverer for his chosen ones" ({{lang|he|יהושע בן נון... אשר נוצר להיות בימיו תשועה גדלה לבחיריו}}).