Ἰησοῦς

An angel speaks to a frightened carpenter in a dream. The carpenter has discovered that his fiancée is pregnant; he has been planning to dismiss her quietly to spare her public shame; he has not yet decided what to do when the angel arrives in the night. The angel tells Joseph that the child Mary carries is from the Holy Spirit, that the child must be received, that the child will save His people from their sins.

And the angel tells Joseph what to name the child.

“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, ESV)

The name comes with its own explanation. You shall call his name Jesus — the personal name, the name a Jewish boy would carry through Galilee. For he will save his people from their sins — the reason. The two halves of the verse interpret each other. The name IS the mission. The name IS the announcement of what the child has come to do.

This is what the Greek New Testament knows that English Bible readers often miss. In Greek the name is Iēsous. Iēsous is the Septuagint’s transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua, which is itself a shortened form of Yehoshua — the name we know in English as Joshua. And Yehoshua is a compound of two Hebrew elements: Yeho- (a shortened form of YHWH, the personal divine name) and -shua (from yasha’, the verb meaning “to save” or “to deliver”). Put the parts together and the name means YHWH saves — or, with slight variation, YHWH is salvation.

The name itself is a creed. To say His name is to confess that the LORD saves through this Person. Matthew’s etymological gloss in 1:21 is not exegetical decoration; it is the announcement of the gospel in the form of a baby’s name. The carpenter and his wife are told to name the child what the child is: YHWH saves.

Volume One opened with logos — the Word made flesh. Volume Two has spent seven chapters considering, from one angle after another, who that Word made flesh is: theos and patēr and hyios, anthrōpos and theotēs and prōtotokos and archē. The final chapter of Part I — this chapter — names Him by the name He was given at His circumcision, the name His mother used, the name His Father exalted above every name.

This chapter is about that word.

The Word

The Greek word is Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), pronounced in the Erasmian convention as ee-AY-soos, with the accent on the second syllable. The word is a proper name, declined like other masculine nouns of the first declension that end in -ous: nominative Iēsous, genitive Iēsou, dative Iēsou, accusative Iēsoun, vocative Iēsou. In running Greek prose the name appears in all five forms, depending on its grammatical function in the sentence.

Iēsous is not natively Greek. It is the Septuagint’s standard transliteration of the Hebrew name Yehoshua (יְהוֹשׁוּעַ) and its shortened later form Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). When the LXX translators encountered the name in the Hebrew Old Testament — most prominently as the name of Moses’s successor, the one English Bibles call Joshua — they rendered it Iēsous. The same convention carries into the New Testament. When the Greek New Testament calls the Lord Iēsous, it is using the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua. When Hebrews 4:8 mentions Iēsous in reference to the leader who brought Israel into Canaan, it is using the same form for Yehoshua / Joshua. The two Old Testament and New Testament figures share a name — in Greek, the very same name; in Hebrew, the same name with minor orthographic variation.

The etymology of the Hebrew name is well established. Yehoshua is a compound of two elements:

Yeho- (יְהוֹ-) — a contracted form of the divine name YHWH. This shortened form appears as the first element in many Hebrew names — Yehonathan (Jonathan, “YHWH has given”), Yehoshaphat (Jehoshaphat, “YHWH has judged”), Yehoyada (Jehoiada, “YHWH knows”), Yehoyaqim (Jehoiakim, “YHWH establishes”), and so on. In each case the Yeho- element brings the divine name into the personal name as part of a theological statement about the bearer.

-shua (שׁוּעַ) — derived from the verb yasha’ (יָשַׁע), “to save,” “to deliver,” “to rescue.” The same Hebrew root produces the noun yeshu’ah (salvation) and the name Yesha’yahu (Isaiah, “YHWH saves” — a closely related name with the elements in reverse order).

Combined, the name Yehoshua means YHWH saves or YHWH is salvation. The short form Yeshua — which is the form actually used in the late Second Temple period and which lies behind the Greek Iēsous — keeps the same meaning. The name was common among first-century Jews precisely because of its theological depth and its association with the figure of Joshua. According to historical estimates, Yeshua was among the most common male Jewish names of the period — perhaps the fourth or fifth most common name overall.

The word family in Greek is sparse because Iēsous functions primarily as a proper name. The most theologically important related term is the Greek verb sōzō (to save), which Volume One treated at length in Chapter 24. Every time the New Testament says sōzō, the family connection to Iēsous is present, even when the name itself does not appear in the verse.

Compound names involving Iēsous are rare in the New Testament but not unknown. Acts 13:6 mentions Bar-Iēsous — “Son of Jesus” — the magician Paul encounters in Paphos. The name was common enough that the Aramaic compound was unremarkable; it tells us nothing about the magician’s relation to the Lord.

The LXX background — Iēsous as the Greek for Joshua — has theological consequences the New Testament occasionally exploits. The most striking instance is Hebrews 4:8: “For if Iēsous had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.” The English reader sees “Joshua” in this verse (most translations supply the name to avoid confusion); the Greek reader sees Iēsous. The author of Hebrews is making a pointed contrast: Yehoshua the son of Nun did not give Israel the final rest; the true Iēsous, the One in whom YHWH’s saving promise comes to full expression, gives the rest that lasts. The shared name is the typological key.

Range of Meaning

Iēsous in the New Testament covers a relatively narrow range, because it functions primarily as a proper name. The major uses:

The personal name of Jesus of Nazareth. The dominant use, occurring nine hundred and seventeen times in the New Testament. The name is used by itself, in combination with titles (Iēsous Christos, Iēsous ho Christos, Iēsous ho Nazōraios), and with various geographical or familial identifiers (Iēsous ho apo Nazaret, Iēsous ho huios Iōsēph).

Joshua, the Old Testament figure. Used at Acts 7:45 (Stephen’s speech, recalling Israel’s entry into Canaan “with Iēsous”) and at Hebrews 4:8 (the Joshua/Jesus typology noted above).

Jesus called Justus. A minor character in Paul’s letters. Colossians 4:11 mentions “Jesus called Justus” among Paul’s coworkers, identified separately to avoid confusion with the Lord.

Bar-Jesus the magician. Acts 13:6. The Cyprian magician opposed by Paul on his first missionary journey. The Aramaic patronymic places his father in the same naming tradition.

Other ancient Jews named Jesus. Outside the New Testament, the historian Josephus mentions several first-century Jews named Iēsous, including a high priest and several minor figures. The name was common; the particular Iēsous who is the subject of the gospels is identified by His distinctive titles and by His miraculous works.

The dominant theological weight of the name in the New Testament is the first sense. When the New Testament says Iēsous, it almost always means the Lord — the Iēsous who was born in Bethlehem, lived in Galilee, taught in parables, died on a cross outside Jerusalem, rose on the third day, and ascended to the right hand of the Father. The other uses are present but minor.

Where You’ll Meet It

Matthew 1:21. “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The angelic announcement to Joseph in his dream. The Greek: kaleseis to onoma autou Iēsoun, autos gar sōsei ton laon autou apo tōn hamartiōn autōn. The verse explicitly etymologizes the name: Iēsous is given because He will save (sōsei) His people. The Greek verb sōsei is the future of sōzō, the Greek word that translates the Hebrew yasha’ in the LXX. The name and the explanation share the same Hebrew root.

This is the chapter’s keystone verse. Matthew preserves the etymological connection that Greek readers without Hebrew would otherwise miss. The Evangelist is telling us, in effect, the name is the gospel. The child is given a name that means “YHWH saves,” for the reason that He will save His people from their sins. The name names the mission, and the mission names the Person.

Luke 1:31. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” The parallel angelic announcement to Mary. Luke does not include the etymological gloss; the name is simply given. But the structural parallel with Matthew is significant: both gospels record that the child’s name was given by divine instruction, not chosen by the parents. The naming of Jesus is not a parental preference; it is a divine appointment.

This matters theologically. The name Iēsous was not selected by Joseph or Mary. They received it from the angel. The name itself is part of the gift of God in the incarnation — the name and the Person come together as one divine appointment.

Philippians 2:9-11. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The climactic moment of the Philippian Christological hymn.

The Greek is dense and worth parsing. Hyperypsōsen — “highly exalted,” a double-compound verb that combines hyper- (above, beyond) with the verb hypsoō (to lift up). The Father has exalted the Son above-beyond-up — the verb piles up its prefixes to express the maximal nature of the exaltation. Echarisato autō to onoma to hyper pan onoma — “gave him the name above every name.” The verb charizomai means “to give as gift” — God’s exaltation of the Son is gift, not earned reward (though the hymn has just narrated the Son’s obedience). Hina en tō onomati Iēsou pan gony kampsē — “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”

The hymn is doing two things at once. First, it is identifying the “name above every name” with the name Iēsous — the very name the angel gave the child in Matthew 1:21. The personal human name of the man from Nazareth is the name now exalted above every name in the universe. Second, the hymn is connecting this name to the universal confession that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (kyrios Iēsous Christos) — using the divine title kyrios that the LXX uses for YHWH. The exaltation of the name Jesus is the exaltation of the One who, the angel said, would save His people from their sins.

Acts 4:12. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Peter’s defense before the Sanhedrin. The Greek: ouk estin en allō oudeni hē sōtēria, oude gar onoma estin heteron hypo ton ouranon to dedomenon en anthrōpois en hō dei sōthēnai hēmas. Two uses of sōtēria / sōthēnai (salvation / to be saved) bracket the verse: there is no other salvation, no other name. The name and the salvation are inseparable.

The verse is exclusive in its claim. The salvation that Iēsous names is not one path among many. It is the only path, because it is the path the Father has provided. Peter is not making a philosophical argument; he is testifying to what God has done through this name. The salvation has been given in this Person, with this name, and the Sanhedrin cannot dismiss it without dismissing what God has accomplished.

Hebrews 4:8. “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.” The Greek: ei gar autous Iēsous katepausen, ouk an peri allēs elalei meta tauta hēmeras. The English translation (most modern versions) supplies “Joshua” rather than “Jesus” to clarify the reference, but the Greek uses the same name in both Testaments. The author of Hebrews is exploiting the dual reference. Yehoshua the son of Nun gave Israel a rest in the promised land — but not the ultimate rest. The true Iēsous — the Lord Jesus — gives the eternal rest that the earthly conquest only foreshadowed.

The typology is precise. Joshua is a type of Jesus (the typos / antitype structure of Hebrews 11:19 and elsewhere). Both have the same name in Greek; both lead God’s people into rest; but the rest Joshua gave was provisional, while the rest Jesus gives is final. The shared name is the linguistic flag that the typological connection is intended.