The English form of the name "Jesus" is derived from the Latin
Iēsus and the
Classical Latin INRI (written on the
Titulus/placard on the
Cross according to John 19:19), which in turn comes from . The Greek is a Hellenized form of the Hebrew name
Yeshua (), which is in turn a shortened form of , English
Joshua.
East Syriac literature renders the pronunciation of the same letters as ishoʿ (išoʿ) /iʃoʕ/. The
Peshitta (c. 200) preserves this same spelling. The ''
Encyclopedia of the Qur'an'' by
Brill Publishers quotes scholarship that notes that the Greek name Iesous, (Iēsoûs), also is known to have represented many different Biblical Hebrew names (which causes issues when seeking to find what Jesus' original Hebrew name would have been from the Greek) "Josephus used the Greek name lesous to denote three people mentioned in the Bible whose Hebrew names were not Yeshua' or Y'hoshua'. They were Saul's son Yishwi (Anglicized as 'Ishvi' in the RSV of
1 Samuel 14:49), the Levite Abishua' (mentioned in I Chronicles 6:4, etc.) and Yishwah the son of Asher (Anglicized as 'Ishva' in the RSV of Genesis 46:17). ... Josephus furnishes important evidence for the wide variety of Hebrew names represented in Greek by Iesous." Also, the classical theologians
Clement of Alexandria and
Cyril of Jerusalem both stated that the Greek name Iesous was allegedly Jesus' original name. itself derived from the Syriac form
Yəšūʿ and ultimately Hebrew
Yēšūaʿ by a phonetic change. The
Encyclopedia of the Qur'an by
Brill Publishers states this has also come about because many Western scholars have held a "conviction that Jesus' authentic Hebrew name is Yeshua'" For example, compare
Ismā‘īl and
Ibrāhīm (Anglicised
Ishmael and
Abraham),
Jālūt and
Tālūt (Goliath and Saul),
Yājuj and Mājuj (Gog and Magog), and
Qābil and Hābil (
Cain and Abel). It is thus possible that the Arabs referred to him as Yasaʿ, but the Quran reversed the letters to parallel Mūsā. Another explanation given is that in ancient Mesopotamia divine names were written in one way and pronounced in another. Thus borrowed words can have their consonants reversed. Another explanation is that Muhammad adopted
Isa from the polemical Jewish form
Esau. However, there is no evidence that the Jews have ever used
Esau to refer to Jesus, and if Muhammad had unwittingly adopted a pejorative form his many Christian acquaintances would have corrected him. A fourth explanation is that prior to the rise of Islam, Christian Arabs had already adopted this form from
Syriac. According to the
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, "Arabic often employs an initial 'ayn in words borrowed from Aramaic or Syriac and the dropping of the final Hebrew 'ayin is evidenced in the form Yisho of the 'koktiirkish' Manichaean fragments from Turfan." This is supported by
Macúch with an example in
classical Mandaic, a variety of
Eastern Aramaic (hence closely related to Syriac) used as liturgical language by the
Mandaean community of southern Mesopotamia, where the name for Jesus is rendered
ʿ-š-u (ࡏࡔࡅ), though the pharyngeal ('ayin) is pronounced like a regular
long i ("Īshu"). Also the name
Yeshu (ישו in Hebrew and Aramaic) lacking the final 'ayin is also used to refer to Jesus in the Jewish work the
Toledot Yeshu, and scholar
David Flusser presents evidence Yeshu was also a name itself rather than claims it was meant to supposedly be an acronym to insult Jesus. The Brill Encyclopedia of the Qur'an notes scholar Anis al-Assiouty as noting the fact that "In the Talmud, however, he (Jesus) is called Yeshu."
Christoph Luxenberg's
The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran equates the quranic name with Hebrew
Jesse. However, neither
Yeshu nor
Jesse begins with a pharyngeal consonant in their original Hebrew forms. The earliest archaeological evidence of an Arabic name for Jesus is a Jordanian inscription. Enno Littman (1950) states: "Mr. G. Lankaster Harding, Chief Curator of Antiquities Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan, kindly sent me copies of a little more than five hundred Thamudic inscriptions. [...] It is the inscription [Harding No. 476] that interests us here. [...] Below the circle there are four letters: a
y, a
sh, a
ʿ, and again a
y." He also states: "These letters are so placed that they can be read from right to left or from left to right y-sh-ʿ, probably pronounced Yashaʿ, and this name is the same as Yashuaʿ, the Hebrew form of the name of Christ." An archaic Arabic root for 'Salvation' exists in
Yatha, which may have later formed this name: y-sh-ʿ. The lack of a
Waw is still unexplained. Also, the closer correspondence with another name [y'sha'yá, "Isaiah" in English] needs explanation or discussion before this inscription can be entertained as an Arabic "Jesus". ==Non-Islamic uses==