Is Jesus Made Up?

Yes. Jesus is made up.

Haha made you look. 😂

I’m talking about the name “Jesus” (Jeezuss)

In response to a Facebook post I did someone said they wondered why some cultures (aka Latin influenced) feel comfortable naming their sons Jesus and others don’t. Here is my long answer. It is worth reading if you’re into learning new things or being reminded of old things.

I think the reason many people don’t name their sons Jesus is partially because it is linguistically and phonetically complex when paired with surnames that aren’t a Latin derivative. For example, Jesus FitzSimmons sounds weird. Also there’s the fact that Jeezuss is a made up name when you examine it. It is a mispronunciation of a bad transliteration in the first place. Back in the day the letter we know as J was pronounced like the modern Y. And the Latin J obviously sounds like the English H. So that already threw things off. But, with names like Jose and Javier already being a part of the culture, Jesus (pronounced Hey Seuss😂) isn’t a stretch for Latinos. Even though you often hear people named Jesus being called Chuy.

There’s also the tendency for many folks from other cultures actually caring what the name means more than certain groups. One of my kids’ names means “Who is like God?” And the other one means “Chalice” like for Communion. So, I imagine that some folks with Latin influenced cultures also feel comfortable naming their children Jesus because of what the original name it comes from means, which is “God is Salvation” or “God’s Salvation”. It originally comes from Yehoshua where we get Joshua from, which is a name we do use. So in that way, you could say that we sort of name Western kids “Jesus”.

What we now call Jeezuss (originally Yeshua) is a shortened form of the name Yehoshua that was translated to Joshua. So even in the Hebrew Bible that Christians like to call the Old Testament, when you see Joshua in an English translation, it is the same as the word turned into Jesus in the Christian scriptures aka the New Testament. And the name shows up in the Apocrypha as well. It was a pretty common name. Even Barabbas who they say the people chose over Jeezuss had Yeshua as his first name. Barabbas was more of a surname that means “Son of the Father” or in some places “Son of the Rabbi/Master”. But most folks don’t know that. And preachers don’t preach it because most of them don’t know either and it can get real confusing real fast if a layperson notices “God’s Salvation” throughout all three sections of what used to be one set of Christian scriptures before the King James Apocrypha was separated from the Protestant version of the King James Bible and that the “bad guy” that the people chose over Jeezuss was a man whose name means “God’s Salvation Son of the Father/Rabbi/Master”. I know that from experience because I asked about it when I was in my 20s and it’s part of what led to me being told to leave my Pentecostal church among other things my mouth said in my efforts to truly understand the teachings.

Besides most Western folks not likely knowing what the name means, another reason they might not use Jesus as a name is because of the Protestant teachings of “total human depravity” and unworthiness. So folks with that mentality may think that we are too beneath the name “Jesus” to even use it like some scribes did to Barabbas when they removed Yeshua from his name. Whereas Catholics don’t believe in the doctrine of total human depravity like Protestants do. So, the name Jeezuss (Hey Seuss) probably seems a little more accessible to Catholics who believe that free will, if we even have it, is a part of God’s creation. So, if they want to name their kid Jesus, they can go for it and ask for forgiveness later.

That’s a long answer to a short question. But, it could’ve been longer because I read too much. 😂