Where Did the Name Jesus Come From?

This graphic walks you through the linguistic “trail” a single name took as Scripture moved from one language to another. Beginning with the Hebrew form Y’shua, it shows how the name was transliterated—not translated by meaning, but converted by sound—into Greek. Along the way, certain Hebrew sounds had no direct Greek equivalent, so they were either softened or removed. For example, the Hebrew “sh” sound was replaced with a simple “s,” and the final guttural sound was dropped entirely. Greek also added a typical masculine ending, creating Iesous, which later passed into Latin and eventually into English as Jesus. Click the image to see full sized chart.