Cultural diversity isn’t just reflected in how we measure time or distance—it also shows up in the way we name things, especially people. Names often shift across languages, adapting to different sounds, structures, and traditions. For example:
1. William in English becomes Guillermo in Spanish.
2. James in English is Jacques in French.
3. Elizabeth in English becomes Isabel in Spanish.
4. John becomes Johann in German and Juan in Spanish.
These aren’t just translations—they’re transformations that reflect how each language and culture reshapes names to fit its own patterns.
Take the name Jesus, for instance. The original New Testament texts were written in Koine Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire at the time. In these texts, Jesus’ name appears as Iēsoûs. But in Hebrew, his name was Yeshua, a later form of Yehoshua, which corresponds to Joshua in English. This translates to salvation.
This shift began centuries earlier, when many Jews lived outside of Israel and spoke Greek. Between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, Jewish scholars created a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint. In this translation, the name Yeshua/Yehoshua was rendered as Iēsoûs more than 200 times. Obviously referring to Joshua in the Old Testament.
By the time the New Testament was written, Greek had become the dominant language. So the Greek form of the name, Iēsoûs, carried forward—eventually becoming Jesus in English. The “J” in “Jesus” represents a letter that wasn’t formally distinguished from “I” until the 16th century.
What did Jesus call himself? Find out this Easter holiday by visiting one of the local churches.