The short answer
Yeshua and Jesus are the same name. Yeshua is the Hebrew name his family gave him, a short form of Yehoshua, or Joshua, which means “the LORD saves.” Greek-speaking Jews wrote it as Iēsous, Latin made it Iesus, and English made it Jesus. Messianic Jews say Yeshua because it keeps him in his Jewish setting. Either name is a faithful way to call on him.
What the name means
Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is a shortened form of Yehoshua, the name of Moses’ successor, Joshua son of Nun. It joins the divine name with the Hebrew verb for saving, so the name says “the LORD saves” or “the LORD is salvation.” By the time of the return from Babylon the short form was in use. The book of Nehemiah calls Joshua son of Nun by it (Nehemiah 8:17, “Jeshua” in English), and the high priest of that period was also named Jeshua (Ezra 3:2).
In the first century it was one of the most common names among Jewish men. The historian Josephus names many men called Jesus, among them several high priests. What set this Yeshua apart was the reason the angel gave for the name.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21
The sentence is a play on words that only works in Hebrew. His name means “the LORD saves,” and he will save.
From Yeshua to Jesus
Long before Yeshua was born, Jewish translators, beginning in Alexandria, put the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. That translation, the Septuagint, rendered the name of Joshua as Iēsous. Greek has no “sh” sound, so it became “s,” and Greek grammar added a final “s” to a man’s name. When the apostles wrote about Yeshua in Greek, they used the same familiar form. That is why the King James Version calls Joshua “Jesus” in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8.
| Language | Written | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshua) | The full name, as in Joshua son of Nun |
| Hebrew and Aramaic | יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua) | The shorter form common in his day |
| Greek | Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) | The Septuagint and the New Testament |
| Latin | Iesus | The Latin Bible and the Western church |
| English | Jesus | Settled after J became its own letter |
Latin took the Greek over as Iesus. In English the letter J began as a variant of I and only became a separate letter in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first printing of the King James Bible in 1611 still spelled the name Iesus. Over time the spelling and the sound settled into the Jesus we know.
Why Messianic Jews say Yeshua
Messianic Jews use Yeshua because it is the name he answered to in Nazareth, the name his mother called him and his disciples used. Saying it keeps him where the Gospels place him, among his own people, keeping Shabbat and the feasts (see Was Jesus Jewish?).
For many Jewish people, the name Jesus carries the weight of a painful history (see What do Jewish people believe about Jesus?). Yeshua lets a Jewish listener hear about a Jewish Messiah without that association. In modern Israeli Hebrew, Jesus is usually called Yeshu. Messianic Jews in Israel prefer the fuller Yeshua, which keeps the sound of yeshuah, the Hebrew word for salvation.
You will hear both names in most Messianic congregations, often in the same sentence, and visitors who say Jesus are welcome. To find a congregation, browse the directory.
Not a test of faith
Some groups teach that believers must use Hebrew names for God and his Son, often in forms like Yahweh and Yahshua, and that the name Jesus is corrupt or even pagan. This is known as Sacred Name teaching. Many people meet it while sincerely searching for the Jewish roots of their faith, and we say this gently. It falls outside the standards this directory uses.
The New Testament itself answers the question. Its writers, nearly all of them Jews, wrote his name in Greek as Iēsous, the form Greek-speaking Jews had used for Joshua for generations. When Peter declared that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), Luke recorded it in Greek. The form Yahshua does not appear in any ancient Hebrew text, and the English name Jesus has no connection to Zeus, a claim sometimes repeated online.
The name points to the person, and God hears those who call on him in any language. Paul wrote that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Messianic Jews say Yeshua out of love for who he is and where he came from. A believer who prays to Jesus in English is praying to the same Lord.
Common questions
What does Yeshua mean?
Yeshua is a short form of the Hebrew name Yehoshua, or Joshua, and means “the LORD saves” or “the LORD is salvation.” Matthew 1:21 explains the name: “he will save his people from their sins.”
How do you pronounce Yeshua?
Yeh-SHOO-ah, with the stress on the middle syllable.
Is Yeshua the same name as Joshua?
Yes. Yeshua is a shortened form of Yehoshua, the Hebrew name English Bibles spell Joshua. English translations spell the Old Testament figure Joshua and the Messiah Jesus by convention, but in Hebrew and Greek the names are the same.
Is it wrong to say Jesus instead of Yeshua?
No. Jesus is the English form of the same name, and the New Testament writers themselves used the Greek form Iēsous. Messianic Jews prefer Yeshua to honor his Jewish identity. No name is forbidden, and faith rests on the person he is.
Further reading
Complete Jewish Bible
David H. Stern. Jewish New Testament Publications, 1998. An English Bible that uses Yeshua and other Hebrew names throughout.