Why Was Jesus Named Jesus?

In this video we look at the two Joshua's Jesus was named after.Show more

Support the Channel: https://www.patreon.com/thebibleisart
Website: https://www.thebibleisart.com
Email: thisdivineart@gmail.com
Twitter: @johnbhiggins

| Transcription |
Welcome back to the Bible is art where we explore the literary artistry of the Bible and this week we’re going to look at why Jesus was named Jesus.

One of the common reasons given is that the Hebrew form means Yah(weh) is Salvation. And while that’s certainly true, whenever you name someone a famous person’s named there’s always more going on than simply the etymology.

For instance, if you had a Catholic family who named their daughter Theresa because the name means harvester and they said they did this because she will harvest many souls for God. I would say, I think there’s another reason too. [flash a photo of Mother Theresa]. And Jesus was named after a famous person, Joshua.

Now before we get into why Jesus was named after Joshua we need to talk about little translational issue. That is, Jesus means Joshua, it’s the same word. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua. It's like Juan and John, the same name in different languages. This is important because most people who would be reading the Old Testament would be reading the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. For instance most of the quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament are from the Septuagint. This means that whenever the name Joshua shows up in the Old Testament it literally says “Jesus”. So, Jesus and Joshua are the same name. Okay, back to the meaning.

There are two famous Joshua‘s in the Old Testament and Jesus was named after both of them. The first one was the Joshua who was Moses' successor, the one who has a book named after him, the book of Joshua. So as the Christians are reading their Old Testament and the book of Joshua they are just reading the book of Jesus and Jesus is doing all of those things, like leading God’s people into the land, and that’s not by happenstance.

The book and life of Joshua/Jesus is designed to foreshadow Jesus’ life. In the broadest strokes, both of them begin their ministry with a baptism in the Jordan river and both spend their ministry conquering Canaan.

But before we get into some of the details of the foreshadowing, let’s talk about the other famous Joshua. The other Joshua was the high priest in the post-exilic period, after the Israelites went back into the land of Israel after their exile in Babylon, things we learn about in Ezra-Nehemiah. You can read about this Joshua in two places: first, Ezra, there his name is sometimes translated as Jeshua, just a later vocalization of the same name, and second, most importantly for us, Zechariah 3 and 6.

But before we get to Zechariah 3, here’s a question, why was the post-exilic Joshua named after the exodus Joshua? Why do these two men have the same name? There is one big similarity between the two. Both are leading the people in the conquest of the land. The first Joshua lead the people originally into the land. And the second Joshua lead the people in the land when they returned back to the land in the post-exilic period. So we could say a Joshua, a Jesus always leads his people into the land at the beginning of the conquest.

Okay, so let’s look at Zechariah 3 and 6 so that we can see who this second Joshua is. Zechariah 3 is the 4th of 7 or 8 night visions, there’s debate about how many visions there are, in which God shows Zechariah images or visions at night. The episode is only 10 verses so let’s read it:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by.