User:Grover cleveland/Jesus Joshua

Ίησους is used in the Septuagint to render Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ Yahoshua, the name of the major Hebrew leader Joshua. At Ezra 2:22, it is also used to render Yeshua, a post-exilic contraction of Yahoshua. The Hebrew name derives from Yhw (YHWH) and shw (help), thus the whole name means "YHWH is salvation" or "YHWH, help!". There is an allusion to the literal meaning of the name at Matthew 1:21, where Joseph is instructed to name the baby Jesus because "he shall save his people from their sins".

In the Greek of the New Testament, Ίησους is used to refer both to Jesus and Joshua. In addition to Greek, Russian also uses the same name (Иисус) for both Jesus and Joshua. In these languages, Joshua is disambiguated, where necessary, by his patronymic "son of Nun". In the Latin Vulgate, Joshua is referred to as Iosue in the Old Testament, and Hiesua is used for Hebrew Yeshua at Ezra 2:2. In the New Testament Ίησους is consistently translated "Iesus" (whether referring to Jesus or to Joshua).

Most Western European languages follow Latin in using distinct names for the two characters.