Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Name of Jesus: Yasu, Isa and Yeshua

I am honestly at a loss of words on how to categorise this apologetic rebuttal. I will let you share in the perplexity (but please do mind the vulgarity.)

Claim:
The letter J was not invented until the 17th century. Before the 1611 the King James Version was known as the King Iames Version.
Christians refer to Prophet Isa as Jesus
So when all you christians are spewing 'Jesus Jesus' on the second coming, do you think the Prophet Isa will know that you are calling him????
Response:

I find this a poor attack- and this was by no means the first time the author has employed it. In his mind, this claim apparently destroys the entire integrity of Christian beliefs and the Bible.

Jesus is the latinised version of the Greek Iesous from Yeshua. But to the Christian, professing Jesus' name in our own tongue is no stumbling block - in Acts 2 the disciples ministered in all tongues.

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Phil 2:10-11 (ESV)

But all this aside, if our Muslim friend holds onto the view that Jesus will not recognise a translation of his name how would he recognise the Muslim's calling 'Isa? In Arabic, the Christian communities have always referred to Jesus as Yasu - coming from the Hebrew and Aramaic roots. However, in the 7th Century with the advent of Koranic literature Yasu was now 'Isa among the Muslims.

In the words of Professor James A. Bellamy:
“The fact that Isa has no satisfactory derivation and no pre-Koranic history should have alerted scholars to the possibility that the word is a MISTAKE”.
Professor James A. Bellamy, 'Textual Criticism of the Koran', Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol 121 No 1 (Jan-Mar).

2 comments:

  1. the double standard of Muslims usually results in their claims coming back to bite them. Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Muslims ALWAYS insist that it is the Christians who have it wrong but it seems scholars think different.

    ReplyDelete