Yeshua
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- See related article about Yeshu.
Yeshua (ישוע) is a contraction of Yehoshua (יהושע), meaning "he will save", and is believed by many to be either the Hebrew or Aramaic name for Jesus. The name is extensively used by Messianic Jews (a sect of people who consider themselves to be both Jewish and believers in Jesus), as well as by missionary organizations attempting to persuade Jews that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Tanakh (known to Christians as the Old Testament), and that belief in Jesus is fully compatible with their Jewish identity, a position rejected by nearly all leaders of the Jewish community (Reform Rabbi Dan Kohn-Sherbock is a noted exception).
The name is identical to the Old Testament name "Jeshua". Some scholars dispute the claim that the form Yeshua is the original name for Jesus. In the Septuagint and Greek language Jewish texts such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Jesus is the standard Greek translation of the standard form Yehoshua (Joshua), Greek having lost the h sound. Yeshua on the other hand is a shortened form of Yehoshua in the dialect spoken at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and is not undisputedly attested in other periods. There is little question, however, that the Nazarite Jew now known as Jesus would not have used that relatively modern, anglicized Roman name (which even in Latin would have been Iesus), but instead some regional equivilent. He also is often cited as having likely been called by the surname "ben Yosef", after his father, or the maternal equivilent thereof.