# H3091 - Yehoshua **Strong's:** [H3091](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3091/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** yeh-ho-shoo′-ah (yod-vowel + guttural ayin terminal) **Part of speech:** proper noun, masculine (theophoric compound) **OT occurrences:** ~218 in the Hebrew Bible (Joshua son of Nun ~200; postexilic high priest [Zechariah](/codex/zechariah/) 3-6 / Ezra-Nehemiah; Joshua of Beth-shemesh [1 Sam 6:14](/codex/1-samuel-6-14/); Joshua governor of Jerusalem [2 Kgs 23:8](/codex/2-kings-23-8/)) **Aramaic / Late-Hebrew shortened form:** **יֵשׁוּעַ** (*Yeshua*), emergent in late OT (Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, 29 occurrences as Strong's [H3442](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3442/)) and dominant in Second Temple Aramaic **Greek equivalent (LXX / NT):** **Ἰησοῦς** (*Iēsous*), [G2424 - Iesous](/codex/g2424-iesous/), the LXX consistent transliteration of *Yehoshua* / *Yeshua*, used in the NT for both the OT figure Joshua ([Acts 7:45](/codex/acts-7-45/); [Heb 4:8](/codex/hebrews-4-8/)) and for **Jesus of Nazareth** ## Form and history *Yehoshua* is a **theophoric** name, a name carrying a divine element. Two morphemes: - **Yeho-** (יְהוֹ-): contracted form of the divine name **YHWH** (the Tetragrammaton; see [H3068 - YHWH](/codex/h3068-yhwh/)). The *Yeho-* prefix appears in many OT theophoric names: *Yehonatan* (Jonathan, "YHWH has given"), *Yehoshafat* (Jehoshaphat, "YHWH judges"), *Yehoram* (Jehoram, "YHWH is exalted"), *Yehoyakim* (Jehoiakim, "YHWH raises up"). The shorter *Yo-* form yields *Yonatan*, *Yotam*, etc. - **-shua** (שׁוּעַ): from the verbal root *yasha* (יָשַׁע, [H3467 - yasha](/codex/h3467-yasha/), "to save, deliver, rescue, bring victory"). Cognate nouns include *yeshuah* (salvation, deliverance, victory) and *moshia* (savior, deliverer). The compound therefore means **"YHWH saves"** or **"YHWH is salvation."** In ancient Hebrew naming convention, a theophoric name was a confession, the parents (and the community) declared something about God in naming the child. *Yehoshua* literally embeds the divine name *and* the salvific verb in a single personal identifier. ### From Yehoshua to Yeshua to Iēsous to Jesus The name underwent two attested phonetic / orthographic shifts: 1. **Yehoshua → Yeshua** (within Hebrew/Aramaic, postexilic period). The longer *Yeho-* form contracted to *Ye-* in Aramaic-influenced late Hebrew. Ezra-Nehemiah refers to *Yeshua* son of Jozadak (the postexilic high priest) interchangeably with *Yehoshua* (cf. [Ezra 3:2](/codex/ezra-3-2/); [Hag 1:1](/codex/haggai-1-1/); [Zech 3:1](/codex/zechariah-3-1/)). In Second Temple Palestine, *Yeshua* was the standard form, and one of the most common Jewish male names of the era (Ilan's *Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity* lists *Yeshua* in the top ten). 2. **Yeshua → Iēsous** (Hebrew/Aramaic → Greek transliteration). Greek lacks the *sh* phoneme; the LXX renders *shin* (שׁ) as *sigma* (σ). The terminal *ayin* (ע) drops; *Iēsous* takes the nominative-masculine *-s* ending. The result: **Ἰησοῦς**. 3. **Iēsous → Iesus → Jesus** (Greek → Latin → English). Latin *Iesus*; English vocalizes the initial *I-* as *J-* (a relatively late orthographic distinction, post-medieval). The name "Jesus" in any modern European language is therefore a multi-step transliteration of *Yehoshua* / *Yeshua*, phonetically distant from the original, semantically identical: **"YHWH saves."** ## Notable bearers in Scripture ### 1. Joshua son of Nun The OT's primary bearer. Originally **Hoshea son of Nun** ([Num 13:8](/codex/numbers-13-8/), [16](/codex/numbers-13-16/), *Hoshea* = "salvation"); renamed **Yehoshua** by Moses ([Num 13:16](/codex/numbers-13-16/)) before the spy-mission, the rename adds the divine-name prefix, transforming "salvation" into "YHWH saves." This is the first instance of the full name in the OT and the etymological foundation for all subsequent usage. - Moses's military aide ([Exod 17:9-14](/codex/exodus-17-9-14/)) - Stands at Sinai ([Exod 24:13](/codex/exodus-24-13/); 32:17) - Faithful spy alongside Caleb ([Num 14:6-9](/codex/numbers-14-6-9/)) - Commissioned as Moses's successor ([Num 27:18-23](/codex/numbers-27-18-23/); [Deut 31:7-23](/codex/deuteronomy-31-7-23/); [Deut 34:9](/codex/deuteronomy-34-9/)) - Leads Israel **across the Jordan into Canaan** ([Josh 1](/codex/joshua-1/)-4); circumcises the new generation ([Josh 5](/codex/joshua-5/)); takes Jericho ([Joshua 6](/codex/joshua-6/)) and the southern and northern coalitions; allots tribal inheritance ([Josh 13](/codex/joshua-13/)-21) - Final covenant-renewal address: *"Choose this day whom you will serve... as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD"* ([Joshua 24.15](/codex/joshua-24-15/)) The typological / Christological echo is intentional in NT thought: Joshua leads Israel into the earthly *rest* of Canaan; the *greater Joshua* leads believers into the eschatological rest ([Heb 4:8-11](/codex/hebrews-4-8-11/) explicitly contrasts the two Joshuas using the *same Greek name*, *Iēsous*). ### 2. Jeshua / Joshua the postexilic high priest Son of Jozadak ([Ezra 2:2](/codex/ezra-2-2/); 3:2; [Hag 1:1](/codex/haggai-1-1/); [Zechariah](/codex/zechariah/) 3, 6), one of the two leaders (with Zerubbabel) of the return from Babylonian exile. Zechariah's vision of Joshua the high priest before the Angel of the LORD ([Zech 3](/codex/zechariah-3/)) is one of the OT's strongest priest-Christological types: Joshua stands in filthy garments, is cleansed, and is crowned ([Zech 6:11-13](/codex/zechariah-6-11-13/)), the same name, the priestly role, the *Branch* prophecy, all converging on the messianic horizon. ### 3. Jesus of Nazareth, the eschatological *Yehoshua* The Greek NT names the incarnate Son **Ἰησοῦς** (*Iēsous*), Hebrew *Yeshua* / *Yehoshua*. The naming is explicitly etymological: > She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name **Jesus**, for **He will save** His people from their sins. ([Matthew 1.21](/codex/matthew-1-21/), NASB95) The Greek of [Matt 1:21](/codex/matthew-1-21/) preserves the wordplay: *Iēsous... sōsei* ("Jesus... will save"); the underlying Hebrew is even tighter, *Yeshua... yoshia*, same root, *yod-shin-ayin*. The angel's instruction is not arbitrary nomenclature; the name is a *fulfillment-statement* of what the bearer will do. The salvation embedded in the theophoric name finds its eschatological realization in the bearer's atoning work. ## Theological force, Christological load ### 1. The Name as confession of deity *Yehoshua* compounds YHWH and *yasha*. If "Jesus" means "YHWH saves," then the bearer of the name **IS YHWH saving**, not by additional doctrinal inference but by the grammatical structure of the name itself when applied to the Son who literally accomplishes the salvation the name predicates. [Matt 1:21](/codex/matthew-1-21/)'s *"He will save His people from their sins"* assigns to Jesus the saving-action the OT reserves for YHWH alone ([Ps 130:8](/codex/psalms-130-8/), *"He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities"*; [Isa 43:11](/codex/isaiah-43-11/), *"there is no savior besides Me"*). The name *Yeshua* + the saving-action of *Yeshua* yields the Christological conclusion: Jesus is YHWH the Savior incarnate. See [Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ](/codex/old-testament-witness-to-the-deity-of-christ/). ### 2. The Name above every name Paul's hymn at [Phil 2:9-11](/codex/philippians-2-9-11/) ("God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow") draws the Christological-name argument to its eschatological climax. The *name* the Father exalts is *Iēsous*, the transliterated *Yehoshua*. The OT confession *"every knee will bow"* ([Isa 45:23](/codex/isaiah-45-23/)) was addressed to YHWH; Paul applies it to the bearer of the name *Yehoshua*. See [Philippians 2.6-11](/codex/philippians-2-6-11/) and [Hypostatic Union](/codex/hypostatic-union/). ### 3. *No other name*, exclusivist salvation grammar > There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other **name** under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. ([Acts 4:12](/codex/acts-4-11-12/), NASB95) The *name* by which salvation comes is the same *Yehoshua* / *Yeshua* / *Iēsous*. The exclusivist soteriological claim of Christianity is grammatically grounded in the theophoric content of the name itself: **YHWH-saves** is a unique salvific name because YHWH is a unique saving God. See [Salvation Exclusivity](/codex/salvation-exclusivity/) and [Gospel](/codex/g2098-euangelion/). ### 4. Joshua son of Nun → Jesus typology [Hebrews 4:8](/codex/hebrews-4-8/) *(Greek: "Iēsous gave them rest"*, referring to Joshua son of Nun!) deliberately uses the *shared name* to set up the typological contrast: the first *Yehoshua* gave Israel rest in the land but not the final rest; the second *Yehoshua* gives the rest that remains. The shared Greek spelling makes the typology grammatically irresistible. ## Patristic note - **Justin Martyr** *Dialogue with Trypho* §75, 113, extensive treatment of the Joshua / Jesus same-name typology; the renaming of Hoshea to Yehoshua is read as a prefigurement of the incarnation; Trypho-the-Jew is pressed to explain why two saviors share the name - **Origen** *Homilies on Joshua* (c. 240), sustained Christological reading of the book of Joshua via the shared name; the conquest as type of Christ's victorious entry into the inheritance - **Athanasius** *On the Incarnation* §3, Jesus's saving-action grounds the name's theological content - **Cyril of Alexandria** *Commentary on Luke* (on [Lk 1:31](/codex/luke-1-31/)), the angel-name-Mary giving formula echoes [Matt 1:21](/codex/matthew-1-21/)'s *"He will save"* - **Aquinas** *ST* III, q. 37 a. 2, on the fitness of the name *Jesus*; the name as a *confession-of-mission* ## Apologetic load 1. **The name is evidence of Christological intentionality in the Gospel infancy narratives.** [Matt 1:21](/codex/matthew-1-21/)'s etymological wordplay (Hebrew *Yeshua / yoshia*) is the kind of bilingual depth (Hebrew etymology surfaced through Greek narration) that fits an early Palestinian-Jewish Christian provenance, not a late Hellenistic invention. The name-and-mission pairing is grammatically integrated, not added. 2. **"YHWH saves" applied to Jesus is implicit-deity Christology.** Christians who confess Jesus as *Savior* are confessing the bearer of the theophoric *Yeho-yasha* name as the one who accomplishes the salvation YHWH alone accomplishes ([Isa 43:11](/codex/isaiah-43-11/); 45:21-22). The high Christology of [Phil 2:9-11](/codex/philippians-2-9-11/) and [Acts 4:12](/codex/acts-4-12/) is grammatically anchored in the name. See [Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ](/codex/old-testament-witness-to-the-deity-of-christ/) and [Names of Jehovah](/codex/names-of-jehovah/). 3. **Engaging Messianic / Hebrew Roots claims.** Some Messianic-Jewish and Hebrew-Roots movements insist on *Yeshua* (or *Yahshua*) as the *only* legitimate form of the Name, rejecting *Jesus* as Hellenized corruption. The lexical history above shows the multi-step transliteration is *philologically transparent*, *Iēsous* / *Jesus* IS *Yeshua* by standard transliteration rules. The Greek NT's use of *Iēsous* is not a deviation from the Hebrew but its phonologically expected rendering; *jesus / iēsous / yeshua / yehoshua* are the same name across four phonologies. 4. **Engaging Islamic *Isa* / *Yasu*.** The Quranic name for Jesus is *ʿĪsā* (عيسى), which is phonologically more distant from *Yeshua* than is *Iēsous*. Arabic Christians use *Yasūʿ* (يسوع), which is the direct transliteration of *Yeshua*. The *ʿĪsā* form is a Quranic peculiarity (possible etymological theories: confusion with Esau / *ʿĒsāw*; deliberate Arabization). The lexical history of *Yehoshua* anchors the Christian claim that the same historical figure stands behind all transliterations, and that the *salvation* predicated by the name belongs to *Yehoshua-Yeshua-Iēsous-Jesus*, not to the etymologically dislocated *ʿĪsā*. 5. **The renaming pattern in [Numbers 13:16](/codex/numbers-13-16/) as miniature soteriology.** Moses changes *Hoshea* ("salvation") to *Yehoshua* ("YHWH saves") before the spy-mission. The lesson is structural: bare "salvation", abstract or human-effort, is not what Israel will receive; *YHWH-saves* is. The renaming previews the entire OT-to-NT trajectory: salvation is not an achievement humans manage but an act YHWH performs, definitively in the incarnate *Yehoshua*. ## See also ### Lexicon - [H3068 - YHWH](/codex/h3068-yhwh/), the divine-name source of the *Yeho-* prefix - [H3467 - yasha](/codex/h3467-yasha/), the verbal root "to save"; the *-shua* element - [G2424 - Iesous](/codex/g2424-iesous/), Greek transliteration of *Yehoshua*; the NT Name of Christ - [H8034 - shem](/codex/h8034-shem/), *shem* / name; the theology of the divine Name shared with the Son - [G4982 - sozo](/codex/g4982-sozo/), Greek "to save"; NT lexical counterpart to *yasha* - [G4990 - soter](/codex/g4990-soter/), Greek "savior"; title coupled with *Iēsous* throughout NT - [G4991 - soteria](/codex/g4991-soteria/), Greek "salvation"; the abstract noun ### Concepts and syntheses - [Salvation Exclusivity](/codex/salvation-exclusivity/), *no other name* ([Acts 4:12](/codex/acts-4-12/)) grounded in the theophoric content - [Gospel](/codex/g2098-euangelion/), the saving-action the name predicates - [Names of Jehovah](/codex/names-of-jehovah/), divine-name theology adjacent to the *Yeho-* prefix - [Hypostatic Union](/codex/hypostatic-union/), the incarnate bearer of the name YHWH-saves - [Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ](/codex/old-testament-witness-to-the-deity-of-christ/), naming as Christological evidence ### Entities - [Paul the Apostle](/codex/paul-the-apostle/), [Phil 2:9-11](/codex/philippians-2-9-11/) Name-above-every-name exposition ### Passages - [Matthew 1.21](/codex/matthew-1-21/), *"you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save"*, etymological-statement - [Acts 4.11-12](/codex/acts-4-11-12/), *no other name under heaven by which we must be saved* - [Philippians 2.6-11](/codex/philippians-2-6-11/), the Name above every name - [Joshua 24.15](/codex/joshua-24-15/), Joshua son of Nun's covenantal-renewal address - [Joshua 6](/codex/joshua-6/), Jericho and the conquest