Paganism

The New Testament - A Roman Invention?

Some say that Jesus is a Roman myth and that his name means 'hail Zeus'.

    χαλαζι ζευς = Chaladzi Zeus

    Ιησους = Iesous

There is no correlation between the phrase χαλαζι ζευς (hail Zeus) and the name Ιησους.

In the NT book of Hebrews it says concerning Joshua: “For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.” (Hebrews 4:8). In Greek the name Joshua is Ιησους. In the Tanakh Joshua is יְהוֹשׁוּעַ and occurs 218 times and 28 times as יֵשׁוּעַ. The Greek version of the Tanakh translates these names as Ιησους. Philo tells us that Ιησους is a contracted translation of יה שוע Yah Shu'a (Yah saves) in Mut 1:121: " Ἰησοῦς... σωτηρία κυρίου - Iesous... salvation of the Lord."
When referring to his name, Matthews writes: "She (Mary) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Ιησους, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21).

In spite of the vain search for a Roman origin the story is a Jewish story with a Jewish main character with a Jewish name. The Tanakh agrees, The Jewish writers Josephus and Philo agree and the NT asserts it.

The Aramaic Peshitta translates from the Greek
“ܬ݁ܺܐܠܰܕ݂ ܕ݁ܶܝܢ ܒ݁ܪܳܐ ܘܬ݂ܶܩܪܶܐ ܫܡܶܗ ◄ ܝܶܫܽܘܥ► ܗܽܘ ܓ݁ܶܝܪ ܢܰܚܶܝܘܗ̱ܝ ܠܥܰܡܶܗ ܡܶܢ ܚܛܳܗܰܝܗܽܘ̈ܢ”
(Matthew 1:21)

So in the Aramaic communities of the East Ιησους was translated into ܝܶܫܽܘܥ which in Hebrew script is יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua). So there is overwhelming evidence that Ιησους is from the Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ and not some Greek pagan phrase.