Isa (name) - Etymology

Etymology

The English form of the name "Jesus" is derived from the Latin Iēsus, which in turn comes from the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs). The Greek is a Hellenized form of the Hebrew/Aramaic name Yēšua (ישוע), which is in turn a shortened form of Hebrew Yehōšua (יהושע) or "Joshua" in English. There is a major discrepancy between the Hebrew/Aramaic and Muslim Arabic forms of this name, since the original Hebrew form of this name has the voiced pharyngeal `Ayin ע or `Ayn ع consonant at the end of the name (as does Christian Arabic يسوع yasūʿ), while the Muslim Arabic form عيسى `īsā has the `Ayn at the beginning of the name. For this reason, some (such as Ahmed Deedat) state the Arabic name Isa is related to the Biblical name Esau (which begins with a pharyngeal); it is also similar in the vowels to the Aramaic version of Jesus, viz. Eeshoʿ (Aramaic forms of the name, however, still have the voiced pharyngeal `Ayn consonant at the end of the name).

The Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān states that Western scholars have been puzzled by the use of ʿĪsā in the Qur'an because they were convinced that his authentic name is Yēshūaʿ. They have proposed a number of explanations. One explanation given is that in ancient Mesopotamia divine names were written in one way and pronounced in another. Thus it is possible for borrowed words to have their consonants reversed. Another explanation is that Muhammad adopted Isa from the polemical Jewish form Esau. However, there is no evidence that the Jews have ever used Esau to refer to Jesus, and if Muhammad had unwittingly adopted a pejorative form his many Christian acquaintances would have corrected him. A third explanation is that the Qur'an used this form to assimilate Jesus's name with Moses, or Mūsā. A fourth explanation is that prior to the rise of Islam, Christian Arabs had already adopted this form from Syriac. According to the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, "Arabic often employs an initial 'ayn in words borrowed from Aramaic or Syriac and the dropping of the final Hebrew 'ayin is evidenced in the form Yisho of the 'koktiirkish' Manichaean fragments from Turfan." While there is no irrefutable evidence that ʿĪsā was in use prior to Islam, there may have been a monastery named ʿĪsāniyya in Syria as early as 571 CE. More details about this monastery are provided by Alphonse Mingana who wrote: "A monastery in South Syria, near the territory of the Christian Ghassanid Arabs, bore in A.D. 571 the name ʿIsaniyah, that is to say, 'of the followers of Jesus,' i.e. of the Christians.

James A. Bellamy of the University of Michigan suggests that the name is a corruption of masiyyā (from Greek Messias). A year later he withdrew this interpretation suggesting instead that ʿIsa was a corruption of Masīḥ, which is itself derived from Yasuʿ. He suggests that it was both a copyist's error and an attempt to avoid the Arabic verb yasūʿu which has obscene connotations. Josef Horovitz on the other hand holds that the Quranic form is meant to parallel Mūsā. Similar pairs are also frequently found in the Quran as well which supports this theory.

Christoph Luxenberg's The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran equates the name with Hebrew Jesse. However, neitherYeshu nor Jesse begins with a pharyngeal consonant in their original Hebrew forms.