SEELANGS Digest - 23 Oct 2006 to 24 Oct 2006 (#2006-360)

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

Dear Colleagues,

I received responses from Alexander Kulik and Kim Braithwaite as well, 
and I make it a point to acknowledge all those who extended a helping 
hand regarding this question and other questions posed on this list and 
on other lists, and in private correspondence and conversations (as will 
be seen in the preface to the book in progress).  If you wish, here is 
how I formulate the relevant paragraph about the naming of Jesus after I 
have considered all the input:

> I utilize both the names Jesus and Christ to refer to the person who 
> was crucified in the vicinity of Jerusalem approximately two millenia 
> ago.  What actually happened is not the subject of inquiry here, but 
> the many variants of what Christians /believe/ happened is.  Where the 
> humanity of the person believed to have been crucified is uppermost in 
> the minds of believers, I tend to use the name Jesus (in the original 
> Greek of the New Testament,  /Iēsous/).  Where the perceived divinity 
> of that person is primary, I favor the term Christ (Greek /Kkristos/, 
> meaning “Annointed One;” cf. Hebrew /ma’shiach/, i.e., the Messiah).  
> As for the name he bore in the Aramaic he probably spoke natively – 
> possibly /Yeshua/ – it will be avoided here, as I am not particularly 
> concerned with “the historical Jesus.”  This does not mean that I am 
> reading the New Testament exclusively as literary art, for art is not 
> the only alternative to history.  There is also religious belief.
>

I am of course open to further fine tuning, and I have in fact received 
quite a bit of feedback on another list (Psyart) regarding the 
psychoanalysis in progress of the crucifixion narratives and Saint 
Paul's interpretation of them as redemptive.  What surprises me about 
the responses on SEELANGS is that no one mentioned the way Jesus is 
named in Bulgakov's _Master and Margarita_.


Regards to the list,
Daniel RL

Paul B. Gallagher wrote:

> Daniel Rancour-Laferriere wrote:
>
>> My thanks to all who have replied to my question about the possible 
>> Aramaic form(s) of the name Jesus.
>
>
> After I read Bob Rothstein's reply, I looked up the wikipedia entry 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshua>, and that seemed pretty 
> comprehensive. Did you learn something more? (I didn't see any more 
> replies on-list).
>

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