/zh/ replacing /dzh/?

[Philip Trauring]

At 10:07 AM -0700 9/26/02, Anne Gilbert wrote:
>Larry::
>
>>  I've noticed the "Jews for Jesus" people call him something like
>>  Y'shua in their ads.  I suppose they're trying to make him look more
>>  authentically Jewish.  (And after all, how could a nice Jewish boy,
>>  or girl, reject a savior and messiah if he's just a nice Jewish boy
>>  named Y'shua?)
>
>  I've seen those Jews for Jesus ads too.  But aren't they forgetting
>something?  Wasn't what people spoke in that region at that time Aramaic?
>If that was the case, Jesus/Yeshua/Y'shua probably spoke it too.  And I
>think I've seen transliterations(presumaly from Aramaic)into Yasua or
>something similar.  But don't quote me on any of this.  It's *way* beyond my
>level of expertise. . . .
>Anne g

Y'shua seems to be a contraction of the Hebrew Yehoshua, which in
English is Joshua. The Talmud does have several passages that refer
to a Yeshu, believed to refer to Jesus, but I don't know why Jews for
Jesus would use Y'shua over Yeshu. Perhaps it just rolls off the
tongue easier, or perhaps it's similarity to Yehoshua added to the
'familiarity' factor.

And yes, it does appear to be an attempt to make Jesus 'more Jewish'.
The head of Jews of Jesus' name is Moishe Rosen - a very Jewish name
to be sure, although I think it is pretty clear that he was not
called by that name when he was ordained as a Baptist minister in
1957.

Philip Trauring