The Bible, Jesus, The Letter “J”, And How Did We Come To Be?

The Bible, Jesus, And The Letter “J”.

Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language, and likely also knew Hebrew and possibly Greek (commonly used in the eastern Roman Empire).
The name Jesus originates from the Hebrew name Yehoshua, which means “Yahweh is salvation.”
This was later shortened to Yeshua in post-exilic times.
The New Testament was written in Greek, where Yeshua was transliterated as Iēsous because Greek lacks certain sounds, including the “sh” sound in Hebrew.
This was the form used in the early Christian world.

The letter “J” emerged much later in history.
It developed in the Middle Ages as a variant of the letter “I.”
Initially, both letters represented the same sound, and their use was dependent on the position in a word.
By the 16th century, the “J” sound (as in modern English) started to become distinct, especially in languages like German, Spanish and English.

When the Greek Iēsous was translated into Latin, it became Iesus.
As Latin evolved into modern languages, and as the “J” sound became distinct, the name Jesus took its current form in English.
So, during Jesus’ lifetime, his name would have been pronounced more like Yeshua (or Iēsous in Greek contexts), and the “J” as we know it today was a much later linguistic development.
The first translations of the Bible into English occurred in the 14th century, during a time when the letter “J” as we know it was not yet in use

The earliest significant English translation of the Bible was by John Wycliffe and his followers in the 1380s.
This translation was made from the Latin Vulgate (the standard Bible of the Western Church at the time).
In Wycliffe’s time, the alphabet used in English writing did not yet distinguish between the letters “I” and “J”.
Both were written as “I” and served as a vowel or consonant depending on their position in a word.
For example, Jesus would have been written as “Iesus”.

By the time of the Tyndale Bible (1526–1536), which was the first significant English translation made directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the distinction between “I” and “J” was beginning to emerge in some European languages.
However, in Tyndale’s work, “Jesus” was still spelled “Iesus”.
It wasn’t until the publication of the King James Version (KJV) in 1611 that the English Bible began to include “J” in some forms.
Even then, the letter “J” was not consistently used, and many names, including Jesus, were still rendered as “Iesus” in the original 1611 edition.
The use of “J” became standardised in English during the 17th century, thanks to the work of typographers and linguistic developments.
By the 18th century, most English Bibles, including later editions of the KJV, used the modern spelling “Jesus”.

The religion we now call Judaism was centred around the worship of Yahweh, the God described in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh).
The early form of the religion, commonly referred to as Yahwism, developed during the second millennium BCE.
The term Judaism comes from the name of the tribe of Judah (in Hebrew, Yehudah), one of twelve tribes.
After the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), the term Yehudim, meaning “Judeans”, became associated with the people who followed the teachings of the Torah

The term “Judaism” was first coined in Greek as Ioudaismos, which appears in writings from the Hellenistic period (e.g., the Book of Maccabees, 2nd century BCE).
In Latin, it became “Judaismus”, and in English, it evolved into “Judaism”

The people we now call Jews were originally referred to as Hebrews (in Hebrew, ʿIvrim’), likely derived from “Eber”, mentioned in Genesis, or as a term for a nomadic or outsider group.
They were also called Israelites (in Hebrew, ‘Yisra’elim’), after the patriarch Jacob, who was renamed Israel (Yisra’el) in Genesis.
This term referred to the descendants of the twelve tribes.

After the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), most of the twelve tribes had been lost or dispersed, and the remaining population largely descended from the tribe of Judah.
Thus, they became known as Judeans (Yehudim).
Over time, the English terms “Jew” and “Jewish” derived from the Latin Iudaeus and Greek Ioudaios, meaning “Judean”.
Like Christianity and Islam, Judaism is a religion, and identifying as Jewish means following Jewish religious practices or beliefs.
( Wilfred Soon, 29.10.2024 ) 

How Did We Come To Be?

This is a question that has long puzzled scientists, scholars, and great thinkers of old.
Our origins were not always so clear, and many explanations were given over the ages, some plausible – and others far from the realm of possibility.
And even today, in our modern age when science and archaeology answers this question, the general public remains divided on the topic, mixing religious and scientific into a volatile combination.
But what about the thinkers that stepped aside from all of it and came up with their own theories of human origins?
How did they explain the emergence of humans?

For a long time the scholarly world tried to pierce the enigma of human evolution.
In the distant past, this was ascribed to the gods, in a time when mythology was the explanation for everything.
But as the archaic age ended, and we became more scientifically-minded, a real and believable answer was needed.
And so the pursuit for the truth began.
Today, we think we have reached that truth, as we now trace the modern humans, Homo Sapiens, back to a common ancestor shared with primates.
But not everyone was on board with this widely-accepted explanation.
And so, many alternative theories emerged, many of which are now labeled as pseudoscience.

Perhaps the most best-known alternative theory on human origins is the Ancient Astronaut theory.
This explanation suggests that extraterrestrial beings visited Earth in the distant past and had a direct role in the emergence of human civilisations and biology.
The theory suggests that many ancient texts, artifacts and myths are direct evidence of contact between highly advanced extraterrestrial visitors and early humans.
Some sites are deeply connected with this theory, including the Nazca Lines of Peru, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Pyramid of Sun in Teotihuacan, and many others.

Finding no logical explanation for the creation of such advanced ancient sites, the proponents of this theory attributed it to lost alien technologies and knowledge from visitors from other planets.
According to them, humans either descended from or were genetically modified by extraterrestrial beings.
This would explain the sudden major leap in intelligence, cultural complexity, and technological advancements in early human societies.
( Ancient Origins, 20.10.2024 )  ..  ancient-origins.net

Related post:  The Bible We Know Today