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The Name of Jesus

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The Truth About Christmas

by Bob Burridge ©2010


This article concludes a series of studies about the events surrounding the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. The series begins with, Called To Bethlehem. There is also a complete index for all the articles telling The Truth About Christmas.

Part 13 The Name of Jesus

When God’s angel spoke to Mary to tell her about the child she would bear he said in Luke 1:30-33, “… Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

The name for her baby wasn’t explained to her at this time. The name “Jesus” in the original Greek text is iaesous (Ιησους). But this was Luke’s translation for the Greek readers. The angel probably would have addressed Mary in Aramaic or Hebrew. He would have used the name Yeshua (ישע). That’s a shortened form for Yehoshua. Literally the name means “Yahveh (Jehovah) saves / helps”.

We are used to many biblical names beginning with the letter “J” (Jesus, Joseph, Jehovah, Jeremiah, and so on). There is no “J” in either the Hebrew of the Old Testament, or in the Greek of the New Testament. English tends to turn the Hebrew “Y” sound into a “J”. In German the letter “J” has the sound of our English letter “Y”, so the early European translations kept the letter “J”. Eventually it lost the original “Y” sound. So we say the Name of God is Jehovah, but in Hebrew it is originally Yahveh (יהבה). This is why we say “Jesus” in English instead of “Yesus,” or the Aramaic “Yeshua” (ישע), or “Iaesous” (Ιησους) as it would read in Luke’s Greek version.

Jesus was a common name among the Jews at that time. Historical records show that there were others at that time named Jesus. There are even others by that name in the Bible.

When the angel appeared to Joseph he more directly explained the significance of the name. In Matthew 1:21 the angel said to him, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

Salvation implies that there is some danger from which to be saved or delivered. It wasn’t the danger of Roman oppression as so many Jews had come to believe. It was a more important danger, one more horrible than any persecution or personal depression. Jesus would deliver his people from the cause of all mankind’s sufferings: He would save them from sin itself!

The root of all our horrors, of all our struggles, and of all our problems is the corruption and depravity we inherit as a race from Adam, our representative in Eden.

This is the Christmas message: It’s not about decorations and gifts. It’s not even about days off and family dinners. It’s about the one real solution for all of man’s problems which all come from sin. Jesus came to save us from the guilt and disabilities that come from sin itself.

We learn more about Jesus by the titles he was given when the angel spoke to Mary about her son in Luke 1:32-33, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

Mary’s son would be great. He wouldn’t simply grow up to be another citizen of Nazareth. He was destined for greatness in the eyes of God. It would not even be the kind of greatness known to other outstanding humans remembered in the record of the history of the world.

He will be called Son of the Most High. What an astounding title! Others are called sons of the Most High God too, but the expanding information of the angel spirals upward to amazing heights. This was obviously a special title unlike the normal honor every covenant child bears. Otherwise the angel wouldn’t have said it as he did.

This Son of God will reign forever in the kingly office promised to David. This was the peak of the mountain of information Mary was hearing. The lost and suppressed kingship of David’s throne would be revived in her son. A much longed for promise would be fulfilled in him.

Every Jew knew the words the angel referred to. The prophet Nathan said long ago to the great King David, in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.”

Then again in verse 16 Nathan concluded the promise to David, “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”

We could add to the angel’s words those titles given to our Savior by the Prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Jesus is also called the Christ. The word “Christ” is from the New Testament Greek term christos (Χριστος), which means “anointed”. It translates the Hebrew word Mashiakh (משיח), which also means one who is “anointed” or “set aside for special office”. We usually see this Hebrew word translated as “Messiah”.

In the revealed order of God’s law, prophets, priests, and kings were all anointed when they took up their office. Sometimes it was done by ceremonies common to their contemporary culture. At other times they were set aside by the simple declaration of some one who had the authority to appoint them to their office.

As the promised Redeemer, Jesus came to be Prophet, Priest, and King. All others who were anointed to serve in these offices were part of how God would reveal the special authority of our Savior. He was the one anointed from all eternity to reveal more fully the plan of God to redeem his people, to make the one true sacrifice for sin, and to rule forever as King over the Kingdom of God.

This is the one whose birth we celebrate on this day we set aside called “Christmas.”

As we exchange gifts we should remember the greatest gift ever given, the gift purchased by the humble life and death of Jesus Christ.

He took the place of all who repentantly trust in him alone for what he accomplished during his mission to earth over 2000 years ago. He bore the just penalty they deserve for their sins, and he gives them his righteousness to make them acceptable to live joyfully forever in fellowship with the Creator and Sovereign Lord of all that is. He truly deserves our worship, our devotion, our service.

To learn more about our Wonderful Savior you need to be a careful student of the Word of God preserved for us supernaturally in the book we call the Bible. To help you in that study we invite you to study through our on-line Syllabus as it reviews the many teachings of God’s word. Let us know how we can help you grow in your appreciation of this amazing gift of God.

The Birth of Our Savior

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The Truth About Christmas

by Bob Burridge ©2010


This article continues a series of studies about the events surrounding the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. The series begins with, Called To Bethlehem. There is also a complete index for all the articles telling The Truth About Christmas.

Part 8 The Birth of Our Savior

The birth of Jesus was an amazing turning point in the history of the world. It’s easy to let a few traditional pictures get in the way of the point of this story as God tells it in his word. While we love the tender images we see in children’s books and skits about the birth of Christ, it is never good to let them change the actual account given to us in Scripture by the inspiration of the Holy spirit.

The account of his actual birth is found in a very short passage in Luke’s Gospel 2:6-7. “And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”

In that fore-ordained town the plan of God was about to be fulfilled. But were they there frantically searching for a room in an inn only to be repeatedly turned away by a thoughtless innkeeper? Were they there all alone as two young Jews from the far away province of Nazareth? And where was that manger the baby Jesus slept in on that first night of his birth?

It is popularly believed that Jesus was born on the first night they arrived. The expression, “while they were there” doesn’t fit with that idea. It means that sometime during the days they were in Bethlehem, Mary’s child was born.

There’s no frantic knocking on doors the very night they arrived to find a room. There’s no panic that Mary was in labor and they were still out on the streets. There’s no mention of an innkeeper who callously turned them away. In fact there’s no actual inn if we take God’s word as is speaks for itself.

The word translated as “inn” is the Greek word kataluma (καταλuμα). In the original Koine Greek the word has a wide variety of uses which make it difficult to know for sure what kind of place it was that had no room for Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. Many people picture it in very modern terms as a boarding house or an old English tavern with rooms upstairs. Of course such ideas are totally out of place in Israel at the time of Christ’s birth.

One common view is that the “inn” was what the Hebrews called a milon or a khan. The oriental khan is a large open court surrounded by vaulted chambers. Along the walls are stone mangers for the animals to feed from. Some times the Khan had a grotto or cave for a stable near the large communal area where the people stayed. The type of Khan that would have existed in such a town as Bethlehem would not likely have had an innkeeper. Those who hold to this view generally say that the communal area would not have been large enough to afford much privacy to a woman giving birth to a child. Therefore, since there was not enough room in the khan they slept in the grotto or stable where Christ was born.

This view sounds attractive, and it does explain many of the statements of the narrative. Yet it is not the only explanation possible. It’s probably not the best explanation.

The word “kataluma” is not only found here in the New Testament. It is also used in 2 other places. Luke himself uses this word in his gospel in chapter 22 verse 11. Here Jesus sends out Peter and John to find a kataluma where they could celebrate the passover. This feast was the famous “last supper” of our Lord. In this context the word kataluma is translated as “guest chamber” or “guest room”. Mark also uses this same word in his account of the last supper. Therefore another more consistent way we could translate the Luke 2:7 passage would be… “She laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the guest room.”

It’s interesting to note also that in Luke 10:34 where Luke does refer to an oriental khan he does not use this Greek word kataluma. Instead he uses another Greek word pandokeion. With this information a whole new picture begins to emerge.

The accommodations for guests in eastern homes at that time would of course vary from house to house. One general layout was quite common in old Israel. Many homes were built of heavy stones and divided into 2 rooms. On the outside of the house was often a stone shed which was entered only from the outside. When guests came one of the 2 rooms in the house became the guest room or kataluma. This room could also be rented out for use to visiting groups or families. This might have been the case with the room used for the last supper. If when Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem the guest room was already in use by other visiting relatives, the best privacy for a woman about to give birth to a child would be available in the stone shed on the side of the house. The shed was normally used as a storage place and might well have contained the manger in which our Lord was laid. The text explains that Jesus was laid in a manger because there was no room in the kataluma.

Mangers make good cradles and are still used for this purpose in many eastern countries today. Donkeys were sometimes kept in the side room. Perhaps this manger was one that had been used to hold feed for those donkeys.

This raises the question of animals. Was Jesus surrounded by animals as he laid in the manger? When reading the Bible record note that no animals are mentioned. Later shepherds are said to have come. But it is pure speculation to project various animals into the story. If this was a khan there may have been horses, camels or donkeys. But if this is a side room of a humble home in Bethlehem few if any animals would actually be present.

As we mentioned earlier in this series of studies, Mary and Joseph would have arrived in Bethlehem to be reunited with their relatives for the taxation. Likely they had traveled with some relatives from Nazareth. It would be strange that if all the others decided to make that long and dangerous trip separately.

Did Mary and Joseph know anyone there in Bethlehem? Of course they did. It was their family’s home town. Aside from this, their parents, grandparents, and all their other relatives had to be there with them too. If they hadn’t come they would have been in defiance of the decree of Rome. Eastern hospitality would required that relatives living there would open their homes to guests whenever possible. Also remember that Mary and Joseph were not strangers to this place. Mary just six months before spent three months living with her cousin Elisabeth near Jerusalem which is only about 5 miles away.

What we have here is a far more beautiful picture than our traditional manger scenes show us. The story preserves the special sanctity of family. The covenant bond of parents and children is integral in the story, and in God’s plan. This isn’t a story about a lone couple on their own in a strange country without family to support them or friends to be near them. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

It was there, with the most extended family gathered around them by God’s providence, that our Redeemer was born.

Next Study: Startled Shepherds