Listening to the song There's Something About That Name, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmFh0NIzyHY)
with its refrain:
Jesus... Jesus... Jesus,
There's just something about that name.
caused me to think about "that name". The following is presented not as
theological doctrine, but simply as a linguistic reflection.
That name Jesus. We know that His name is different
in the Hebrew and that even the Greek and Latin had changes before this particular
word, the name for our Lord and Savior reached us...
Jesus...from Latin Iēsus, from Ancient Greek
Ἰησοῦς
(Iēsous), and from Hebrew יש
(y'hoshúa). We also know that
it is His Hebraic name which is filled with wonderful
significance and prophecy.
Yet millions of people
throughout the western world, over the span of two millennia, many from their
earliest childhood have known their Savior by one name only: J - E - S - U - S.
Isn't it amazing that just as
we are one in Him; just as husband and wife are one; just as we are His
body and He is the head; that we are written RIGHT INTO IN HIS
NAME: JE-S-US. He and US...together... woven into
the very name by which know Him and call Him!
Je is French for I:
The word je is a subject pronoun
corresponding to English "I".
Us is a pronoun: the
objective case of we,
used as a direct or indirect object: They took us
to the circus. She asked us the way.
What about that "S" in between the JE and US? Very interesting.
Specific
linguistic information at these links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_(letter)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_Hebrew
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S
There are many possibilities involving this letter, but perhaps
the most interesting is that the symbol S represents the "Shin" in many Semitic abjads (consonant alphabets) because
the letter is pronounced phonetically using the "S" sound. It is
the twenty-first letter in the Phoenician�, the Aramaic/Hebrew ש, and Arabic ش. Its sound value is a voiceless sibilant, [ʃ] or [s].
Its original meaning is thought to be "tooth/teeth" hence the
Hebraic pictogram letter shape ש. The sound in the oral language is the "s" sound as in sour,
or the "sh" sound as in shop.
Thus transliterated, (the Romanization of the Hebrew), and
also in the IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet)
the S symbol is used to represent the Shin.
As it represents two different
phonemes (s and sh), in the Hebraic pictogram
a "dot" is used to distinguish between the two; if the dot is
placed above left-hand side of the letter, it is called a SIN DOT, and
if it is placed above the right-hand side, it is called a SHIN DOT.
In Judaism the Shin also stands for the word Shaddai,
one of the Names of God.
Because of this, a
priest forms the letter Shin with his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing. The letter Shin is
often inscribed on the case containing a mezuzah, a scroll of parchment with
Biblical text written on it. The text contained in the mezuzah is the Shema
Yisrael prayer, which calls the Israelites to love their God with all their
heart, soul and strength. The mezuzah is situated upon all the doorframes in a
home or establishment. Sometimes the whole word Shaddai will be written.
The Shema Yisrael prayer also commands the
Israelites to write God's commandments on their hearts (Deut. 6:6); the
shape of the pictogram letter Shin mimics the structure of the human heart:
the lower, larger left ventricle, which supplies the full body and the smaller
right ventricle, (which supplies the lungs, are positioned like the lines of
the Shin.
A religious significance has been applied to
the fact that there are three valleys which comprise the city of Jerusalem's
geography: the Valley of Ben Hinnom, Tyropoeon Valley, and Kidron Valley, and
that these valleys converge to also form the shape of the letter shin, and that
the Temple in Jerusalem is located where the dagesh (horizontal line)
is. This is seen as a fulfillment of passages such as Deuteronomy 16:2 that
instructs Jews to celebrate the Pasach at "the place the LORD will choose
as a dwelling for his Name".
So, in this middle "S" between the JE and US, we see a connection with the Hebrew
Shin, and rolled together with that we see the S as a symbol connected with the word "sin" which
is what came between the "I" (Je) and the "us". We also see the S as a symbol for the Shin and the Shin involved in the priestly blessing
and the mezuzah with its promise to God to love Him with all heart, soul
and strength, and additionally we see it equated with the symbol which
graphically represents the dwelling place for His Name.
We also see a possible relation
between the S/Shin's use to
represent one of God's names, Shaddai; and finally the use of the S/Shin
in representation of the heart.
Jesus is the Second of the
Trinity, but often when referring to Himself, uses "I". He created man; sin entered the
world and separated man from Him. He
called out a people and chose a dwelling place for His name, El
Shaddai, (translated: God Almighty; the Sustainer; the Destroyer)
upon the mountains on His city. Because of the love that was in His heart for
"us," the Almighty God walked up one of those
mountain-hills called Golgotha, and destroyed sin thus blessing
and sustaining our lives eternally, that we who are called by His
Name might dwell forever with Him.
In response, when we, as
instructed in the Shema Yisrael prayer, love
God and seek Him with all our heart - which is the place He has written His
laws; and with all our soul; and with all our strength, He well be found and He
then chooses to bless us eternally by allowing the I Shaddai, or JE S, to combine with US into One and affixes the
truth of our place with Him into His very name: Je+S+Us = JESUS.