Why did the Jews not call Jesus Joshua son of god instead of Jesus?

Answer 1

The Jews of Jesus time would most likely have called Jesus 'Joshua' (Jesus is the Greek version of the Hebrew name 'Joshua'), as for most Jews Hebrew/Aramaic would have been their spoken language. However, ever since the Greeks has conquered the region many centuries earlier, and was still a strong cultural influence even after the Roman Empire took over, Greek was the popular written language of the day, as it enabled people to communicate across the diverse nations and cultures of the area - a bit like English has become today. So the New Testament, which was written entirely in Greek, calls him 'Jesus'.

It may also be that Bible translators use the name Jesus instead of going back to the original Hebrew name Joshua, to avoid any confusion between Jesus and the Joshua of the Old Testament.

If you went to an Arabic or Muslim dominated country today, you would find people - even many Christians - calling Jesus 'Isa'. This they do because that is the name given to the son of Mary in the Qu'ran... but these Muslims would say that this is notthe name of the Son of God. The Qu'ran says that Mary did not conceive Jesus by the Holy Spirit, but rather that she conceived when the angel Gabriel blew a wind up into her private parts. To the Muslims, it is the worst blasphemy to call Jesus the Son of God, or God the Son, this is the sin of 'Shirk' - and to the Muslim, it is an unforgiveable sin. Muslims believe that when Jesus said "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter" John 14:16, that Jesus was speaking not of the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost, but rather He was speaking of their prophet Mohammed - for to the Muslim, there is no such thing as the Holy Spirit, and it is great blasphemy to speak otherwise. The Qu'ran further says that it was not Jesus (Isa), but Judas Iscariot that died on the cross - and so their is no salvation made by His propitiation for our sins - rather, salvation comes by our works, and not His. They also believe that their Isa will come again to slaughter all Christians and Jews who will not convert to Islam, and that Jesus is not Lord of Lords and King of Kings, but rather that he will bow before their own 'Mahdi' in deference, and set up with him a worldwide Islamic Caliphate.

Today, many Messianic Jews - Jews who have come to recognize Jesus Christ as both the Son of God and God the Son, call Jesus by his original Hebrew name, "Yeshua".