Jesus

"'She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will

save his people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what

had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 'Look, the

virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him

Emmanuel,' which means, 'God is with us'." (Matt.1:21-23)

"And now you will

conceive in your womb

and bear a son, and you

will name him Jesus. He

will be great, and will be

called the Son of the Most

High, .." (Luke 1:31-32)

"Dream of St. Joseph" by Rembrandt, c. 1650

The name "Jesus" is the same as "Joshua" and means something like "the Lord saves".

Matthew explains the name with the phrase, "for he will save his people from their sins".

This makes Jesus the instrument of the saving. With this interpretation the naming of Jesus

closely parallels the cases of renaming in which the new name describes the role of the

person in the salvation or protection of the community. Such examples include

Curiously in Matthew's gospel Jesus is renamed even before he was born. The angel tells

Joseph to call him "Jesus" and immediately says that he will be called "Emmanuel".

The naming of Jesus and that of John the Baptist illustrate that names were not mere labels,

but carried great significance. It seems that the names of prophets and other leading

religious figures were especially noted.

Jesus/Joshua was the sixth most common name in Palestine, and John was the fifth, so

the cases of Jesus and John the Baptist also show that significance could be attached to a

name even if it was very common. This is also demonstrated by the cases of Levi-Matthew