I was recently told that there was never a man named Jesus who walked the earth and that Christians are getting it wrong if we continue to believe that there was. That we should be worshiping the Father and our Lord by their Hebrew names and I did look it up and it is true the English transliteration is rendered Jesus but there is not a J sounding letter in the Greek or Hebrew alphabet. I am not moved one bit by this claim and believe wholeheartedly in the name of Jesus but please help me to understand where this person is coming from and how do I counter this with truth?
This is the kind of thing that comes from an excessive focus on legalism. In the first place no one alive on Earth today knows the name of God. It hasn’t been spoken for over 1000 years. Words like Jehovah and Yahweh are human constructions made from adding vowels to four of His initials. So those who insist on using God’s Hebrew Name are really using a name made up by man.
As far is Jesus is concerned, the idea that there never was a man named Jesus is absurd. His Hebrew name is Yeshua, but it’s been translated into almost every language known to man. When the original Scriptures were written in Greek under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Greek version of His name was used. Why didn’t the Holy Spirit tell the gospel writers to keep the Lord’s Hebrew name? And each time the New Testament has been translated, the Lord’s name has always been written in the language of the translation. Now 20 Centuries later, someone’s trying to say that every Christian for the entire Church age has had it wrong? I don’t buy it.