Isa (name)

Isa (Arabic: عيسى‎, ʿĪsā; pronounced [ʕiːsɑ]) is an Arabic name corresponding to Jesus in English. It is a common male given name for Arabs and Muslims.

Arabic-speaking Muslims refer to Jesus as Isa, while Arabic-speaking Christians refer to Jesus as Yasu (Arabic: يسوع, Yasū‘). Jesus is considered a prophet in Islam (see Jesus in Islam), and his name is used in these two forms in the Qur'an and in Arabic versions of the Bible, respectively.

Non-Arabic uses

Persian-speaking Christians use Isa as nameform for Jesus.

Isa is also a female name meaning "iron" in Teutonic, "rainbow" in Chamoru, or a short form of Isabella.

Etymology

Main article: Jesus in Islam

The English form of the name "Jesus" is derived from the Latin Iēsus, which in turn comes from the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs). The Greek is a Hellenized form of the Hebrew/Aramaic name Yēšua (ישוע), which is in turn a shortened form of Hebrew Yehōšua (יהושע) or "Joshua" in English. There is a major discrepancy between the Hebrew and Muslim Arabic forms of this name, since the original Hebrew form of this name has the voiced pharyngeal `Ayin ע or `Ayn ع consonant at the end of the name (as does Christian Arabic يسوع yasū`), while the Muslim Arabic form عيسى `īsā has the `Ayn at the beginning of the name. For this reason, some (such as Ahmed Deedat) claim the Arabic name Isa is related to the Biblical name Esau (which begins with a pharyngeal); it is also similar in the vowels to the Aramaic version of Jesus, viz. Eesho (Aramaic forms of the name, however, still have the voiced pharyngeal `Ayn consonant at the end of the name).

The Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān states that Western scholars have been puzzled by the use of ʿĪsā in the Qur'an because they were convinced that his authentic name is Yēshūaʿ. They have proposed a number of explanations. One explanation given is that in ancient Mesopotamia divine names were written in one way and pronounced in another, thus it is possible that for borrowed words to have their consonants reversed. Another view is that Muhammad adopted Isa from the polemical Jewish form Esau not realizing that it was an insult. However, there is no evidence that the Jews have ever used Esau to refer to Jesus, and if Muhammad had unwittingly adopted an insulting form his many Christian acquaintances would have corrected him. A third explanation is that the Qur'an used this form to assimilate his name with Moses, or Mūsā. A fourth explanation is that prior to the rise of Islam, Christian Arabs had already adopted this form from Syriac, as Arabic often adds an initial ʿayn to words borrowed from Aramic and Syriac. While there is no irrefutable evidence that ʿĪsā was in use prior to Islam, there may have been a monastery named ʿĪsāniyya in Syria as early as 571 CE.[1]Christoph Luxenberg's The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran equates the name with Hebrew Jesse. However, neither Yeshu nor Jesse begins with a pharyngeal consonant in their original Hebrew forms.

Given name

Surname

See also

References

  1. ^ Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān Volume 3 General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Georgetown University, Washington DC). Brill Academic, 2003, pp. 8-9