A Nickname for God

To call me pedantic is received with honor...most of the time. I acknowledge that often in conversations—especially with my wife—the need for accuracy is distracting and overlooks the gist of the conversation. In case you don’t know what a pedant is, it can be explained with this example: someone might yell, “A 3-horned rhino is charging down the street, goring people!” And the pedant will say, “You mean a 2-horned rhino...”

In almost all of my blogs, I’ve refused to use the name Jesus, as a bastardization of the Latin J-E-S-V-S, which is IESUS in English. In Latin, it might have been pronounced similar to today’s Spanish Jesus (hay-sues). The Latin form comes the translation of the Greek Iesous for the Hebrew or Aramaic Y’shua or Isa. It’s the latter forms that I prefer to use. It’s what His mother, siblings, neighbors, disciples, fans/admirers...and enemies would have called Him. The modern-day “Jesus” is like a nickname...sort of like calling Mikhail Misha, or Edward Teddy or Scott Scooter. If the person is okay with the nickname, then by all means call him/her by that name.

I don’t go by a nickname myself. I view it as disrespectful unless that person is in a close relationship, like my wife calling me ‘honey’ or ‘hus-butt’.

When you use Christ’s nickname, are you indicating intimacy or just following the crowd?