believer wrote: call Jesus?  WHy do Muslims call Him by Isa?  Where did Isa come from?   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam   The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language - Anglicized name of Jesus is derived from the Latin Iēsus, which in turn comes from the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēso�s). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam#cite_note-EoQ-1 - [2] The Qur'anic reference as 'Isa has puzzled Western scholars and several theories have been proposed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam#cite_note-EoQ-1 - [2] One theory is that "y-sh-' , the Hebrew consonants of Yeshua, have been reversed to give 's-y, the Arabic consonants of `Īsā." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam#cite_note-EoQ-1 - [2] Another theory, according to the Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, is that "the Jews called Jesus " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esau - Esau " (Hebrew 'Esaw) out of hatred and that Muhammad learned this name from them not realizing that it was an insult." In support of this is the argument that the Arabic Esau is written as 'Isu, and that this may have been assimilated to `Īsā. Opposing this theory is the lack of evidence that the Jews ever called Jesus Esau. Further, a passage in the Quran charges Jews for insulting Jesus' mother [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran - Qur'an   http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html#004.156 - 4:156 ] and that those Christians who were acquaintances of Muhammad would have corrected him had Muhammad not realized that it is a Jewish insult to Jesus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam#cite_note-EoQ-1 - [2] A third theory is that the Qur'an deliberately used the word `Īsā to assimilate it to Musa (Moses) because they were sometimes paired. This also occurs in some modern languages, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language - Slovak (Je�i� - Moj�i�) or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_language - Czech (Je�� - Moj��). Other examples of assonant pairs include Ṭālūt-Ḏj̲ālūt (Saul and Goliath), Yād̲j̲ūdj-Mād̲j̲ūd̲j̲ (Gog and Magog), and so on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam#cite_note-EoQ-1 - [2] The last theory is that Christians in Arabia had coined the term `Īsā from the Syriac forms of Yeshu or Ishu. The Arabic words that are borrowed from Aramaic or Syriac are often employed by 'ayn . Furthermore, the Manichaean fragments provide an evidence for dropping the final 'ayin of the borrowed Hebrew terms. But there is no evidence that the term `Īsā had been in use in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahiliyyah - pre-Islamic times. "There is however a monastery in Syria known as `Īsāniyya as early as 571 C.E." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam#cite_note-EoQ-1 - [2]

The Name of Jesus (pbuh)

http://answering-christianity.com/name_of_jesus.htm - A Refutation to Quennel Gale's Article "Is Jesus the ISA of Islam?"

Personal name

Authors have put forward numerous explanations to explain the origin of the name 'Jesus' (cf. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201:21;&version=31; - Matthew 1:21 ), and have offered a still larger number of explanations for the meaning of the name. The name is related to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_language - Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua - Joshua , which is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophoric_name - theophoric name first mentioned within the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible - Biblical tradition in http://php.ug.cs.usyd.edu.au/%7Ejnot4610/bibref.php?book=%20Exodus&verse=17:9&src=HE - Exodus 17:9 as one of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses - Moses ' companions (and, according to tradition, later successor). Breaking the name down, we see that there are two parts: יהו Yeho, a theophoric reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YHWH - YHWH , the distinctive personal name of the God of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel - Israel , plus the three letter root שוע, relating to the noun shua. Due to disputes over how to render שוע lexically, ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-0 - [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-1 - [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-str2-2 - [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-philo-3 - [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-bdb2-4 - [5]} there are a number of generally accepted phrases this combination can translate to:

Yeho-shua

• Yhwh saves
• Yhwh (is) salvation
• "Yhwh" (is) a saving-cry
• "Yhwh" (is) a cry-for-saving
• "Yhwh" (is) a cry-for-help
• Yhwh (is) my help

Biblical Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ [Yehoshua`] underwent an orthographical change into the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Aramaic - Biblical Aramaic (some say late Biblical Hebrew) form יֵשׁוּעַ [Yeshua`] (for example, http://php.ug.cs.usyd.edu.au/%7Ejnot4610/bibref.php?book=%20Ezra&verse=2:2&src=HE - Ezra 2:2 ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-5 - [6]} ) because of a phonological shift where guttural phonemes weakened, including [h]. ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-6 - [7]} Late Biblical Hebrew usually shortened the traditional theophoric element [Yahu] יהו at the beginning of a name to יו [Yo-], and at the end to יה [-yah]. In [Yoshua`], it palatized to [Yeshua`]. This shortened Hebrew name was common - the Hebrew Bible mentions ten individuals called it - and was also adopted by Aramaic- and Greek-speaking Jews.

By the time the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament - New Testament was written, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint - Septuagint had already transliterated ישוע [Yeshua`] into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koine_Greek - Koine Greek as closely as possible in the 3rd-century http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCE - BCE , the result being Ἰησοῦς [Iēsous]. Where Greek has no equivalent of the semitic letter ש shin [sh], it was replaced with a σ sigma [s], and a masculine singular ending [-s] was added. Many scholars believe some dialects dropped the final letter ע `ayin [`]. The Greek writings of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_of_Alexandria - Philo of Alexandria ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-Philo-7 - [8]} and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus - Josephus frequently mention this name.

From Greek, Ἰησοῦς [Iēsous] moved into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin - Latin at least by the time of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vetus_Latina - Vetus Latina . The morphological jump this time was not as large as previous changes between language families. Ἰησοῦς [Iēsous] was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transliterated - transliterated to Latin IESVS, where it stood for many centuries. The Latin name has an irregular declension, with a genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative of Jesu, accusative of Jesum, and nominative of Jesus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_case - Minuscule (lower case) letters were developed around 800 and some time later the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U - U was invented to distinguish the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel - vowel sound from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant - consonantal sound and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J - J to distinguish the consonant from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I - I . Similarly, Greek minuscules were invented about the same time, prior to that the name was written in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_letters - Capital letters : ΙΗCΟΥC or abbreviated as: ΙΗC with a line over the top, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christogram - Christogram .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_English - Modern English " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_%28name%29 - Jesus " [ˈdʒi.zəs] derives from Early Middle English Iesu (attested from the 12th century). The name participated in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift - Great Vowel Shift in late http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English - Middle English (15th century). The letter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J - J was first distinguished from 'I' by the Frenchman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrus_Ramus - Pierre Ramus in the 16th, but did not become common in Modern English until the 17th century, so that early 17th century works such as the first edition of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version_of_the_Bible - King James Version of the Bible (1611) continued to print the name with an I. ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#cite_note-8 - [9]}