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22nd January 2025
01:01pm GMT
Scientists say that 'Jesus Christ' might not actually be the name of Christianity's central figure.
Scholars believe that 'Jesus' would have been known by a name in his own native language of Aramaic.
The Aramaic language is nothing like our modern version, in fact 'Jesus' contains letters that weren't used in written language until 1,500 years after his death.
Throughout Christianity's 2,000-year history, Jesus' original name has been obscured by layers of translation and transliteration.
His name was translated from Aramaic to Hebrew, then to Greek and into Latin before it received an English translation in the 16th century.
Experts also say his last name was definitely not Christ and would more likely to have been based on his home town.
That means Jesus' real name was most likely Yeshu Nazareen.
The most obvious reason that Jesus' name wouldn't have sounded like the English version of 'Jesus' is that he wouldn't have spoken English.
Jesus and his disciples lived in a region of the Roman empire called Judea, which is now part of Palestine and Israel.
Most scholars believe Jesus was born and raised in the town of Nazareth which is part of Galilee.
Professor Dineke Houtman, an expert on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity from the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands, told MailOnline: "We cannot know for sure which languages Jesus spoke. However, given his family background in Nazareth, we can assume his day-to-day language was Aramaic."
Aramaic is a language which first emerged in the area of modern-day Syria and spread across the Middle East during the time Jesus was alive.
Early Greek versions of the Gospel specifically record Jesus saying certain words in the original Aramaic.
For example, the Gospel records that Jesus would use the Aramaic word 'Abba' to mean father.
By the time of Jesus' life, Hebrew was mainly used as a language of religion in the same way that Latin was for the Christian church during the Middle Ages.
Priests may have spoken Hebrew amongst themselves and used the language for their religious texts but it wouldn't have been spoken on a regular basis.
However, Professor Houtman points out that Jesus certainly seems to have had a knowledge of Hebrew and even a basic knowledge of Greek.
Professor Houtman says: "His name would probably have been in Aramaic: Yeshua.
"It is likely that this is also how he introduced himself. Another possibility is the shorter form Yeshu which is the form used in later rabbinic literature."
According to a study published by the archaeologist Rachel Hachlili, some variation of Yeshu or Yeshua was the sixth most common name in name at the time of Jesus' life.
That is the equivalent of being called Arthur in the UK today, according to baby name data from the Office for National Statistics.
Professor Candida Moss, an expert on early Christianity from the University of Birmingham, told MailOnline: "Most scholars agree that his name was Yeshua or possibly Yeshu, which was one of the most common names in first-century Galilee."
