[Question:]{.underline} Why do we use the name “Jesus” for Christ?
[Answer:]{.underline} The names given by Almighty God in the Old Testament are in general symbolic of the reality of what a person is. Examples include Adam and Abraham. We see this also with Josuah, (or Josue, in the Vulgate), who was chosen to lead the chosen people into the promised land. In fact, we read that this name was given by Moses to Oshea (Osee in the Vulgate), the son of Nun, in Numbers 13:17. The meaning of the name is “Jehovah saves”, or “Savior”, for he would save the Israelites from the forty years exile in the desert and lead them to victory. The holy name of “Jesus” is in fact nothing other than the Greek form of this name, as can be seen in Act 7:45, written in Greek, which uses the name of Jesus for the Joshua who led the Israelites when they brought the tabernacle into the promised land: “Which also our fathers receiving, brought in with Jesus, into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers”.
We read also in the Old Testament that this name was not infrequent after the return from the Babylonian captivity. The author of the book of the Ecclesiasticus, originally written in Hebrew by Jesus, the son of Sirach of Jerusalem, was translated into Greek by his grandson, also called Jesus. Since the text that we have available is the Greek one, it is the Greek form of the name which is used. Also Nehemias 7:7.
All of this was but a preparation for the use of the holy name of Jesus in the New testament for the Savior of the world, the chosen One, the Son of God who would save sinners. Although St. Matthew’s Gospel was originally written in Aramaic, the version that we have is the Greek one, and so the Greek form of the name of “Jehovah saves” is obviously used in the text in which the divine mission of Christ is declared the the angel of the Lord to St. Joseph: “And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name JESUS. For he shall save his people from their sins”. (Mt 1:21). The same name is given by St. Luke, writing in Greek, when he describes the apparition of St. Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the moment of the Annunciation, but without the explanation of the meaning of the name: “And thou shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High”. (Lk 1:31)
Hence the veneration that is given to the holy name of Jesus, the sweetest of all names, honey to the mouth and melody in the ear of the faithful, for it expresses the reality of all that God the Son has done to take away our sins, give us a share in the divine life, and open the gates of heaven. This veneration is perfectly expressed in the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, which ends up with the expression of our dependence on Him: “O Lord, give us a perpetual fear as well as love of Thy holy Name, for Thou never ceasest to govern those Thou foundest upon the strength of Thy love.”
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.