Jesus or Joshua
by Rod Jackson
According to "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance" the name Jesus in Greek is "Iesous".
"2424 Iesous; of Hebrew origins [3091]; Jesus or Joshua, the name of the Messiah, also three other Israelites :- Jesus (903), Jesus' (7), Joshua (3)." Strong's page 1656.
The Hebrew word that this Greek word has it's origins in, is -
"3091 Yehoshua [221c]; from 3068 and 3467; "the LORD is salvation", Moses' successor, also the name of a number of Israelites :- Jeshua (28), Joshua (219)." Strong's page 1528
All verses are quoted from the NASB anything in [square brackets] is added by me for clarity. Strong's numbers will be preceded by a hash, #.
Just like "Jean" is the French version of the name "John", so too is "Jesus" the greek version of the Hebrew "Joshua". It can be clearly seen that Joshua and Jesus are the same name in different languages from these verses.
"And having received it [the tabernacle] in their turn, our fathers [the Israelites] brought it in with Joshua [#2424] upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David." Acts 7:45
Here Stephen calls Joshua by the Greek version of his name, #2424 (ie. Jesus). We know this is Joshua by
"Joshua [#3091] said, 'By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan.'" Joshua 3:10 & 11
Here we see Joshua and the ark of the covenant (and hence the tabernacle) along with all of Israel are to cross the Jordan to the promised land. Just as we saw the verse in Acts was talking about. The New Testament uses the Greek version of his name [#2424] and the Old Testament uses the Hebrew version of his name [#3091], but it is the same person. So it is definitely the case that "Joshua" and "Jesus" are the same name. Also one may look up Hebrews 4:8 & Joshua 22:1-4.
Now, knowing this, we can turn to one of my favourite prophecies of Jesus. This prophecy, prophesies about Jesus by name in the Old Testament!
"'Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you - indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My [God's] servant the Branch. For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,' declares the LORD of hosts, `and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.'" Zechariah 3:8 & 9
First we note that this is God speaking to Joshua the High Priest, who was a literal person living at that time (Joshua the son of Jehozadak). Joshua the son of Jehozadak is the High Priest.
"Therefore, since we [Christians] have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." Hebrews 4:14
Here we see that Jesus is our high priest, as the Zechariah passage prophecies.
"Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Then say to him, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, `Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD.''" Zechariah 6:11 & 12
Here we see that Joshua the high priest is in fact a man whose name is "Branch". So "Branch" in our earlier Zechariah passage is in fact Joshua. This is important because in prophecy Jesus is often called the Branch.
Now we have seen that Joshua the high priest is "Branch", who is Jesus the high priest. Let us now consider the stone that was set before Him, on it were seven eyes and an inscription. These seven eyes are explained a little later on in the book of Zechariah
"For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel - these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth." Zechariah 4:10
"And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth." Revelation 5:6
This lamb that has 7 eyes is Jesus as we can see in the verse below
"The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him and said, `Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" John 1:29
Jesus was the lamb that was slain to remove our sins.
So we have seen that the stone that was set before Joshua the high priest had seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God which roam to and fro in all the earth. These seven eyes are on Jesus, the Lamb of God, in the book of Revelation. Finally the message inscribed on the stone was "I will remove the sins of the people in one day". Which is exactly what Jesus did, as we can see in the John 1:29 (verse quoted above), Jesus the Lamb of God removes the sins of the world.
"Then he showed me [Zechariah] Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him." Zechariah 3:1
This verse is the first verse in the chapter that has the prophecy we have been looking at (Zechariah 3:8 & 9). So some people claim that Joshua the high priest cannot be Jesus, because they say the "angel of the LORD" is always Jesus. this view is wrong on two counts. First Joshua the high priest is a literal person who is not Jesus Christ, but Joshua the son of Jehozadak, but is symbolic/prophetic of Jesus Christ the high priest. So even if the "angel of the LORD" was always Jesus it can still be true. Second it is wrong because it is not the case that "the angel of the LORD" is always Jesus.
"Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD" Haggai 1:13a
The expression "messenger of the LORD" is the exact same expression as that used in Zechariah 3:1 "angel of the LORD". The word "angel" means "messenger". So Haggai is called the "angel of the LORD" (cf. Malachi 2:7 for another example). So we should not assume that the "angel of the LORD" is always Jesus. I actually believe in the Zechariah passage it is not Jesus but Michael the Archangel (cf. Zechariah 3:2 and Jude 9 to see why).