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20 The BiBle STyle Guide
bible society 2008
J
Jehovah, yahweh
The English translation of the name of God as it
appears in the old testament. The four Hebrew
letters of this name (known as the ‘tetragrammaton’)
are YHWH, from which the English equivalents Jehovah
or Yahweh are reconstructed. At some stage, the
Jewish people began to stop using the name, to avoid
accidental blasphemy.
The translators of the Greek septuagint replaced the
tetragrammaton with the word ‘Lord’ throughout the
text. Most modern translations translate the word as
LORD in capital letters throughout the Old Testament.
The modern religious movement of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
however, has revived the use of this name, which is
something they believe to be especially important.
JesUs, JesUs christ
The central figure of Christianity and a great prophet
within the religion of Islam. Jesus is understood by
Christians to be the messiah (or ‘Christ’), the Son of
God and the second person of the trinity. The word
Jesus comes from the Greek name Iesous used for
him in the New testament. His Hebrew name was
probably Yehoshua (Joshua). This is likely because when
Joshua from the old testament is mentioned in the
New Testament, he is referred to as Iesous (Acts 7.45;
Hebrews 4.8).
People who are reluctant to believe the gospels
sometimes doubt whether Jesus ever existed. However,
mentions of Jesus by Jewish and Roman historians
show that he was a real historical figure, even if ‘who
he was’ was still a matter of debate. On similar lines,
some scholars who take an historical-critical approach
to the Bible (see biblical criticism) also have their
doubts about who Jesus was. They are often keen to
make a distinction between the ‘Jesus of history’ and
the ‘Christ of faith’. Their ‘quest for the historical Jesus’
has led to an endless series of reconstructed men
bearing that name.
This approach has been criticised for its assumption
that the gospels are not reliable. Others have
questioned the reasons for its distinction between Jesus
the man and Christ the saviour. Popular fascination
with the Gnostic texts, which describe Jesus in
otherworldly terms, suggest that the question of ‘who
Jesus was’ remains of great interest to many people.
John the Baptist / the Baptiser
A relative of Jesus and a public preacher who gained a
following during the first century CE. John was known as
‘the Baptist’ because his mission focused on a ‘baptism
of repentance’, that took place in the river Jordan.
Scholars have described John’s baptism as a symbolic
act that people went through at the time to show they
wanted to be part of a changed Israel (a bit like wearing
a Live 8 wristband back in 2005 CE).
John is mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus as
well as in the gospels. He reportedly had an ‘in your face’
style of preaching, which made him popular with the
public but won him enemies in high places. It’s possible
that he may at some point have been connected with
the sect of the essenes. Some scholars suspect this
because both John and the sect emphasised the text
of Isaiah 40.1–3, they both carried out ritual washings
and he spent a lot of time out in the desert, near the
headquarters of the Essene community.
On the other hand, there are differences. John’s father
was a priest in the Temple of Jerusalem – which the
Essenes avoided – and he baptised in the river Jordan,
which the Essenes viewed as unsuitable for ritual
washings. Some explain the inconsistency by viewing
John as an ex-member of the sect. John was eventually
executed by King Herod Antipas. The biblical story about
how this happened was immortalised and embellished
in Oscar Wilde’s 1894 CE play, Salome. Some modern
scholars have alleged that Jesus acknowledged John the
Baptist as his superior, but this idea rests on a dubious
interpretation of Luke 7.28.
JUdgment day
The teaching that in some shape or form, all humans
will face a public trial by God at the end of time. In
Old English, it was known as ‘doomsday’ (which is
where the Domesday Book gets its name). In the old
testament, such an impending trial was known as
the ‘Day of Jehovah’ or the ‘Day of the Lord’. In the
New testament, Jesus is described as the one who
will be the judge.
JUdas iscariot
One of the 12 apostles, who eventually betrayed
Jesus. His surname Iscariot probably means ‘man
of Kerioth’ (Kerioth was a village in Judaea of the
time). Over the centuries, Judas became notorious as
the ‘baddie’ of the group. The gospels describe him
unfavourably as a ‘thief’, a ‘devil’ and as the ‘traitor’
who infamously betrayed Jesus with a kiss (Matthew
26.47–50; Luke 6.16; John 6.70, 71; 12.4–6). Jesus
reportedly said that it would have better for Judas
not to have been born (Matthew 26:24). The Bible
describes how Judas eventually committed suicide,
unable to face up to his actions (Matthew 27.3–10;
Acts 1.17–19).
Much later, because his name in Greek (Ioudas) was
the same as the word for ‘Jew’, he became a symbol of
Jews in general, who had become viewed as collectively
guilty for betraying Jesus (see Anti-semitism). In
recent times, there has been an interest in reassessing
the biblical portrait of Judas and in improving his
public image. This was fuelled by the publication of the
rediscovered gospel of Judas in 2006 CE and a later
novel based upon it by Jeffrey Archer in 2007 CE.These
works portrayed Judas as a close, trusted friend of
Jesus – rather than as a turncoat.
However, most New Testament scholars believe the
gospel of Judas to be a second century Gnostic text,
rather than a work written by Judas himself. In other
words, Judas was simply being used by the Gnostics
as a tool to promote their ideas, along with other
random figures. Their concern was not really to give
him a makeover.