In the Gospel of Matthew 1:18-25, the author tells us that Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant while he was engaged to her. As he carefully considered whether to break the engagement or marry Mary, an angel from God appeared to him in a dream. The angel reassured him that marrying Mary was the proper thing to do and that her pregnancy was an act of the Holy Spirit. The angel also instructed him to name the child Jesus.
Joseph is told not only what to name the child but also the reason for it – Jesus “will save his people from their sins”. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “God is salvation.” Jesus is his personal name that expresses his humanity, but also indicates his role – providing salvation from sin. It highlights the primary purpose of Jesus’ coming.
Jesus was a common name in the first century. For example, there are two others mentioned in the New Testament with this name: Jesus Barabbas who was released by Pilate instead of Jesus (Matthew 27:16-17), and Jesus Justus, an associate of Paul when he was imprisoned in Rome (Colossians 4:11). The name has also been found in a number of tombs unearthed by archaeologists. The name fell out of use by the second century by Christians (who considered it sacred) and Jews (who considered it offensive).
As noted above, Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. In Hebrew, the name begins with the Hebrew letter yod, for which there is no Greek letter equivalent. So, the Iota-Eta (Ιη-) at the beginning of the Greek spelling of the name (Ἰησοῦς ) was used to approximate the sound of the Hebrew letter yod by Greek speakers. You can pronounce the Greek name as either ee-ay-SOUS or yea-SOUS.
Word Focus Lexicon
Lexical Form: ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Ἰησοῦ <Hear It> Gloss: Jesus, Joshua Part of Speech: Third Declension Irregular Masculine Noun Forms: Nominative Ἰησοῦς, Accusative Ἰησοῦν, Genitive/Dative Ἰησοῦ New Testament Frequency: 917 Strong’s Number:G2424 (Link to Blue Letter Bible Lexicon)
Because Ἰησοῦς is a proper name, it begins with an upper-case letter. Notice that the smooth breathing mark (which looks like a single quotation mark) is placed before the upper-case Iota, rather than above it. Whenever a word begins with an upper-case vowel, the breathing mark and accent mark (if there is one) is placed before the vowel, because there is no room to print it above the vowel.
Example of upper-case Iota with a smooth breathing mark: Ἰ Example of lower-case Iota with a smooth breathing mark: ἰ
Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.
Koine Foundations 
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