What do arabic Christians

 

 

The Anglicized name of Jesus is derived from the Latin Iēsus, which in turn comes from the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēso�s).^[2] The Qur'anic reference as 'Isa has puzzled Western scholars and several theories have been proposed.^[2] One theory is that "y-sh-' , the Hebrew consonants of Yeshua, have been reversed to give 's-y, the Arabic consonants of `Īsā."<sup>[2]</sup> Another theory, according to the Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, is that "the Jews called Jesus "Esau" (Hebrew 'Esaw) out of hatred and that Muhammad learned this name from them not realizing that it was an insult." In support of this is the argument that the Arabic Esau is written as 'Isu, and that this may have been assimilated to `Īsā. Opposing this theory is the lack of evidence that the Jews ever called Jesus Esau. Further, a passage in the Quran charges Jews for insulting Jesus' mother ^{[Qur'an 4:156]} and that those Christians who were acquaintances of Muhammad would have corrected him had Muhammad not realized that it is a Jewish insult to Jesus.^[2]

A third theory is that the Qur'an deliberately used the word `Īsā to assimilate it to Musa (Moses) because they were sometimes paired. This also occurs in some modern languages, such as Slovak (Je�i� - Moj�i�) or Czech (Je�� - Moj��). Other examples of assonant pairs include Ṭālūt-Ḏj̲ālūt (Saul and Goliath), Yād̲j̲ūdj-Mād̲j̲ūd̲j̲ (Gog and Magog), and so on.<sup>[2]</sup> The last theory is that Christians in Arabia had coined the term `Īsā from the Syriac forms of Yeshu or Ishu. The Arabic words that are borrowed from Aramaic or Syriac are often employed by 'ayn . Furthermore, the Manichaean fragments provide an evidence for dropping the final 'ayin of the borrowed Hebrew terms. But there is no evidence that the term `Īsā had been in use in pre-Islamic times. "There is however a monastery in Syria known as `Īsāniyya as early as 571 C.E."^[2]