Discover! >> Scientists Reveal Jesus Real Name, Say It’s Not Jesus Afterall

It might be one of the most famous names on Earth.

But experts now say that ‘Jesus Christ’ might not be the name of Christianity’s central figure after all.

Scholars believe that ‘Jesus’ would have gone by a name in his own native language of Aramaic which is nothing like our modern version.

In fact, the name ‘Jesus’ even contains letters that weren’t used in written language until 1,500 years after his death.

Throughout Christianity’s 2,000-year history, Jesus’ original name has been obscured by layers of translation and transliteration.

Jesus’ name travelled a long-linguistic road from his own Aramaic into Hebrew, then to Greek and into Latin before it could ever receive an English translation in the 16th century.

Likewise, experts say that Jesus’ last name was definitely not ‘Christ’ but would have actually been based on his home town.

That means Jesus’ real name was most likely Yeshu Nazareen.

The most obvious reason that Jesus’ name wouldn’t have sounded like the English version of ‘Jesus’ is that he wouldn’t have spoken English.

Jesus the historical figure and his disciples lived in a region of the Roman empire called Judea, which is now part of Palestine and Israel.

However, most scholars believe that Jesus was been born and raised in the town of Nazareth which is part of Galilee, a smaller province to the north.

Professor Dineke Houtman, an expert on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity from the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands, told MailOnline: ‘We cannot know for sure which languages Jesus spoke. However, given his family background in Nazareth, we can assume his day-to-day language was Aramaic.’

Aramaic is a language which first emerged in the area of modern-day Syria and spread over much of the Middle East during the time of Jesus’ life.

Surviving Papyri from the Galilee region show that this was by far the vernacular language amongst the Jewish population and was almost certainly Jesus’ everyday language.

Furthermore, early Greek versions of the Gospel specifically record Jesus saying certain words in the original Aramaic.

For example, the Gospel records that Jesus would use the Aramaic word ‘Abba’ to mean father.

Although Aramaic shares similarities with Hebrew, they are completely distinct languages.

By the time of Jesus’ life, Hebrew was mainly used as a language of religion in the same way that Latin was for the Christian church during the Middle Ages.

Although priests would have spoken Hebrew amongst themselves and used the language for their religious texts, it wouldn’t have been spoken on a regular basis.

However, Professor Houtman points out that Jesus certainly seems to have had a knowledge of Hebrew and even a basic knowledge of Greek.

Jesus, as we would say it today with a hard ‘J’, wasn’t a name that existed at the time of Jesus’ life.

Instead, Jesus himself would have used a name in his native language of Aramaic.

Professor Houtman says: ‘His name would probably have been in Aramaic: Yeshua.

‘It is likely that this is also how he introduced himself. Another possibility is the shorter form Yeshu which is the form used in later rabbinic literature.’

According to a study published by the archaeologist Rachel Hachlili, some variation of Yeshu or Yeshua was the sixth most common name at the time of Jesus’ life.

Despite a common misconception, ‘Christ’ is not Jesus’ surname but a title or honorific which means ‘Messiah’ or ‘God’s anointed one’.

During the Roman period, high-status individuals used a three-name structure made of an individual name or ‘praenomen’, a family name called a ‘nomen’, and an additional nickname called a ‘cognomen’.

This is where we get titles like Gaius Julius Caesar or Marcus Tullius Cicero.

However, as a poor Jewish man, Jesus wouldn’t have been given a full name like this.

Dr Marko Marina, a historian from the University of Zagreb, told MailOnline: ‘In the ancient world, most people didn’t have a last name as we understand it today. Instead, they were identified through other means, such as their parentage, place of origin, or other distinguishing characteristics.

‘For example, someone might be referred to as “John, the son of Zebedee” or “Mary Magdalene”, with “Magdalene” probably indicating she was from a place called Magdala.’

Since Jesus is referred to throughout the Bible as ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ or ‘Jesus the Nazarene’ it’s possible he might have used this as a practical means of distinguishing himself from other people called Yeshu or Yeshua.

That would make Jesus’ full name ‘Yeshu Narazene’.