Janer the Entertainer

I was reminiscing about "momisms" the other day with my adult children and they all came up with their classic favorites of funny memories of things I've said or the way I've said them (as in pronounced in some hilarious, incorrect way) that I have gotten good naturedly teased about over the years...and brings me to laughter-tears as well.

One of the memories had to do with more of a nick name Dave came up with for me that got morphed into various "titles". It stated out by affectionately calling me "Jane", my middle name. Then it became "Counselor Jane", then Janer, and even Janer the Complainer. I think Janer the Entertainer is my favorite. It must be the "momisms" that must be so entertaining! But you'll have to check that out with them. I find this all particularly endearing as some of my nicknames growing up were not so much!

Just as "Jane" got morphed over the years, Jesus' name did as well. This came about through transliteration, which I discovered means translating a word using the closest corresponding letters in another alphabet, rather than by the definition of the word.

You may know what your name means depending on the language from which it derived. In the Bible, the Hebrews would give their children names that specifically meant something important about the circumstances the child's life or character traits. For instance Jacob means "surplanter" and he was named this because when he and his twin brother Esau were born, Jacob was grasping Esau's foot. But it would be like, when his Mother called to him, hearing, "Surplanter, time to come home!"

Yeshua, means salvation. The angel told Mary (Miriam) and Joseph that she would "bring forth a son and they shall call him Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matt 1:21) So how did the name Jesus end up in our New Testament translation? It happened through transliteration. Rather than translate his name "Salvation" they just used the corresponding letters in the alphabet they were translating.  When Yeshua was translated to Greek, it became Iesous. When it was translated into Latin from Greek it became Iesus. His name begins with an "I" because prior to the 14th century, their was no letter "J" existing in any language. It first showed up in the King James version as Jesus in the 1600's. And the name Jesus does not mean anything in English, Latin, or Greek.

So in the spirit of returning to Hebrew Roots of the faith, I decided to use Jesus' given Hebrew name, Yeshua, which means Salvation.