Zeus was a Greek god, Iseous was a Roman god and Jesus is the Christian faith Messiah, who is also referred to as "Son of Man." My question is: What is the origin of the name Jesus, and what is its relationship with Zeus and Iseous?
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3Who is this Iseous?– blehFeb 18, 2016 at 23:16
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2Currently, this question is really two questions: what is the origin of the name Jesus, and what is the relationship with Zeus and Iseous. Could you please ask two separate questions instead of combining two questions into one?– user62Feb 18, 2016 at 23:33
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1Well, they are potentially related questions, if the origin of "Jesus" lies in Zeus/"Iseous", though he doesn't.– cmwFeb 19, 2016 at 2:23
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1@david tik I'm not going to post a formal answer b/c this is a clearly a contentious subject and I'm likely to be down-voted, but there are some who do draw a connection between Zeus and Jesus, both from the perspective of their stories and names. There seems to be a similar connection between the Eucharist and Dionysis/Persephone. (i.e. Dionysus dies and is resurrected in "spirit", literally wine. Persephone, aka Kore, represents grain and the summer winter cycle of death and rebirth.) Many Christians are uncomfortable with this parallel for obvious reasons.– DukeZhouSep 1, 2016 at 20:09
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1Deus and Zeus are etymologically related. That is for sure.– Nuloen The SeekerMar 13, 2018 at 23:21
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2 Answers
Jesus is the Medieval Latin spelling of Iesus (the 'i' is consonantal), itself derived from the Greek Ἰησοῦς, as bleh noted, which transcribed in Latin characters would be Iesous, close to your Iseous (which does not otherwise exist as a name).
The name is ultimately Semitic, and came into Greek as the Aramaic שׁוּעַ (Yeshua), from the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshuah, which in English we usually "translate" to Joshua).
There is no relationship between that name and Zeus, which is proto-Indo-European and only looks similar to Iesus in its late form—its stem is dio- (whence Dios "of Zeus", and its many derivatives in names like Dionysus and Diomedes or even Dioscuri, the two "sons of Zeus"). This name ultimately comes from the PIE root *dewos, and is related to the Latin deus, Old Persian daiva-, both words for god, as well as the Latin dies or Russian день (dyen') meaning "day".
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@bleh your answer answers most of the OP's questions (it even explains the connection between Iseous and Jesus), and doesn't seem to get anything important wrong. It's a pretty good answer. So I gave it a +1, even if it doesn't go into as much detail as C. M. Weimer's answer.– user62Feb 19, 2016 at 4:00
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@C. M. Weimer It's been a little while since I've read any Ancient Greek, but I seem to recall Ζεύς in the nominative form, and being taught that there was a relationship between the two names (although I'm comfortable with the idea of the connection being "poetic" speculation.)– DukeZhouSep 1, 2016 at 19:22
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@cybermike There's no connection, no. The root of Ζεύς is either Ζην- or Δι-.– cmwSep 20, 2016 at 7:59
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@C.M. Weimer I'm a little uncomfortable with absolute certainty in disciplines that involve profound degreed of incomplete information.– DukeZhouSep 26, 2016 at 19:33
Zeus is Greek. This Iseous guy does not seem to exist.
As for the origin of the name Jesus, well Iseous seems to play a role here interestingly.
Jesus in Greek means "Joshua" in another language (Arabic I think). Iseous is another name for Joshua, and sort of looks like "Ιησούς" (Jesus in Greek).
Jesus means God saves, if that's any help.
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3More pointedly, there is no Iseous. There is no relationship between Zeus and Jesus (the Roman spelling of which is Iesus) and Ιησούς (Iesous).– cmwFeb 19, 2016 at 2:11
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