>>19048392>JesusThe earliest New Testament manuscripts do not say “Jesus” or Ἰησοῦς. They wrote abbreviations:
Nominative: ΙΣ
Genitive: ΙΥ
Dative: ΙΥ
Accusative: ΙΝ
Vocative: ΙΥ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomina_sacra#List_of_Greek_nomina_sacra[10]
What this actually means is debatable. There is some merit to the idea that it was not originally a proper name and it actually meant something like אִישׁוֹ (ʾîšô) [ʔiːʃo] “his man” meaning “God’s man”. אישו is attested in Aramaic:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40753243This is remarkably similar to the modern eastern Syriac version which (coincidentally?) is pronounced with a glottal stop: ܝܼܫܘܿܥ (īšōˁ) [ˈʔi.ʃoʕ].
More certain than the ΙΣ situation is the fact that “Christ” (Χριστός) is a secondary and later (mis)spelling. Originally it was “chrest” (χρήστος/χρήστης) or even “Chreist” (χρείστης). All sorts of early Chrestian documents prefer Χρήστος over Χριστός. The later church even censored all occurrences of “Chrest” (χρήστος/χρήστης) in codex Sinaiticus by erasing η into ι. See pic related. You can clearly see the erased η (as capital Η).
Now, because it was always a nomina sacra abbreviation, it can be argued that ΙΣ was not a “Christ” but rather a χρήστης meaning “prophet”.
https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%87%CF%81%CE%AE%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82https://logeion.uchicago.edu/%CF%87%CF%81%CE%B7%CF%83%CF%84%CF%8C%CF%82 