Corpus Christi? Quaeso - nescio quidem ubi claues meae sint! (Christ's body? Please - I don't even know where my keys would be!)
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Christi, indeed. Genitivus. If it had been "Jesus", however, it'd be Jesu. Because Latin is strictly rule based./s Seriously, Jesus is irregular, it's not even proper Latin and the genitive is for reasons only Iupiter might know, Jesu.
the genitive is for reasons only Iupiter might know, Jesu.
Blame Greek:
| Case | Latin | Greek |
|---|---|---|
| NOM | Iēsūs | Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs |
| ACC | Iēsūm | Ἰησοῦν Iēsoûn |
| ABL | Iēsū | N/A |
| GEN, DAT, VOC | Iēsū | Ἰησοῦ Iēsoû |
Latin didn't borrow just the name, it borrowed the whole declension for the name. And at least in theory this should've happened with Chrīstus too, the genitive would end as *Chrīstū; but I think it was regularised because it looks like a native 2nd declension name way more than Iēsūs does.
Yes. Most of the middle eastern transcripts were into ancient Greek. I doubt, however, that anyone out in rural Palestine of 0 BC was speaking Greek so the origins should be somewhat more obscure.
I doubt, however, that anyone out in rural Palestine of 0 BC was speaking Greek so the origins should be somewhat more obscure.
The root was likely borrowed from Aramaic or Hebrew. However the origin of the genitive itself is Greek - unlike Latin, Greek typically didn't borrow full declension tables, it borrowed the root and plopped a native Greek declension. And that's clearly the case here, none of the Semitic languages use an -s for the base form, so Greek changed even the nominative:
- Aramaic: ישוע yešūʿ /jeˈʃuʕ/
- Hebrew (syncopated, Tiberian reading): יֵשׁוּעַ /jeːˈʃuːʕ/ [jeˑˈʃuː.aʕ]
- Greek: Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs /i.e:.su:s/