How “Iesus” became “Jesus”
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
The English alphabet was invented in spurts and stages as different civilisations borrowed ideas about writing from their peers. The practical effect of this is that some letters are older or younger than others, the youngest of them being the letter “J”, which did not appear until some time in the Middle Ages.
The letter “J” was originally a modified “I”. These long “I”, J-looking things would have still been pronounced as “I” for a while, but at some point, in the Middle Ages, they took on that “J” sound we are familiar with. Once that process began, all sorts of “I” words were given the new, trendy “J” sound for no real reason. The most notable of these was the name of Jesus (a.s.), who was previously known to English speakers as “Iesus”, and “Yeshua” way before that. This was more in line with Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. And that is how “Iesus” became “Jesus”.
You are pretty well informed :) Not many people know of this over here... makes me wonder who's name are they calling out when they pray since even the original king James version (and dead sea scrolls) also do not have this newly created letter J... hmm. From my research, this J seems to be of Germanic origins just FYI.
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The letter J was first distinguished from 'I' by the Frenchman Pierre Ramus in the 16th century, but did not become common in Modern English until the 17th century, so that early 17th century works such as the first edition of the King James Version of the Bible (1611) continued to print the name with an I."
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