Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/594

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JCE is, wot

THE NAME JESUS. (10 th S. i. 428.)

THE full etymological history of this name may be seen in the ' New English Dictionary ' under the word. Briefly, the full old Hebrew word Yehoshu&', which was contracted in Old Heb. to Yoshua' (written in English Joshua), became in late Heb. or Aramaic Yeshua' (in English Bible Jeshua). In Greek, which did not possess the sound sk, but substituted s, and rejected the Semitic evanescent gut- turals, Yeshu(a') became Yesu' ('Irjcrov), in the nominative case Yesu'-s ('Ir/o-ous). In Latin these were written in Roman letters IESU, nominative IESU-S. In Old French this became in the nominative case Jesus ; in the regimen or oblique case Jesu. Middle English adopted the stem-form Jesu, the regular form of the name down to the time of the Renascence. It then became the fashion to restore the Latin -s of the nomi- native case, Jesu-s, and to use the nominative form also for the objective and oblique cases, just as we do in Charle-s, Jame-s, Juliu-s, and Thoma-s. Very generally, however, the vocative remained Jesu, as in Latin and in Middle English, and this is still usual in hymns. It is thus quite correct to say that Joshua and Jesu are forms of the same original name, though Jesu has not been " evolved " from the form Joshu(a), but from the sister form Jeshu(a), more phonetically Yeshua', the late Hebrew or Aramaic con- tracted form of the original Yehoshua' or Jehoshua. In the current form Jesus we have the combined influence of all the languages written on the cross. Hebrew gave the word itself, Greek the s for sh, Latin the current spelling with J and final
 * J. A. H. M.

I did not know that there could be any doubt that Jesus is a form of Joshua. It is applied to the successor of Moses in Acts vii. 45 and Heb. iv. 8. The English and Latin forms come to us through the Greek 'Irjcrous, in which the undoubted Hebrew original is not more disguised than in scores of other names. S for sh and a final consonant are common enough in Greek forms of Hebrew names ; thus we have " Solomon " for Sh e l6mo

Esaias " for Y e sha'ahu, &c. J. T. F

Durham.

Ample information concerning this name is to be found in what PROF. SKEAT has termed the " Neglected " English Dictionary. On p. 573 of vol. v. Dr. Murray gives the

history of the word Jesus from its earliest appearance as Jehoshua, later Jeshua, to the final adoption in English of its Latin nominative form. J. DORMER.

[MR. T. BAYNE, MR. A. HALL, MR. HOLDEX MACMICHAEL, and MR. M. S. PAGE are thanked for replies.]

BAXTER'S OIL PAINTING (10 th S. i. 427). This is a print in oil colours, by George Baxter, which originally formed the frontis- piece to ' The Child's Companion and Juvenile Instructor' (Religious Tract Society, 1851, 16mo). The signature in the left corner is incorrectly quoted by M.A.OxoN., and should read " Baxter's Patent Oil Printing."

George Baxter, "the inventor and patentee" of this process, was the eldest son of John Baxter, of Lewes, in Sussex, who is known as the printer and publisher of l Baxter's Bible,' 'The History of Sussex,' 'Baxter's Library of Agriculture,' &c. (see ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' vol. iii. p. 427), and was born at Lewes in 1804. He served his apprenticeship to a wood engraver, and began life as such. He conceived the idea of reproducing the painter's art mechanically by printing in oil colours from blocks of various materials (wood, zinc, copper, steel, &c.), placing one shade upon the other as a painter would with his brush, even going so far as to print in the whites a true chiaroscuro process. In this way he often printed in as many colours as twenty or more, each involving a separate printing, and all being executed upon the old form of hand press. He originally intended to print a mere skeleton dotted outline as a key, and place the colours on the top of this. Many prints (and to my mind some of his best) have been executed in this manner ; very good examples are to be found in the ' Pictorial Album ; or, the Cabinet of Paintings for the Year 1837 ' (4to, Chapman & Hall), in which an account of the process is .given. He soon, however, introduced an improvement (?) in the process by working on the top of a finished line engraving on copper or steel, and allowing this to show through his colouring. He took out a patent for the process in 1835, and in 1849 obtained an extension of the same for a further period of five years. He retired from business in 1860, and died at Sydenham in 1867. Subjects of every variety and size were produced by him, and for many purposes. In size they ranged from l^in. by fin. to 18 in. by 26 in., the size of 'The Parting Look,' after E. M. Corbould. His largest print, however, was the ' Dogs of the St. Bernard Hospice,' after Landseer. His