The Lighter Side
What�s in a middle name?
By Kerry Tomasi
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Oct 22, 2008, 00:09

One of my ongoing academic hobbies is researching historic origins of biblical and apocryphal books, and trying to determine how and why various stories and doctrines relating to Christianity, and other religions, came about.

One question that has befuddled theological and biblical scholars for millennium is what the letter �H� stands for in the moniker �Jesus H. Christ.� Researchers have searched in vain, for centuries, attempting to answer this question.

A recent archeological discovery has finally shed some light on this age old query. According to documents obtained from insiders at the Biblical Institute for Archaeology (BIA), a papyrus fragment found in Egypt, known as �Papyrus P52-H,� or St John�s Fragment, contains a portion of an earlier version of the Gospel of John which reveals Jesus� full name; a detail missing from previously known manuscripts (why subsequent versions of John dropped the middle name has become a hot topic right now in theological circles).

What makes P52-H noteworthy is it�s not only the earliest version of John, but also the oldest extant record of any canonical New Testament text in our possession, lending considerable credence to its primacy. The style of the script (strongly Hadrinic) and carbon dating of the papyrus suggest a composition date somewhere between 125 and 160 c.e. .

The key passage occurs in John 18:31-33, and is reproduced below in the original Greek, with the name of Jesus in bold:

[ΟΙ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙ ΗΜΙΝ ΟΥΚ ΕΞΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΠΟΚΤΕΙΝΑΙ OYΔΕΝΑ ΙΝΑ Ο Ίησονς Χουσεΐν Χριστός ΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΠΛΗΡΩΘΗ ΟΝ ΕΙΠΕΝ ΣΕΜΑΙΝΩΝ ΠΟΙΩ ΘΑΝΑΤΩ ΗΜΕΛΛΕΝ ΑΠΟΘΝΕΣΚΕΙΝ ΕΙΣΗΛΘΕΝ ΟΥΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΡΑΙΤΩΡΙΟΝ Ο ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΦΩΝΗΣΕΝ ΤΟΝ ΙΗΣΟΥΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΙΠΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΣΥ ΕΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΩN]

Here�s how scholars have translated the name from Greek to Hebrew to English:

�Ίησονς Χουσεΐν Χριστός�

�Yeshua Husseindou Khrist�s�

�Jesus Hussein Christ�

Yes, that�s right. The �H� stands for �Hussein.�

Here�s the passage in its entirety: . . . the Jews, �To us it is lawful to kill no one� so that the word of Jesus Hussein Christ might be fulfilled which he said signifying by what sort of death he was about to die. He entered again into the Praetorium Pilate and called Jesus and said to him �Are you king of the Jews?�

Despite the fact that this fragment appears to be the long lost, and definitive, answer to the �H� question, the BIA has been reluctant to go public with this news.

Questioned as to why, a spokesman for the Institute (whose primary financial backer is Rupert Murdoch) refused comment, but the insiders who leaked the document told reporters the BIA had intended to keep this under wraps until 2009 -- after the US presidential election.

Well, we all know what that�s about, now don�t we. An organization whose sole (supposed) purpose is to gather and reveal archeological evidence of theological importance, decides to intentionally suppress the answer to one of the most sought after biblical mysteries, for no other reason than to preserve, for the McCain/Palin campaign, one of their most potent smears*.

Shameful.

But at least now you know.

Keep this in mind the next time you�re accosted by some right-winger hollering . . .�Obama�s middle name is HUSSEIN! DON�T YOU GET IT?! HE MIGHT BE A TERRORIST!!�

Be sure to remind him or her that they �might� be skating on thin, and blasphemous, ice.