Question IX. Whether Iehosua is rightly called Iosue?

The Innovators [Protestants] have, not infrequently, in their mouth and in their own versions, Iosua: Luther, indeed, in the German [Bible]; Castalio, in the Latin. But by the Latin Interpreter [the Vulgate], Iehosua or Iosua [is] never [used], but often Iosue, [and] sometimes even Iesus, as it is in Greek too, about which afterward. And Iosue, indeed, has been made current in the usage of all the Fathers, Writers, and Churches, so that it can be doubted in no way at all that he is rightly called in this manner. Yet the cause must be explained. The Hebrews are wont, even today — when they subscribe that sheva [half-vowel] of theirs — to utter that first syllable so hastily that from it and the second they seem to make only one, so that it becomes Ihosua; in which, however, both Greeks and Latins willingly wear away the aspiration too, as was said above. And so likewise, from Iehuda [is made] Ihuda, and [then] Iuda. But the last final letter, which among the same Hebrews is hain [ʿayin] — why [is it] changed into e? It must be answered [that] the letter hain is most difficult to pronounce, not for us only, but even for the Hebrews and Syrians themselves, as Elias testifies in the Tishbi, and as will be repeated again in the following question. And therefore it happens in it especially [what falls under] that rule of St. Jerome’s, which was set down at question 7: that it be uttered and written variously by various [people], according to the variety of places and times. Moreover, it sometimes seems to be uttered as if [it were] e; and thence [come], from us, Iosue, Bersabee [Beersheba], Sue, Bale, Osee — as Antonius of Nebrija rightly noted (Quinquagena, ch. 23). Nay, even among Eusebius (book 6 of the History, ch. 25), in the Greek, this book is called iōsoue. And therefore too great a zeal of novelty and vanity appears, if Iosue is shuddered at, and only Iosua is said — especially since, from the Scriptures, Iesua at least could be said (which, nevertheless, as was also noted before, is for the same reason called Iosue by our Interpreter). Yet the Calvinian brow [i.e., Calvinist boldness] disapproved, in this matter, the Lutheran and Castalian rashness — [the Calvinists,] by whom also, in the French Bibles, Iosue is retained.