The acronym יש״ו ימח שמו וזכרו

Question

Is there any connection between the acronym יש״ו ימח שמו וזכרו and ישו the person? Is this just a coincidence, or does the acronym actually originate with the historical ישו?

Answer 1

Jesus' name was Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ), which was a biblical name, as another form of Yehoshua. The New Testament (Matthew 1:21) derives the name (correctly) from the root ישע. The Greek version was Iēsous (the -s suffix was added because of Greek morphology, as in Ioudas from Yehuda). Yeshu seems to me to be a re-borrowing of the graecified Iēsous (maybe in order to mock the Greek pronunciation).

The initials יש"ו as standing for ימח שמו וזכרו is a backronym. Some versions of Toldot Yeshu attribute it to "the sages" or otherwise who gave it to him as a derogatory name.

ותקרא את שמו ישוע ואחר שקלקל מעשיו קראו לו החכמים "ישו" י'מח ש'מו ו'זכרו (source)

ותקרא את שמו ישוע על שם אחי אמו ולאחר שגדלה חטאתו וקילקולו קראו שמו י"ש"ו ר"ל ימח שמו וזכרו (source)

But versions that call him Jesus (יזוש) find acronyms for that name, too:

וכאשר ראה ישוע שבני ישראל אינם מתחברים אליו וקוראים לו בשם יזוש כלומר י״מח ז״כרו ו״ימח ש״מו אז אמר ישוע אין לי חלק באלהי ישראל והלך וגילה פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה (Huldricus)

So the initials of ימח שמו וזכרו did exist in reference to the historical Jesus, but since all of these sources were written centuries after he died, I highly doubt this was ever used in his lifetime (despite the fact that the above stories seem to claim the sages/Jews of his generation did call him that). These stories are written as parodies rather than serious history: one even credits Peter the Apostle with the invention of the Latin alphabet (a, b, c, d אבי ציד "my father was a hunter" = Esau; o, p, q, r, s = אפיקורוס)! These initials were invented by Jews, in the same way, in order to criticize Jesus, whether jokingly or seriously.

Answer 2

I'd just add there's an interesting answer here https://www.quora.com/Is-Yeshu-Yeshua-a-derogatory-Hebrew-name-for-Jesus/answer/Andrej-Friedemann/

The earliest reference to the acronym is in Toldot Yeshu, it is an acronym for ymach shmo vezichroh, and a reference to Jesus. Over here Regarding when the Talmud refers to "Yeshu", is it an anacronism and an urban myth, when some say that's an acronym for Ymach Shmoh VeZichroh? a commenter writes "Sefer Toldot Yeshu HaNotzri which is a compilation of portions of Talmud and elsewhere which were censored heavily when Christians came to power in Europe. According to the account there, this title was one of the judgements of the Beit Din that tried his case. His true name was to be concealed and he was only to be known by the acronym."

I'm not sure about toldot yeshu being compilations of portions of talmud, also, toldot yeshu using that acronym isn't necessarily evidence that the authors of the Talmud had that in mind. I recall reading that toldot yeshu dates much later (though does have manuscripts going back long before it was published).

The quora answer, as reason to think the talmud is just stating his name, points out that in the town where he was from , in gallilean aramaic, they called him Yeshu (spelt with an ayin) but in that place when they wrote the name Yeshua(A short form of Yehoshua), they didn't pronounce the ayin so they said Yeshua as Yeshu. So converting that to Hebrew it's possible one could drop the ayin.