The Many Names of Jesus in the Bible and What They Mean

The Bible includes a lot of names for Jesus, and they all reveal different facets of His identity, power, character, and mission.

We’ve all had nicknames throughout our lives. They might be shortened versions of our real names, terms of endearment, or something related to a memory. They are often expressions of love.

And so it is with Jesus. His names are expressions of His love, so to understand them, we need to look at them through a lens of love because “God is love” (1 John 4:8, ESV).¹

Let’s go through them and see what we learn.

• A summary of His names
• A closer look at:
  • Prince of Peace
  • Immanuel
  • Son of David/Son of Man
  • I AM
  • King of kings and Lord of lords
  • The Last/Second Adam
  • Lion of Judah
  • Lamb of God
  • Alpha and Omega
• What we can learn from the names of Jesus

Let’s begin with an overview of all His names, then we’ll look at some of them in further depth.

A quick summary of the names of Jesus

Photo by Tara Winstead

It can help us understand the different names of Jesus to list them in a timeline for when they were used. It helps us realize the proper context for the names we’ll look at more closely.

In the Old Testament, Jesus is called (references are from ESV unless otherwise noted):

• Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14)
• Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6)
• The Branch (Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 3:8²)
• The Lord Our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6 NKJV)
• Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)
• Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6)
• Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)
• Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6)
• Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
• Michael (Daniel 10:21; 12:1)
• Shiloh (Genesis 49:10 NKJV)

These names, spoken by prophets in the Old Testament, pointed to a Savior that would restore the hope of salvation to a fallen humanity.

In the Gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), Jesus is called:

• Son of God (Matthew 16:16)
• Beloved Son (Luke 9:35, NKJV)
• Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32)
• Only Begotten Son (John 3:16, NKJV)
• Son of Man (Matthew 26:64; Luke 5:24³)
• Son of the Blessed (Mark 14:61)
• Lamb of God (John 1:29)
• Christ (Matthew 1:16)
• Messiah (John 4:25)
• Son of David (Matthew 1:1; 9:27⁴)
• King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2; 27:11⁵)
• Lord (John 21:7)
• Teacher or Rabbi (John 13:13, 20:16)
• Prophet (Matthew 21:11; John 7:40)
• Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
• Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48)
• Immanuel (Matthew 1:23)
• The Holy One (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34)
• I AM (John 8:58)
• The Word (John 1:1)
• Light of the World (John 8:12; 9:5)

These names confirmed that Jesus was the Savior the Old Testament prophets spoke of. And they highlighted important aspects of His mission on Earth.

Later in the New Testament (Acts-Jude), Jesus is called:

• Prince of Life (Acts 3:15, NKJV)
• Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7)
• King of kings (1 Timothy 6:15)
• Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15)
• The Just One or the Just (Acts 3:14, NKJV; 7:52 NKJV⁶)
• The Apostle (Hebrews 3:1, NKJV)
• Deliverer (Romans 11:26)
• Good Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 2:25⁷)
• The Holy One (Acts 3:14, 13:35)
• High Priest (Hebrews 3:1, NKJV)
• The Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45)
• The Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-47)
• Michael (Jude 1:9)

These names highlight key aspects of His character as well as His role in the Trinity.

And lastly, in Revelation, Jesus is referred to as:

• Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5)
• Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8⁸)
• King of kings (Revelation 17:14; 19:16)
• Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14; 19:16)
• Lamb of God (Revelation 5:8⁹)
• King of Saints (Revelation 15:3, NKJV)
• The Amen (Revelation 3:14)
• Bright and Morning Star (Revelation 22:16, NKJV)
• The Word (Revelation 19:13)

These names look to a future when Jesus will return, defeat the devil, and once and for all be with His people (us!) in a fully-restored relationship in Heaven.

Now let’s look more closely at some of these names to better understand Jesus’ identity, character and mission.

Prince of Peace

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Jesus as Prince of Peace reveals two important aspects of His identity: His royal status and His peaceful essence.

King David was a royal ancestor of the Isrealites, and Old Testament prophets predicted that the coming Messiah, or Savior, would come from his bloodline (2 Samuel 7:12-16, Isaiah 9:7) . Calling Jesus “prince” solidifies this royal part of His identity (more on that when we discuss Son of David).

The word “prince” also means “a son of the sovereign.”¹⁰ When we think of God the Father as being sovereign, it’s fitting to call Jesus, the Son of God, Prince.

Peace refers to the profoundly peaceful nature of Jesus (Philippians 4:7). His very existence and presence on earth meant He brought peace to a world full of conflict and trouble (John 14:27).

Because He is the Prince of Peace, this also suggests He is the authority of peace; He brings peace but also maintains peace. “Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are seen as the ultimate fulfillment of this peace, reconciling humanity to God and offering inner peace to believers.”¹¹

Remember, the very essence of God is love, and 1 John 4:18 says that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (ESV). In Christ, we do not have to fear anything, and a life without fear is a life of perfect peace.

In Jesus, peace descended from heaven in the flesh to dwell among us, as we’ll discover with the next name of Jesus.

Immanuel

The Hebrew word Immanuel literally means “God with us”¹² (Matthew 1:23). (“Emmanuel” is the Greek translation of Immanuel, but it means the same thing.) It partly points to a physical presence of God with us on earth. Immanuel identifies Jesus as part of the Trinity (God the Son) that came to live among us and take part in our humanity.

Also, since sin entered the world through a human (Adam) and separated us from God, it would be another human (Jesus) who would reconcile that relationship. “God with us” means that Jesus is the way back to a restored relationship with God.

The prophet Isaiah predicted that Immanuel would come from a virgin, which mirrored the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth. These miraculous circumstances were to act as a sign that the son she had would be the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14).

Not only were the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth a sign of who He was, his lineage was also a sign that He was the prophesied Messiah.

Son of David/Son of Man

Genealogies played a significant role in biblical societies. They traced the line of descent and, in the case of Jesus, His genealogy is part of what identified Him as the Messiah and one with God, the King of all creation (Psalm 47:7). Jesus is “the first born, an Old Testament phrase about Jesus’ royal status, over all creation.”¹³

Matthew 1 uses the genealogy of Jesus to connect Him to Abraham, God’s chosen person (and family) through whom promises would flow to humanity.¹⁴

Matthew is saying that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises about a coming Messiah who would descend from David (hence the name “son of David,” Matthew 1:1, Luke 2:4). Because David was a king, calling Jesus the Son of David connected him to David’s royal line.

Luke 3 traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to “the son of Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3:38, NKJV). As a descendent of Adam, Luke is pointing out that Jesus is the Son of Man and Savior to all people, not just Abraham’s descendents.

Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man over 80 times.¹⁵ It connects Jesus back to the Old Testament prophecy of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven and beginning a work of judgment (Daniel 7:13-14, John 5:27).

Son of Man also relates to Jesus’ ability to relate to us because He was born a human (Hebrews 2:17, 4:15).

I AM

Though Jesus was born into humanity, His existence is eternal. I AM points to His timelessness and self-existence.¹⁶ He created, but was not Himself created. This can be a difficult concept for us to understand since we are created beings, and how can the finite understand the infinite? It’s hard to mentally grasp something or someone always existing, even before we existed. But I AM expresses this.

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush in the Old Testament, He identified Himself as I AM (Exodus 3:14). The religious leaders in the time of Jeses would have been very aware of this, so when Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58, CSB), they considered it blasphemy and wanted to kill Him (verse 59) because He was saying He was God (but they didn’t want to believe Him).

It was unlawful to claim to be God, but Jesus made this claim boldly (John 10:30, John 14:9). He stood firmly in His identity and revealed His divine nature with confidence.

King of kings and Lord of lords

This same confidence is displayed in the name King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus is timeless and His kingdom lasts forever.

The title king of kings (with a lowercase k) was often used in the Old Testament to show honor to someone of great authority and political power (Ezra 7:12, Ezekiel 26:7, Daniel 2:37).

To call Jesus King of kings and Lord of lords (with uppercase K and L) is to honor Him as a king and lord above all other kings and lords that have ever existed. In fact, He has the authority to set up and take down earthly kings (Daniel 2:21). He is ultimate, and to call Him as such is to show Him great honor and glory.

It demonstrates the power He has to defeat the devil and the authority He has to judge fairly (Revelation 19:11,16) when He will establish His kingdom on earth, which will last forever (Revelation 11:15).

The Last/Second Adam

His kingdom will last forever because Jesus was successful where Adam, the first human, failed (Romans 5:17-18). When Adam was tempted by the devil, he gave in to sin. But when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus resisted him at every turn (Matthew 4:1-11).

Jesus is called the Last Adam, or the Second Adam, because the salvation of the human race comes through him (1 Corinthians 5:22).¹⁷ In his book The Sonship of Christ, Ty Gibson puts it this way: “A second ‘Adam,’ a new ‘Son of God,’ will take the stage of human history and succeed where the first Adam failed.”¹⁸

Defeating such an evil force brings up images of a mighty warrior holding up a bloody sword in victory. And this next name of Jesus emphasizes that image really well.

Lion of Judah

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

Lions are fierce. If you saw a lion roaming around your neighborhood, you’d likely run the other way! Even if you’d never seen a lion before, just the way they walk and glare might spark your instinct to get away, and fast.

The name Lion of Judah holds fortitude and intensity in its words. “The strength and power of the lion, his undoubted place as king of beasts, make him a fitting symbol of the all-powerful Messiah.”¹⁹

Lion of Judah also connects Jesus to the fulfillment of a promise in Genesis that Joseph made to his son, Judah (Genesis 49:9-10). This prophecy of Joseph to his son was a message that the Messiah would come through Judah’s line.²⁰ So, “Among the Hebrews, and throughout the Old Testament, the lion was the achievement of the princely tribe of Judah.”²¹

There’s so much powerful language around some names of Jesus that you’d think He conquered sin through being a powerful warrior (Jeremiah 20:11-12). And He is a mighty warrior who wages war against evil (Revelation 19:11), but it’s His self-sacrifice that saved us from sin and reconciled us to God.

The next name we’ll look at speaks to a part of Jesus’ identity that is equally as full and true as Lion of Judah; both names “represent the union of omnipotent power and self-sacrificing love.”²²

Lamb of God

Where lions are fierce, lambs are equally as gentle. Jesus’ victory over sin came at a great price and in a way we might not expect from someone with all power at His disposal (Matthew 28:18).

One writer says, “Men since Old Testament times hoped for a Messiah who would be like a lion; the New Testament presents the Messiah as a lamb.”²³ Jesus didn’t defeat the Romans (who were oppressing the Jews) and establish His kingdom through military warfare, like the Jews expected Him to. Instead, it was through self-sacrifice and dying on the cross that Jesus triumphed over all sin for all time (1 Corinthians 15:56-57, Colossians 2:13-14).

Lambs are gentle creatures and, without a shepherd to guard them, are easy prey. Calling Jesus Lamb of God symbolizes the way He conquered the sin of the world. Isaiah said the Messiah would be “like a lamb that is led to slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7, NASB) and John the Baptist publicly identified Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29).

Throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel used unblemished lambs for sacrifices to God (Leviticus 1:3) for the atonement of the Israelites’ sins. The lamb had to be unblemished because it represented Jesus, who is sinless and without blemish.

Jesus was the perfect sacrifice who saved us all (1 Peter:18-19).

The different names of Jesus speak to the fullness of who He is, even when they seem to contradict each other. But they don’t cancel each other out because they all stem from His goodness and love.

The last name we’ll look at speaks to this seeming contradictory nature of Jesus.

Alpha and Omega

Is He as fierce as a lion? Yes. Is He as gentle as a lamb? Absolutely. Does He have the power to raise rulers and put them down? Yup! When we take a step back and look at all of Jesus’ names together, we better understand where Alpha and Omega comes from—the beginning and the end (Isaiah 44:6).

Revelation 1:8 (ESV) says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last. Together, Alpha and Omega are “a figure of speech that expresses the totality by references to polar opposites.” The name emphasizes God’s sovereignty because He controls the beginning, the end, and everything in between.²⁴

Jesus isn’t either/or. He is and. That and this. It is precisely this characteristic that makes Him eternal and complete. He is the only one who is “the fulfillment of God’s plan from creation to the end times.”²⁵

What we can learn from the names of Jesus

Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash

Jesus is love, and His many names show different aspects of that love.

Something would be lacking if Jesus was King of kings and Lord of lords but not the Lamb of God. If He promised to be the Prince of Peace but didn’t dwell with us as Immanuel, an important piece would be missing.

But nothing is missing in Jesus. There is a name for Him for any way that we need Him.

If we need Him to protect us, we can call Him the Good Shepherd.

When we’re confused and need a guide, we can call Him Wonderful Counselor.

When we need a reminder that we are heirs to God’s promises because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can call Him Passover Lamb.

When we need a reminder that He understands our experience, we can call Him Immanuel.

There are so many names for Jesus because His love is big. And He is everything that we could ever need.

Not only do Jesus’ names tell us more about His identity and mission, prophecies about Him do as well.

1. Nixon, Paul D. and Clarise Nixon. God Is A Person: Discovering God for Yourself, TrueVinePublishing, 2021, p. 16. [↵]
2. See also Jeremiah 33:15 and Zacheriah 6:12 [↵]
3. See also John 5:27 [↵]
4. See also Matthew 15:22; 21:9 [↵]
5. See also Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:2-3 [↵]
6. See also Acts 22:14, NKJV [↵]
7. See also 1 Peter 5:4 [↵]
8. See also Revelation 1:11, NKJV; 21:6; 22:13 [↵]
9. Revelation uses this title for Jesus more than any other book of the Bible: 5:12-13; 6:1, 16; 7:9-10, 14, 17, and many others! [↵]
10. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prince [↵]
11. https://biblehub.com/topical/m/mighty_god,_everlasting_father,_prince_of_peace.htm [↵]
12. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6005.htm [↵]
13. “Book of Colossians” by BibleProject, https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-colossians/. [↵]
14. “Jesus and Genealogies” by BibleProject, https://bibleproject.com/articles/jesus-genealogies/ [↵]
15. “Lesson 2: The Son,” General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. p. 15 [↵]
16. SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 172 [↵]
17. Nichol, Francis, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 811. [↵]
18. Gibson, Ty, MDiv, The Sonship of Christ, p. 30. [↵]
19. Specht, Walter F., PhD, “Christ the Lamb,” Andrews University. [↵]
20. “Revelation 5:5,” BibleHub.com. [↵]
21. “Lion,” Smith’s Bible Dictionary. [↵]
22. White, Ellen G. The Acts of the Apostles, p. 589. [↵]
23. Specht, “Christ the Lamb.” [↵]
24. Gallusz, Laszlo, PhD. “The Incomparable ‘Alpha and Omega’: God’s Speeches in Revelation,” Ministry Magazine (2021). 172 [↵]
25. “Revelation 1:8” BibleHub.com. [↵]

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