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The name Iesus has peculiar declension in Latin. The declension of this word in every source that I have seen only gives singular forms. However, I can imagine situations where a plural is needed: a story might include several Jesuses. I have hard time believing that a plural form would never have been used in Latin literature.

What is the plural of Iesus? Where has this plural been used? It would be great to have all cases, but the nominative would already be interesting.

The closest fit in regular Latin declension is the fourth declension, but it does not fit all that well. Instead, the singular forms seem to be best explained by considering it a late loan from Greek (which it evidently is), not conforming to Latin's five regular declensions.

This question was inspired by today's SMBC. If you click the red button below the comic, you will see a tongue-in-cheek suggestion: singular Jesus, plural Jesupodes.

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    It strikes me that a discussion of plural Jesoi (if the analogy to the Greek second declension that C. M. Weimer sets out holds) (in which case the rest of the declension would be genitive Jeson, accusative Jesus, dative Jesois, vocative Jesoi) would be pretty heretical, no? Perhaps that's why we don't see it.
    – Joel Derfner
    Apr 15, 2016 at 16:18
  • @JoelDerfner, I have never seen the Greek plural genitive ending -ων borrowed in Latin as -on. It should probably be Latinized to -um. If you want to go this way (which does not sound like an unreasonable analogy), some of the endings should be Latinized. But then again, the singular forms are not very Latin, either. Your idea makes me think of Iesoi, Iesus, Iesum, Iesis, Iesis, but it doesn't quite sound natural to me.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta ♦
    Apr 15, 2016 at 16:46
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    Iesus is Ιησούς in Greek and is definitely not 2nd-declension (which ends in -ος).
    – brianpck
    Apr 15, 2016 at 17:03
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    For reference, here is an example of contracted second declension. Singular: νοῦς, νοῦ, νῷ, νοῦν. Plural: νοῖ, νῶν, νοῖς, νοῦς.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta ♦
    Apr 15, 2016 at 17:18
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    @JoonasIlmavirta: I didn't know that either at the time when I read it, and I believe there is some dispute about it. But a Greek genitive plural seems to be the most likely hypothesis.
    – Cerberus ♦
    Apr 15, 2016 at 18:41

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In the Greek Bible there are at least three people called Ἰησοῦς (at least two Joshuas in OT, and one Jesus in the NT), so in principle there could very well be a plural. But I am not aware that it is ever actually used in the plural, so I think your question must remain unanswered.

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The Latin plural of Iesus (m, genitive: Iesū) would technically be Iesūs since it is often considered to belong (also here) to the fourth declension, although it is highly irregular.

However, in reality I highy doubt that you will come across a real case of Iesus being used in its plural form considering that it would not make a lot of sense to do so.

EDIT: After further research it seems that Iesus indeed does not have a plural form as stated by a Latin Teacher.

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    Welcome to the site! Do you know any sources that justify it belonging to fourth declension? Wiktionary says so but no citation is given. It also seems possible to think of it as second declension (from contracted Greek second declension) or just a completely irregular word (coming almost directly from an unusual Greek declension).
    – Joonas Ilmavirta ♦
    Apr 15, 2016 at 19:29
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    It certainly looks like fourth declension, but I'm not fully convinced. It seems to me that it was borrowed quite directly from Greek and similarity to fourth declension is coincidental. Anyhow, the plural is clearly very rare if it exists, but there are situations where one might want to use it.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta ♦
    Apr 15, 2016 at 19:40

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