Something to ask God for guidance and truth regarding...
http://www.eliyah.com/yahushua.html
Why Yahushua?
(Latest update 10/28/14)Some have written me asking for an explanation of why I use the form "Yahushua" in reference to the Messiah while others use "Yahshua", "Yeshua" or "Yehoshua". With an open mind, and with grace offered to any who may see it differently, the purpose of this study share the reasons why I use "Yahushua."I'm not one that believes that you need to pronounce the Messiah's name exactly like I do in order to be saved. However, the issue of the Messiah's name was an important issue among the first century believers in Messiah. To demonstrate this, consider the following scriptures: Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Yahushua Messiah of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
Acts 3:16 "And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which [comes] through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Acts 4:7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, "By what power or by what name have you done this?"
Acts 4:10 "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Yahushua Messiah of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom Elohim raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Acts 4:17 "But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name." 18 And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Yahushua.
Acts 4:30 "by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Yahushua."
Acts 5:28 saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood on us!"
Acts 5:40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten [them], they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Yahushua, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of Elohim and the name of Yahushua Messiah, both men and women were baptized.
Acts 8:16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.
Acts 9:14 "And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15 But the Master said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
Acts 9:21 Then all who heard were amazed, and said, "Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?"
Acts 9:27 But Barnabas took him and brought [him] to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Master on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Yahushua.
Acts 9:29 And he spoke boldly in the name of the Master Yahushua and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him.
Acts 10:43 "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."
Acts 15:14 "Simon has declared how Elohim at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.
Acts 15:26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Master Yahushua Messiah.
Acts 16:18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Yahushua Messiah to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.
Acts 18:15 "But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look [to] [it] yourselves; for I do not want to be a judge of such [matters]."
Acts 19:5 When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.
Acts 19:13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Master Yahushua over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Yahushua whom Paul preaches."
Acts 19:17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Master Yahushua was magnified.
Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Master Yahushua."
And this is just in the book of Acts! The name of Yahushua is intricately linked with the person of Yahushua. So in light of the numerous scriptures which show us the importance of His name, we should at least seek to understand how it is pronounced. It is obviously important according to scripture.
Origin of the name "Jesus" According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the etymological origin of "Jesus" is:
Jesus ..Middle English, from Late Latin Isus, from Greek Isous, from Hebrew yû‘, from yhôûa‘, Joshua...
Notice that it says that the origin of His name is from Latin, then Greek, then Hebrew. So the name "Jesus" is the result of 3 different languages placing their influence on the original name the disciples were proclaiming, baptizing in and praying in. Some of the influence is quite recent. In the 1611 King James Version, it originally had "Iesus" rather than "Jesus" (photo). Later revisions of the KJV changed it to "Jesus". This leads me to ask some important questions: "Who is the one who gets to decide what it is changed to? Man or Yahweh? And if Yahushua is supposed to be the same yesterday, today and forever, why do they keep changing His name?"
If you look up the name "Jesus" in a Strong's lexicon it has "Iesous":
"2424 Iesous ee-ay-sooce' of Hebrew origin (3091); Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites:--Jesus."
Notice that it traces the name of Messiah to Hebrew word #3091 in the Strong's lexicon. This name is the same name as "Joshua, Son of Nun". In the Hebrew, this name is spelled . While there are some out there claiming that "Jesus" is somehow derived from "Zeus", I have yet to find anyone who is willing to present hard evidence of this claim. One person wrote a book which claimed that "Iesous" means "Hail Zeus". When I contacted him by phone and asked him for evidence of this claim, he said "Iesous" means "Hail Zeus" in the sense that when you say the "Ie" it sounds like "Yaayy" and "Yaayy" is what people do in modern sports games when they hail their team. Thus, the statement that "Iesous" meant "Hail Zeus" had nothing to do with its meaning in the Greek language.
In fact, the Greek language spells Zeus (#2203 in the Strong's Lexicon) as ZeuV and doesn't even have the same letters or sound as the second syllable in IhsouV (Iesous). First of all, the Z in ZeuV produces a "dz" sound, not an "s" sound. Also the eu combination in ZeuV sounds like "eu as in feud", a letter combination not found in any form of IhsouV/Iesous. So is ZeuV is actually pronounced "Dzyooce" and not "Sooce". These things alone make it appear quite impossible that Iesous comes from "Zeus". Look at the first page of the Greek Lexicon in your Strong's concordance if you want confirmation of the sounds of these Greek letters. Another important point is that the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that was completed many years before Yahushua came to earth, also rendered the Hebrew name "Yahushua" as IhsouV (Iesous). This fact alone clearly demonstrates that "Iesous" is a Greek form of and wasn't a form invented by apostate Christians who wanted to honor Zeus in some way. Interestingly, there is evidence that although the name of Yahushua was written in Greek as IhsouV, it may have actually been pronounced the way a Hebrew speaking person would pronounce it. Around 178 CE, a pagan by the name of Celsus engaged in written debates with Christians. In one of them, Celsus (speaking of Christians) said: "But of course they think otherwise: they assume that by pronouncing the name of their teacher they are armored against the powers of the earth and air. And they are quite insistent on the efficacy of the name as a means of protection: pronounce it improperly, they say, and it is ineffective. Greek and Latin will not do; it must be said in a barbarian tongue to work. Silly as they are, one finds them standing next to a a statue of Zeus or Apollo or some other god, and shouting, "see here: I blaspheme it and strike it, but it is powerless against me for I am a Christian." Celsus on the True Doctrine, A Discourse Against the Christians, R. Joseph Hoffman (page118)
Notice that Celsus was quoting Christians as saying that the name of "their teacher" (Yahushua no doubt) must not be spoken "improperly" and that it must not be spoken in a "Greek" way or "Latin" way, but in a "Barbarian tongue" for it to be effective.
Of course, to the pagans the Hebrew language was nothing more than a barbarian language. This lends evidence that even though the name of Yahushua was written as IhsouV, there were at least some people speaking it in the Hebrew way. The Greek alphabet simply lacks the letters necessary to correctly convey how the name is pronounced in Hebrew.
So how is the name pronounced? This will take some study. After all, we are English speakers so it is going to take a certain amount of concentration and diligence to try and understand how a Hebrew word is pronounced. But if you are willing to diligently search this out with me, I think you'll better understand Hebrew and conclude with me that His name should be pronounced "Yahushua." Click here to listen to how "Yahushua" is pronounced.
Let's start with the form that is found in various Hebrew Lexicons: "Yehoshua".
Yehoshua In the Strong's concordance and other Hebrew Lexicons, the pronunciation listed for the Messiah's name is typically "Yehoshua". While I do not believe we should be getting all of our Hebrew learning from a Strong's lexicon alone (that would be dangerous), most of us do own a Strong's Concordance so I will be using it during this study for the purposes of illustration.
Why Yahushua?
(Latest update 10/28/14)Some have written me asking for an explanation of why I use the form "Yahushua" in reference to the Messiah while others use "Yahshua", "Yeshua" or "Yehoshua". With an open mind, and with grace offered to any who may see it differently, the purpose of this study share the reasons why I use "Yahushua."I'm not one that believes that you need to pronounce the Messiah's name exactly like I do in order to be saved. However, the issue of the Messiah's name was an important issue among the first century believers in Messiah. To demonstrate this, consider the following scriptures: Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Yahushua Messiah of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
Acts 3:16 "And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which [comes] through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Acts 4:7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, "By what power or by what name have you done this?"
Acts 4:10 "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Yahushua Messiah of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom Elohim raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Acts 4:17 "But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name." 18 And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Yahushua.
Acts 4:30 "by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Yahushua."
Acts 5:28 saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood on us!"
Acts 5:40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten [them], they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Yahushua, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of Elohim and the name of Yahushua Messiah, both men and women were baptized.
Acts 8:16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.
Acts 9:14 "And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15 But the Master said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
Acts 9:21 Then all who heard were amazed, and said, "Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?"
Acts 9:27 But Barnabas took him and brought [him] to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Master on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Yahushua.
Acts 9:29 And he spoke boldly in the name of the Master Yahushua and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him.
Acts 10:43 "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."
Acts 15:14 "Simon has declared how Elohim at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.
Acts 15:26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Master Yahushua Messiah.
Acts 16:18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Yahushua Messiah to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.
Acts 18:15 "But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look [to] [it] yourselves; for I do not want to be a judge of such [matters]."
Acts 19:5 When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.
Acts 19:13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Master Yahushua over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Yahushua whom Paul preaches."
Acts 19:17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Master Yahushua was magnified.
Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Master Yahushua."
And this is just in the book of Acts! The name of Yahushua is intricately linked with the person of Yahushua. So in light of the numerous scriptures which show us the importance of His name, we should at least seek to understand how it is pronounced. It is obviously important according to scripture.
Origin of the name "Jesus" According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the etymological origin of "Jesus" is:
Jesus ..Middle English, from Late Latin Isus, from Greek Isous, from Hebrew yû‘, from yhôûa‘, Joshua...
Notice that it says that the origin of His name is from Latin, then Greek, then Hebrew. So the name "Jesus" is the result of 3 different languages placing their influence on the original name the disciples were proclaiming, baptizing in and praying in. Some of the influence is quite recent. In the 1611 King James Version, it originally had "Iesus" rather than "Jesus" (photo). Later revisions of the KJV changed it to "Jesus". This leads me to ask some important questions: "Who is the one who gets to decide what it is changed to? Man or Yahweh? And if Yahushua is supposed to be the same yesterday, today and forever, why do they keep changing His name?"
If you look up the name "Jesus" in a Strong's lexicon it has "Iesous":
"2424 Iesous ee-ay-sooce' of Hebrew origin (3091); Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites:--Jesus."
Notice that it traces the name of Messiah to Hebrew word #3091 in the Strong's lexicon. This name is the same name as "Joshua, Son of Nun". In the Hebrew, this name is spelled . While there are some out there claiming that "Jesus" is somehow derived from "Zeus", I have yet to find anyone who is willing to present hard evidence of this claim. One person wrote a book which claimed that "Iesous" means "Hail Zeus". When I contacted him by phone and asked him for evidence of this claim, he said "Iesous" means "Hail Zeus" in the sense that when you say the "Ie" it sounds like "Yaayy" and "Yaayy" is what people do in modern sports games when they hail their team. Thus, the statement that "Iesous" meant "Hail Zeus" had nothing to do with its meaning in the Greek language.
In fact, the Greek language spells Zeus (#2203 in the Strong's Lexicon) as ZeuV and doesn't even have the same letters or sound as the second syllable in IhsouV (Iesous). First of all, the Z in ZeuV produces a "dz" sound, not an "s" sound. Also the eu combination in ZeuV sounds like "eu as in feud", a letter combination not found in any form of IhsouV/Iesous. So is ZeuV is actually pronounced "Dzyooce" and not "Sooce". These things alone make it appear quite impossible that Iesous comes from "Zeus". Look at the first page of the Greek Lexicon in your Strong's concordance if you want confirmation of the sounds of these Greek letters. Another important point is that the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that was completed many years before Yahushua came to earth, also rendered the Hebrew name "Yahushua" as IhsouV (Iesous). This fact alone clearly demonstrates that "Iesous" is a Greek form of and wasn't a form invented by apostate Christians who wanted to honor Zeus in some way. Interestingly, there is evidence that although the name of Yahushua was written in Greek as IhsouV, it may have actually been pronounced the way a Hebrew speaking person would pronounce it. Around 178 CE, a pagan by the name of Celsus engaged in written debates with Christians. In one of them, Celsus (speaking of Christians) said: "But of course they think otherwise: they assume that by pronouncing the name of their teacher they are armored against the powers of the earth and air. And they are quite insistent on the efficacy of the name as a means of protection: pronounce it improperly, they say, and it is ineffective. Greek and Latin will not do; it must be said in a barbarian tongue to work. Silly as they are, one finds them standing next to a a statue of Zeus or Apollo or some other god, and shouting, "see here: I blaspheme it and strike it, but it is powerless against me for I am a Christian." Celsus on the True Doctrine, A Discourse Against the Christians, R. Joseph Hoffman (page118)
Notice that Celsus was quoting Christians as saying that the name of "their teacher" (Yahushua no doubt) must not be spoken "improperly" and that it must not be spoken in a "Greek" way or "Latin" way, but in a "Barbarian tongue" for it to be effective.
Of course, to the pagans the Hebrew language was nothing more than a barbarian language. This lends evidence that even though the name of Yahushua was written as IhsouV, there were at least some people speaking it in the Hebrew way. The Greek alphabet simply lacks the letters necessary to correctly convey how the name is pronounced in Hebrew.
So how is the name pronounced? This will take some study. After all, we are English speakers so it is going to take a certain amount of concentration and diligence to try and understand how a Hebrew word is pronounced. But if you are willing to diligently search this out with me, I think you'll better understand Hebrew and conclude with me that His name should be pronounced "Yahushua." Click here to listen to how "Yahushua" is pronounced.
Let's start with the form that is found in various Hebrew Lexicons: "Yehoshua".
Yehoshua In the Strong's concordance and other Hebrew Lexicons, the pronunciation listed for the Messiah's name is typically "Yehoshua". While I do not believe we should be getting all of our Hebrew learning from a Strong's lexicon alone (that would be dangerous), most of us do own a Strong's Concordance so I will be using it during this study for the purposes of illustration.
The reason for the "Yehoshua" pronunciation is due to the Hebrew vowel pointing added by the Masorite scribes. The vowel points are the little dots and dashes under and above certain Hebrew letters. Unlike English, Hebrew was written with mostly all consonants. It was up to the reader to supply the vowels in each word based on the context of the word. The Masorites were concerned that Hebrew was becoming a lost language so they invented the vowel point system to preserve the sounds of the Hebrew language. However, in keeping with tradition they were concerned that someone might accidentally mispronounce the letters that followed יהו . Thus, they pointed יהו to produce the same sound seen in "Yehovah".
To avoid speaking the Heavenly Father's name, the Jewish tradition was to say "Adonai" ("Lord") instead of Yahweh. For this reason, our English bibles also say "LORD" instead of "Yahweh". So rather than supplying the true vowels of the Heavenly Father's name, the scribes inserted the vowels for "Adonai" so that the reader would be reminded to say "Adonai" rather than Yahweh.
But what if the Hebrew scriptures contained a phrase such as "Adonai Yahweh" (Master Yahweh)? They would then have to say "Adonai Adonai", a rather odd (if not a bit embarrassing) phrase. Their solution was to put the vowel points for "Elohim" within the Heavenly Father's name so that they would be reminded to say "Adonai Elohim" instead of "Adonai adonai". This is even mentioned in the Strong's lexicon and it lists it as a different word number. Read what it says:
But what if the Hebrew scriptures contained a phrase such as "Adonai Yahweh" (Master Yahweh)? They would then have to say "Adonai Adonai", a rather odd (if not a bit embarrassing) phrase. Their solution was to put the vowel points for "Elohim" within the Heavenly Father's name so that they would be reminded to say "Adonai Elohim" instead of "Adonai adonai". This is even mentioned in the Strong's lexicon and it lists it as a different word number. Read what it says:
"136" is the Hebrew word "Adonai" and "430" is the Hebrew word "Elohim". So these vowel points are used within the Father's name whenever His name follows 136 (Adonai). And they pronounce this as 430 (Elohim) to avoid having to say Adonai twice. For this reason, many English translations will render "Adonai Yahweh" as "the Lord GOD" with "GOD" being in all capitals to let the reader know that this is where the sacred name is found in the Hebrew. Very few even know that this is why "GOD" is sometimes in all capital letters (See Gen 15:2 for one of hundreds of examples of this). It is amazing how far men will go in order to cleave to tradition! So how does this relate to the pronunciation of the Messiah's name? Let's take a look at His name again in the Strong's Lexicon:
Notice that there are other names listed in the Strong's concordance which contain the first three letters of Yahweh's name. And just like Yahweh's name which starts with the "Yeho" vowel points, they use the "Yeho" vowel points in "Yehoram", "Yehosheba", "Yehoshaphat" and numerous other names which contain the first part of Yahweh's name. Consistently, the scribes did not want anyone to accidentally pronounce the Heavenly Father's name when saying these other names, so they changed the vowel points of names that began with יהו.
Interestingly, they did not change the pronunciation of these same three letters when it was at the end of a person's name. For instance, look at how Zechariah's name is presented in the Hebrew text:
Interestingly, they did not change the pronunciation of these same three letters when it was at the end of a person's name. For instance, look at how Zechariah's name is presented in the Hebrew text:
Notice the different vowel pointing and pronunciation herein ("ZecharYahu"). There were no concerns by the scribes that His name would accidentally be pronounced when there were no Hebrew letters that followed after יהו and so they provided the correct vowels.
Phonetically, the first three letters in the Heavenly Father's name are also pronounced "Yahu". For this reason, the Heavenly Father's name can be written as "YAHUeh" or "YAHWeh" and the same pronunciation will result, just as in the word "Persuade" could also be spelled "Perswade". I prefer to use a W so that there is less confusion over how the name is to be pronounced. For if I wrote His name as "Yahueh" most readers would pronounce the 'hu' part of His name as 'Hoo" and this is not how I believe the Father's name was pronounced.
So the scribes had no problem giving the correct pronunciation of these three letters at the end of a name. Because it ends in 'Yahu', there was considered to be no risk in accidentally saying "Yahueh/Yahweh". This would also explain why the scribes used the correct vowel points in the shortened form of Yahweh's name ("Yah"):
Phonetically, the first three letters in the Heavenly Father's name are also pronounced "Yahu". For this reason, the Heavenly Father's name can be written as "YAHUeh" or "YAHWeh" and the same pronunciation will result, just as in the word "Persuade" could also be spelled "Perswade". I prefer to use a W so that there is less confusion over how the name is to be pronounced. For if I wrote His name as "Yahueh" most readers would pronounce the 'hu' part of His name as 'Hoo" and this is not how I believe the Father's name was pronounced.
So the scribes had no problem giving the correct pronunciation of these three letters at the end of a name. Because it ends in 'Yahu', there was considered to be no risk in accidentally saying "Yahueh/Yahweh". This would also explain why the scribes used the correct vowel points in the shortened form of Yahweh's name ("Yah"):
They even used the correct vowel pointing in "HalleluYah" and even the Greek New Testament properly transliterates this phrase as "HalleluYah" (See Strong's Lexicon #239).
Thus, the only time they would revert to the "Yeho" pronunciation of these three letters was when it was at the beginning of a Hebrew name. Personally, I want nothing to do with the unscriptural tradition of saying "Adonai/Lord/Elohim/God" in place of Yahweh. That is one reason I do not refer to the Messiah as "Yehoshua." For it is not "Yeho(wah)" (Jehovah) that saves, it is "Yahu(eh)/Yahweh" that saves!
Having said this, there are some Hebrew students and scholars who have noticed that a natural progression of Hebrew language is to shorten initial vowels whenever an accent is on the later syllables of Hebrew words. This tendency is said to result in the "Y'hoshua" or "Yehoshua" pronunciation. For this reason, some believe "Yehoshua" to actually be the correct pronunciation.
But while this may be true in some Hebrew words, there is evidence to support that this was not necessarily true in ancient times. At a minimum, it may have not been true in personal names containing the name of our Heavenly Father. During times before the "Rabbis" came to prominence, Yahweh's name was considered to be very important to pronounce. And ancient evidence suggests that they did not shorten or eliminate the sounds in Yahweh's name.
Cuneiform tablets (also containing vowels) were discovered near the Ishtar gate in Babylon which give a list of workers and captives to whom rations were given. Cuneiform scripts contain vowels. In addition to validating the biblical account in 2Kings 25:27-29 where it mentions that Jehoiachin (Yahuiachin) ate at the king's table, these tablets help to establish the way these names were pronounced before the Masorite scribes inserted their vowel pointing, based on tradition:
"Yaukin, king of the land of Yahud," ("Jehoiachin, the king of the land of Judah") The New Unger's Bible Dictionary
Also, a family of Jewish businessmen living in the Mesopotamian city of Kippur in the fifth century BC left behind a collection of clay tablets recording their commercial transactions. The clay tablets, known as the Murashu documents, contain vowels and list the names of about 70 Jewish settlers in Persia. The Hebrew names which begin with יהו (Yod Heh Waw) are all written "Yahu-" and never "Yeho".
"In the cuneiform texts Yeho [YHW], Yo [YW] and Yah [YH] are written Yahu, as for example in the names Jehu (Yahu-a), Jehoahaz (Yahu-khazi) and Hezekiah (Khazaqi-yahu)" A. H. Sayce in "Higher Criticism" on p. 87
"The evidence from the Murashu documents thus corresponds to that from other sources: after the Exile the ordinary form of the divine name used as an initial theophorous element was yahu" "Patterns in Jewish Personal Names in the Babylonian Diaspora" JSJ, Vol. 4 Issue 2 Pg. 188
Notice that not only were names beginning with "Yeho" written as "Yahu", but also names beginning with "Yo" such as "Yochanan" (John) and "Yoel" (Joel) were written as "Yahu". This indicates John and Joel were originally pronounced "Yahuchanan" and "Yahuel".
A third witness is found in an inscription of the Assyrian monarch Tiglath-pileser III (Gressmann Bilder 348; ANET 282a). When listing those kings who were paying tribute to this Assyrian King, it mentions "Yauhazi", also known as "Ahaz". Various lexicons such as the New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon (p. 219 b) and the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (under "Ahaz") mention this inscription as well.
With all the evidence, it becomes clear that the name was never originally pronounced "Yehoshua". Rather "Yahushua" is more correct and there is no reason to mispronounce the Heavenly Father's name when speaking the name of His Son. Just as names which end with a reference to Yahweh correctly convey the Father's name ("ZecharYah/ZecharYahu"), so do the names which begin with it.
Yeshua
Much used by the Messianic movement, "Yeshua" is actually an Aramaic form of the Hebrew name "Yahushua". In the Hebrew script, Yeshua ישוע is not spelled the same as Yahushua יהושע. The "Yeshua" name, spelled ישוע (Yod Shin Waw Ayin), is found in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra where it lists the names of those who returned from the Babylonian exile. One of them is called "Jeshua, the son of Jozadak": Ezra 3:2 Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the Elohim of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of Elohim.
"Jeshua the Son of Jozadak" is the same High Priest mentioned in Zechariah 6: Zechariah 6:11 Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest;
Notice that in Zechariah, he is not called "Jeshua the son of Jozadak" but he is called "Joshua the son of Josedech" (Heb. Yahushua the son of Yahutsadak). This reflects the Hebrew spelling of the same name. So in Zechariah, he is called Yahushua but in Ezra he is called Yeshua. The book of Nehemiah also changes the name of Joshua the son of Nun to "Jeshua, the son of Nun": Nehemiah 8:17 And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.
The change in spelling to "Jeshua/Yeshua" (ישוע "Yod Shin Waw Ayin" ) is due to the Aramaic influence during the exile. In fact, parts of the book of Ezra are written in Aramaic. For confirmation, look at your Strong's Lexicon:
Thus, the only time they would revert to the "Yeho" pronunciation of these three letters was when it was at the beginning of a Hebrew name. Personally, I want nothing to do with the unscriptural tradition of saying "Adonai/Lord/Elohim/God" in place of Yahweh. That is one reason I do not refer to the Messiah as "Yehoshua." For it is not "Yeho(wah)" (Jehovah) that saves, it is "Yahu(eh)/Yahweh" that saves!
Having said this, there are some Hebrew students and scholars who have noticed that a natural progression of Hebrew language is to shorten initial vowels whenever an accent is on the later syllables of Hebrew words. This tendency is said to result in the "Y'hoshua" or "Yehoshua" pronunciation. For this reason, some believe "Yehoshua" to actually be the correct pronunciation.
But while this may be true in some Hebrew words, there is evidence to support that this was not necessarily true in ancient times. At a minimum, it may have not been true in personal names containing the name of our Heavenly Father. During times before the "Rabbis" came to prominence, Yahweh's name was considered to be very important to pronounce. And ancient evidence suggests that they did not shorten or eliminate the sounds in Yahweh's name.
Cuneiform tablets (also containing vowels) were discovered near the Ishtar gate in Babylon which give a list of workers and captives to whom rations were given. Cuneiform scripts contain vowels. In addition to validating the biblical account in 2Kings 25:27-29 where it mentions that Jehoiachin (Yahuiachin) ate at the king's table, these tablets help to establish the way these names were pronounced before the Masorite scribes inserted their vowel pointing, based on tradition:
"Yaukin, king of the land of Yahud," ("Jehoiachin, the king of the land of Judah") The New Unger's Bible Dictionary
Also, a family of Jewish businessmen living in the Mesopotamian city of Kippur in the fifth century BC left behind a collection of clay tablets recording their commercial transactions. The clay tablets, known as the Murashu documents, contain vowels and list the names of about 70 Jewish settlers in Persia. The Hebrew names which begin with יהו (Yod Heh Waw) are all written "Yahu-" and never "Yeho".
"In the cuneiform texts Yeho [YHW], Yo [YW] and Yah [YH] are written Yahu, as for example in the names Jehu (Yahu-a), Jehoahaz (Yahu-khazi) and Hezekiah (Khazaqi-yahu)" A. H. Sayce in "Higher Criticism" on p. 87
"The evidence from the Murashu documents thus corresponds to that from other sources: after the Exile the ordinary form of the divine name used as an initial theophorous element was yahu" "Patterns in Jewish Personal Names in the Babylonian Diaspora" JSJ, Vol. 4 Issue 2 Pg. 188
Notice that not only were names beginning with "Yeho" written as "Yahu", but also names beginning with "Yo" such as "Yochanan" (John) and "Yoel" (Joel) were written as "Yahu". This indicates John and Joel were originally pronounced "Yahuchanan" and "Yahuel".
A third witness is found in an inscription of the Assyrian monarch Tiglath-pileser III (Gressmann Bilder 348; ANET 282a). When listing those kings who were paying tribute to this Assyrian King, it mentions "Yauhazi", also known as "Ahaz". Various lexicons such as the New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon (p. 219 b) and the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (under "Ahaz") mention this inscription as well.
With all the evidence, it becomes clear that the name was never originally pronounced "Yehoshua". Rather "Yahushua" is more correct and there is no reason to mispronounce the Heavenly Father's name when speaking the name of His Son. Just as names which end with a reference to Yahweh correctly convey the Father's name ("ZecharYah/ZecharYahu"), so do the names which begin with it.
Yeshua
Much used by the Messianic movement, "Yeshua" is actually an Aramaic form of the Hebrew name "Yahushua". In the Hebrew script, Yeshua ישוע is not spelled the same as Yahushua יהושע. The "Yeshua" name, spelled ישוע (Yod Shin Waw Ayin), is found in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra where it lists the names of those who returned from the Babylonian exile. One of them is called "Jeshua, the son of Jozadak": Ezra 3:2 Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the Elohim of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of Elohim.
"Jeshua the Son of Jozadak" is the same High Priest mentioned in Zechariah 6: Zechariah 6:11 Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest;
Notice that in Zechariah, he is not called "Jeshua the son of Jozadak" but he is called "Joshua the son of Josedech" (Heb. Yahushua the son of Yahutsadak). This reflects the Hebrew spelling of the same name. So in Zechariah, he is called Yahushua but in Ezra he is called Yeshua. The book of Nehemiah also changes the name of Joshua the son of Nun to "Jeshua, the son of Nun": Nehemiah 8:17 And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.
The change in spelling to "Jeshua/Yeshua" (ישוע "Yod Shin Waw Ayin" ) is due to the Aramaic influence during the exile. In fact, parts of the book of Ezra are written in Aramaic. For confirmation, look at your Strong's Lexicon:
Notice that #3442 and #3443 are the same exact word with the same Hebrew spelling, but this lexicon lists them separately. Why is this? If you looked up "Jeshua" in the concordance, you will notice that it lists "Jeshua" in Ezra 3:2 as coming from #3442 and "Jeshua" in Ezra 5:2 coming from #3443. The reason for the two different Strong's word numbers is Ezra 5:2 is a part of the book of Ezra which was written in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8 through 6:18; 7:12-26). This is why #3443 mentions "Yeshuwa" as coming from "Chaldean" (Aramaic) in the above definition (3443. ישוע Yeshuwa' (Chald.)). Therefore, "Yeshua" is actually an Aramaic rendering of "Yahushua". Only #3443 lists the spelling as Chaldean, but #3442 is spelled the same. 1st and 2nd Chronicles, post-exilic books that were written by Ezra the scribe, (compare the ending of 2Chron to the beginning of Ezra) also have this Aramaic spelling. This late pronunciation is found nowhere else in the the scriptures.Now, some claim that Yeshua ישוע is a pure Hebrew word which isn't derived from "Yahushua" at all, but that it is a Hebrew word meaning "Salvation." The problem with this is the Hebrew word for "Salvation" is not ישוע(yeshua) at all! The Hebrew word for "Salvation" is word number #3444. Take a look again in the above lexicon graphic and see the differences between 3442/3443 and 3444. They are:
Yahusha
This form gaining in popularity fairly recently. However, it is easily proven to be incorrect. Let's examine the Strong's Lexicon entry that represents the Messiah's name again:
- There is an additional Hebrew letter at the end (the "Heh"). ישוע uses the silent (but anciently guttural) "Ayin" letter to end the word, but #3444 ends in the letter "Heh". While vowel letters under both words indicate they have have a similar sounding ending, the different spelling indicates they are two different words.
- In #3444 (Yeshuwah) there is a different vowel pointing under the first Hebrew letter (Yod [remember Hebrew reads from right to left]). 3442/3443 (YESHUA) has 2 horizontal dots underneath the first letter like this: . These two horizontal dots represent the Hebrew Vowel point "Tsere" (pronounced Tsey-rey) which produces the "ey" sound as in the English word "Hey". But #3444 has two vertical dots underneath the first letter like this . The two vertical dots represent the Hebrew vowel point "Sheva" which is a very short "e", somewhat like our "E" sound in the word "Average" (Check the first page of your Strong's Hebrew Lexicon for verification of this).
Incidentally, the (Sheva) is also the vowel point used by the scribes in "Yehoshua" and it is why you will sometimes see "Yehoshua" or "Yeshua" written as "Y'hoshua" and "Y'shua". The purpose of the ' is to indicate the presence of the sheva vowel point in Hebrew. But as you can see, "Yeshua" does not contain that vowel point at all. "Yeshua" uses the "Tsere" Hebrew vowel point which produces an "ey" sound. So Yeshua and Y'shuah are actually pronounced differently. The Strong's Lexicon indicated this when it gave the pronunciation of ישוע as 'yay-shoo-ah', but #3444 as 'yesh-oo-aw'.
Yahusha
This form gaining in popularity fairly recently. However, it is easily proven to be incorrect. Let's examine the Strong's Lexicon entry that represents the Messiah's name again:
Notice in the Hebrew letters that there are two variant spellings of the Messiah's name here. The first spelling has 6 letters יהושוע and the second spelling has 5 letters יהושע. This is because both spellings are used in scripture. The predominant spelling is יהושע but the longer spelling is also found in scripture. Here are two places in the Masoretic Text where the longer spelling is employed:
Deuteronomy 3:21 "And I commanded Joshua יהושוע at that time, saying, 'Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your Elohim has done to these two kings; so will Yahweh do to all the kingdoms through which you pass.
Judges 2:7 So the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua יהושוע, who had seen all the great works of Yahweh which He had done for Israel.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, the longer spelling is also found in the following verses:
Joshua 8:3 - So יהושוע arose and the whole army [rose up and marched on Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men], valiant warriors and he sen[t] them out [at night]. (4QJoshA, bracketed text missing from manuscript)
Joshua 6:7 - Then יהושוע [said] to the people, ["Go forward, march around the city, and let the armed guard march ahead of the ark of Yahweh"] (4QJoshA, bracketed text missing from manuscript)
The longer spelling is also found in Deuteronomy 3:21 of the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QDeutM). A fragment for Judges 2:7 was not found at all in the Dead Sea Scrolls so no one is able to know which spelling would have been used for that verse. Click here for proof of this.
Variant spellings are common in Hebrew (especially in names) and usually the longer spelling is the older form and the newer spelling was the result of an extra letter that was not needed. Due to the fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls are older than the Masoretic text, and the longer spelling is more frequent in the Dead Sea Scrolls than the Masoretic text, it would appear to me that the longer spelling was the original.
Because Hebrew does not need to have the extra "waw" ו to give us the "shua" sound (the Hebrew language does not always supply vowels), this would explain the shorter spelling. It does not mean that the shorter spelling represents the pronunciation "Yahusha," it simply means that the extra letter was unnecessary for one get the "shua" sound at the end of the name. To conclude that the shorter spelling must mean His name is also pronounced "Yahusha" ignores the fact that Hebrew words do not usually supply us with vowel sounds. It does supply us with all the vowel sounds in יהושוע but it does not NEED to.
Here is how each letter is pronounced:
י Yod - Produces a "Y" or "I" sound.
ה Heh - As a Hebrew vowel letter it can produce the "Ah" (like in #8283 "Sarah").
ו Waw - Also called "Vav". As a Hebrew vowel letter it can produce an "oo" (u) sound like in #7307 Ruach.
ש Shin - Produces the "sh" sound. The following "oo" sound is indicated by a vowel pointing but Deut. 3:21 and Judges 2:7 actually gives us another "waw" after this letter, proving the "shu" pronunciation as valid. This is why Strong's 3091 gives 2 possible spellings (see above lexicon graphic). This also eliminates "Yasha/Yahusha" and "Yahoshea/Yahushea" as being possibilities.
ו Waw - Again, produces an "oo" (u) sound as in #7307 Ruach. This is the ignored letter in the pronunciation "Yahusha." As it is common that Hebrew words do not supply all the vowel sounds, this letter is not always used.
ע Ayin - Silent without a vowel point but indicates an "ah" sound at the end of "Yahushua".
Those who use "Yahusha" will sometimes claim that "shua" can actually mean "riches." This word "Shua" and the "riches" definition is found as Hebrew word #7769 in the Strong's lexicon. But when you examine how the word "shua" is actually used in the Hebrew, it becomes evident that the Strong's Lexicon may not be correct about that. It is used in two verses.
The first is in Job 30:24
Job 30:24 - "Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, If they cry out ("shua") when He destroys it.
Obviously "Riches" would not be an appropriate meaning here. It sounds more like someone "crying out" to save them from destruction. Therefore, "shua" might indeed legitimately be rooted in the Hebrew "yasha" meaning "save."
Here is the other verse where "shua" (7769) is used:
Job 36:19 - Will your riches ("shuach"), Or all the mighty forces, Keep you from distress?
In this verse, "shua" is translated "riches" in the King James but it wouldn't be hard to see the word also meaning "your cry" as in a cry for salvation.
For this reason, it seems plausible that "shua" in these instances may actually be rooted in the Hebrew word "Yasha." In fact, the Theological wordbook of the Old Testament makes a comment that "shua" could legitimately be derived from either "yasha" (save) or "shawa" (cry).
"Shua. Cry, if it is from shua; opulence, "relief" if it is from yasha "to save, deliver" (cf. BDB p. 447b and 1002b). The first meaning is likely in Job 30:24, though the second meaning cannot be ruled out"
But to me, one of the most convincing evidences for the "shua" in the Messiah's name ending is this:
So the pronunciation "Yahusha" can be proven wrong by simply looking at the scriptures and knowing that in order to arrive at the "Yahusha" pronunciation, we would need to ignore the scriptures which clearly have a ו (oo sound) after the ש (sh sound).
Yahshua
This is another popular way of writing the Messiah's name but I have never seen an example of this word anywhere in scripture.
It appears to have its origins in the Sacred Name movement in the 1930's when certain men saw that "Jesus" was derived from "Joshua". Since they understood that the "J" sound is not in the Hebrew language, "Yahshua" was apparently considered correct. It made sense so I used this form for many years. However, I later learned that "Yahshua" clearly ignores the third letter of the Messiah's name (Waw) which gives us the "oo" (u) sound in Yahushua. To demonstrate this, let's look at the individual letters of יהושע.
י Yod - Produces a "Y" or "I" sound.
ה Heh - As a Hebrew vowel letter it produces the "Ah" or "Oh" sound (like in #8283 "Sarah" and #8010 Sh'lomoh). Otherwise produces the "H" sound and the "ah" sound would have to be supplied by the reader.
ו Waw - Also called "Vav". As a Hebrew vowel letter it produces an "oo" (u) or "oh" sound (like in #7307 Ruach). Otherwise produces a "W" sound. This is the ignored letter in the pronunciation "Yahshua". This letter is nowhere represented. Where is the W or initial U??
ש Shin - Produces the "sh" sound. The following "oo" sound is indicated by a vowel pointing but Deut. 3:21 and Judges 2:7 actually gives us another "waw" after this letter, proving the "shu" pronunciation as valid. This is why Strong's 3091 gives 2 possible spellings (see above lexicon graphic). This also eliminates "Yasha/Yahusha" and "Yahoshea/Yahushea" as being possibilities.
ע Ayin - Silent without a vowel point but indicates an "ah" sound at the end of "Yahushua".
So if the Messiah's name was "Yahshua", we would have to delete the third letter (waw) in יהושע. For this reason, יהושע cannot not be pronounced "Yahshua".
There are some who claim that "Yahshua" is actually the correct pronunciation of the Aramaic word ישוע("Yeshua") and the Hebrew scribes simply took out the proper vowel sounds, replacing the "Yah" with "Ye". But as mentioned before,ישוע is not a legitimate Hebrew word. It's Aramaic.
Also, as seen in the above scans of the Strong's Lexicon (and the Hebrew manuscripts as well), the scribes used the "Sheva" vowel pointing to replace the "Ah" sound in "Yahweh" and "Yahushua", not the "Tsere" vowel pointing as is found in the name "Yeshua". If they were interested in changing the vocalization of "Yeshua" to fit their tradition, one would expect them to use the as they did in יהושע and all of the other names beginning with "Yah".
Why use Yahushua?
Since we seek to walk in the truth, we should want to proclaim His name as Yahweh gave it. Some of this may seem confusing, but it's rooted in the fact that our scriptures were written in a different language. For one who could speak the ancient language, no confusion would exist.
One thing is clear. Yahweh is the one who named His Son and we simply have no business changing it. It is all these changes that have brought about the confusion. It can be complicated to sort through it all, but truth seeking is an honorable thing that is pleasing in Yahweh's eyes.
Of course, if we are somehow unable to pronounce the Messiah's name, certainly Yahweh is able to show mercy. But if we are able to, what reason do we have to continue in error? It is better to cleave to what Yahweh gave rather than continuing in the traditions and mistakes of men. Continuing in error is never superior to walking in the truth.
Yahweh predicted what His Son's name would be, so we have something we can look to for clarification. In the book of Zechariah, it states:
Zech. 6:9-13 - Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying:
10 "Receive the gift from the captives-- from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon-- and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah.
11 "Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of יהושע(Yahushua) the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
12 "Then speak to him, saying,`Thus says Yahweh of hosts, saying: "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of Yahweh;
13 Yes, He shall build the temple of Yahweh. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both."'
Notice that this "BRANCH" would be both a priest and a King. Obviously, this is not literally speaking of the man 'Yahushua, son of Yahuzadak.' It is speaking of the Messiah, called "The Branch" who would be a Priest AND King. This was the role of the Messiah (Compare Psalm 110, Isaiah 9:6). Another scripture mentioning the "BRANCH" is Jeremiah 23:5, and its' clearly Messianic: Jer. 23:5 - "Behold, the days are coming," says Yahweh, "That I will raise to David a BRANCH of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
The same Hebrew word is used here so Zechariah 6 is a quite clear Messianic prophecy. So what we have in Zechariah is a prophecy of what the Messiah's name would be called.
Zechariah was instructed to take a crown and place it on the head of Yahushua, the son of Yahutsadak (in the Hebrew it does not have "Yeshua" here, but rather "Yahushua" יהושע). When placing the crown on the head of Yahushua יהושע the High Priest, Zechariah was told to proclaim: "Behold the man whose NAME is the BRANCH". Thus, this High Priest (Yahushua) had the same name as the coming Messiah who would reign as a priest on His throne. He had the NAME of the Messiah, and Yahweh predicted and revealed what the Messiah's name would be through this beautiful object lesson. So why not call Him by that name? Also, notice that it was not Moshe (Moses) who was able to bring the children of Israel across the Jordan, but rather it took a man named Yahushua (Joshua) the Son of Nun to lead them across the Jordan and into the promised land. In this is a lesson, for Moshe can show us the right way to live, but the law cannot save us. We need a man named Yahushua to lead us across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. At the beginning of this study I shared a number of examples where the first century believers who were proclaiming His name, baptizing in His name, healing in His name, being persecuted for His name, etc. I say, let's be willing to do the same by using the Messiah's name as it is written and understood in Hebrew, a name that is proclaimed in the law and prophets, a name with a very important Hebrew meaning: יהושעYahweh saves! Click here to listen to how "Yahushua" is pronounced.
Note: You'll notice that I do not vocalize the "H" when pronouncing His name. This is because a hard "H" is not heard in Yahweh's name, and the first 3 letters in Yahweh's name are also used in the Messiah's name. Also, you'll notice that some Hebrew names that started with "Yahu" got shortened to "Yo." For instance, "Yahu-el" is vowel pointed by the Masorites as "Yo-el" (Joel) and "Yahu-ab" was vowel pointed as "Yo-ab" (Joab). This is because the letter "Heh" was dropped entirely from those names. Remember earlier in this study that names beginning with "Yeho" were anciently written as "Yahu", and names beginning with "Yo" such as "Yochanan" (John) and "Yoel" (Joel) were written as "Yahu". This indicates John and Joel were originally pronounced "Yahuchanan" and "Yahuel".
What could possibly be the reason for the drop in the letter? It would make sense that if a hard H was not actually pronounced, a Hebrew reader still pronounce the יו as Yau if the "ah" was already understood and supplied by the reader. To me this further proves the "Yah-u" pronunciation without a hard H. For when you pronounce "ah-oo" very quickly, it almost resembles an "oh" sound. Perhaps that is why we have "Yau-el" developing into "Yo-el."
In those cases, the Masorites could have placed a vowel point under the י to indicate the "ah" sound and vowel pointed the ו to produce an "oo" sound. Possibly the Masorites, just as they improperly vowel pointed the Messiah's name as "Yeho-shua," didn't vowel point those names properly to avoid accidental pronunciation of the Heavenly Father's name, Yahweh.
Judges 2:7 So the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua יהושוע, who had seen all the great works of Yahweh which He had done for Israel.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, the longer spelling is also found in the following verses:
Joshua 8:3 - So יהושוע arose and the whole army [rose up and marched on Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men], valiant warriors and he sen[t] them out [at night]. (4QJoshA, bracketed text missing from manuscript)
Joshua 6:7 - Then יהושוע [said] to the people, ["Go forward, march around the city, and let the armed guard march ahead of the ark of Yahweh"] (4QJoshA, bracketed text missing from manuscript)
The longer spelling is also found in Deuteronomy 3:21 of the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QDeutM). A fragment for Judges 2:7 was not found at all in the Dead Sea Scrolls so no one is able to know which spelling would have been used for that verse. Click here for proof of this.
Variant spellings are common in Hebrew (especially in names) and usually the longer spelling is the older form and the newer spelling was the result of an extra letter that was not needed. Due to the fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls are older than the Masoretic text, and the longer spelling is more frequent in the Dead Sea Scrolls than the Masoretic text, it would appear to me that the longer spelling was the original.
Because Hebrew does not need to have the extra "waw" ו to give us the "shua" sound (the Hebrew language does not always supply vowels), this would explain the shorter spelling. It does not mean that the shorter spelling represents the pronunciation "Yahusha," it simply means that the extra letter was unnecessary for one get the "shua" sound at the end of the name. To conclude that the shorter spelling must mean His name is also pronounced "Yahusha" ignores the fact that Hebrew words do not usually supply us with vowel sounds. It does supply us with all the vowel sounds in יהושוע but it does not NEED to.
Here is how each letter is pronounced:
י Yod - Produces a "Y" or "I" sound.
ה Heh - As a Hebrew vowel letter it can produce the "Ah" (like in #8283 "Sarah").
ו Waw - Also called "Vav". As a Hebrew vowel letter it can produce an "oo" (u) sound like in #7307 Ruach.
ש Shin - Produces the "sh" sound. The following "oo" sound is indicated by a vowel pointing but Deut. 3:21 and Judges 2:7 actually gives us another "waw" after this letter, proving the "shu" pronunciation as valid. This is why Strong's 3091 gives 2 possible spellings (see above lexicon graphic). This also eliminates "Yasha/Yahusha" and "Yahoshea/Yahushea" as being possibilities.
ו Waw - Again, produces an "oo" (u) sound as in #7307 Ruach. This is the ignored letter in the pronunciation "Yahusha." As it is common that Hebrew words do not supply all the vowel sounds, this letter is not always used.
ע Ayin - Silent without a vowel point but indicates an "ah" sound at the end of "Yahushua".
Those who use "Yahusha" will sometimes claim that "shua" can actually mean "riches." This word "Shua" and the "riches" definition is found as Hebrew word #7769 in the Strong's lexicon. But when you examine how the word "shua" is actually used in the Hebrew, it becomes evident that the Strong's Lexicon may not be correct about that. It is used in two verses.
The first is in Job 30:24
Job 30:24 - "Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, If they cry out ("shua") when He destroys it.
Obviously "Riches" would not be an appropriate meaning here. It sounds more like someone "crying out" to save them from destruction. Therefore, "shua" might indeed legitimately be rooted in the Hebrew "yasha" meaning "save."
Here is the other verse where "shua" (7769) is used:
Job 36:19 - Will your riches ("shuach"), Or all the mighty forces, Keep you from distress?
In this verse, "shua" is translated "riches" in the King James but it wouldn't be hard to see the word also meaning "your cry" as in a cry for salvation.
For this reason, it seems plausible that "shua" in these instances may actually be rooted in the Hebrew word "Yasha." In fact, the Theological wordbook of the Old Testament makes a comment that "shua" could legitimately be derived from either "yasha" (save) or "shawa" (cry).
"Shua. Cry, if it is from shua; opulence, "relief" if it is from yasha "to save, deliver" (cf. BDB p. 447b and 1002b). The first meaning is likely in Job 30:24, though the second meaning cannot be ruled out"
But to me, one of the most convincing evidences for the "shua" in the Messiah's name ending is this:
- The Strong's word #3444 is pronounced "Yeshuah" but it is derived from #3467 "Yasha." This shows that the "shua" sound can indeed be derived from the root word for salvation, "Yasha." It's just the Passive Participle form of "Yasha."
- The Aramaic form of Yahushua (as we discussed earlier) uses "Yeshua" ישוע and just like יהושוע uses a "waw" ( ו )to give us the "shoo" sound in "shua." If the original Hebrew form were "Yahusha," the Aramaic form of the same name would not have been pronounced "Yeshua" (#3442) to begin with. But the Aramaic form is found in the scriptures in 29 verses of inspired scripture (e.g. 1Chron 24:11, 2Chron. 31:15, Strong's #3442).
- The Greek form of the name "Iesous" gives us an "oo" sound at the end of the name. Since the "Iesous" form is found in the Septuagint, a translation of the scriptures into Greek that was completed 200 years before Messiah came, it shows that the "oo" sound existed at the end of Yahushua prior to the time that Yahushua came and died for our sins.
- The Masoretic Hebrew vowel points give us a "shua" ending as well. That's why all Hebrew lexicons give us the "shua" pronunciation in this name.
So the pronunciation "Yahusha" can be proven wrong by simply looking at the scriptures and knowing that in order to arrive at the "Yahusha" pronunciation, we would need to ignore the scriptures which clearly have a ו (oo sound) after the ש (sh sound).
Yahshua
This is another popular way of writing the Messiah's name but I have never seen an example of this word anywhere in scripture.
It appears to have its origins in the Sacred Name movement in the 1930's when certain men saw that "Jesus" was derived from "Joshua". Since they understood that the "J" sound is not in the Hebrew language, "Yahshua" was apparently considered correct. It made sense so I used this form for many years. However, I later learned that "Yahshua" clearly ignores the third letter of the Messiah's name (Waw) which gives us the "oo" (u) sound in Yahushua. To demonstrate this, let's look at the individual letters of יהושע.
י Yod - Produces a "Y" or "I" sound.
ה Heh - As a Hebrew vowel letter it produces the "Ah" or "Oh" sound (like in #8283 "Sarah" and #8010 Sh'lomoh). Otherwise produces the "H" sound and the "ah" sound would have to be supplied by the reader.
ו Waw - Also called "Vav". As a Hebrew vowel letter it produces an "oo" (u) or "oh" sound (like in #7307 Ruach). Otherwise produces a "W" sound. This is the ignored letter in the pronunciation "Yahshua". This letter is nowhere represented. Where is the W or initial U??
ש Shin - Produces the "sh" sound. The following "oo" sound is indicated by a vowel pointing but Deut. 3:21 and Judges 2:7 actually gives us another "waw" after this letter, proving the "shu" pronunciation as valid. This is why Strong's 3091 gives 2 possible spellings (see above lexicon graphic). This also eliminates "Yasha/Yahusha" and "Yahoshea/Yahushea" as being possibilities.
ע Ayin - Silent without a vowel point but indicates an "ah" sound at the end of "Yahushua".
So if the Messiah's name was "Yahshua", we would have to delete the third letter (waw) in יהושע. For this reason, יהושע cannot not be pronounced "Yahshua".
There are some who claim that "Yahshua" is actually the correct pronunciation of the Aramaic word ישוע("Yeshua") and the Hebrew scribes simply took out the proper vowel sounds, replacing the "Yah" with "Ye". But as mentioned before,ישוע is not a legitimate Hebrew word. It's Aramaic.
Also, as seen in the above scans of the Strong's Lexicon (and the Hebrew manuscripts as well), the scribes used the "Sheva" vowel pointing to replace the "Ah" sound in "Yahweh" and "Yahushua", not the "Tsere" vowel pointing as is found in the name "Yeshua". If they were interested in changing the vocalization of "Yeshua" to fit their tradition, one would expect them to use the as they did in יהושע and all of the other names beginning with "Yah".
Why use Yahushua?
Since we seek to walk in the truth, we should want to proclaim His name as Yahweh gave it. Some of this may seem confusing, but it's rooted in the fact that our scriptures were written in a different language. For one who could speak the ancient language, no confusion would exist.
One thing is clear. Yahweh is the one who named His Son and we simply have no business changing it. It is all these changes that have brought about the confusion. It can be complicated to sort through it all, but truth seeking is an honorable thing that is pleasing in Yahweh's eyes.
Of course, if we are somehow unable to pronounce the Messiah's name, certainly Yahweh is able to show mercy. But if we are able to, what reason do we have to continue in error? It is better to cleave to what Yahweh gave rather than continuing in the traditions and mistakes of men. Continuing in error is never superior to walking in the truth.
Yahweh predicted what His Son's name would be, so we have something we can look to for clarification. In the book of Zechariah, it states:
Zech. 6:9-13 - Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying:
10 "Receive the gift from the captives-- from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon-- and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah.
11 "Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of יהושע(Yahushua) the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
12 "Then speak to him, saying,`Thus says Yahweh of hosts, saying: "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of Yahweh;
13 Yes, He shall build the temple of Yahweh. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both."'
Notice that this "BRANCH" would be both a priest and a King. Obviously, this is not literally speaking of the man 'Yahushua, son of Yahuzadak.' It is speaking of the Messiah, called "The Branch" who would be a Priest AND King. This was the role of the Messiah (Compare Psalm 110, Isaiah 9:6). Another scripture mentioning the "BRANCH" is Jeremiah 23:5, and its' clearly Messianic: Jer. 23:5 - "Behold, the days are coming," says Yahweh, "That I will raise to David a BRANCH of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
The same Hebrew word is used here so Zechariah 6 is a quite clear Messianic prophecy. So what we have in Zechariah is a prophecy of what the Messiah's name would be called.
Zechariah was instructed to take a crown and place it on the head of Yahushua, the son of Yahutsadak (in the Hebrew it does not have "Yeshua" here, but rather "Yahushua" יהושע). When placing the crown on the head of Yahushua יהושע the High Priest, Zechariah was told to proclaim: "Behold the man whose NAME is the BRANCH". Thus, this High Priest (Yahushua) had the same name as the coming Messiah who would reign as a priest on His throne. He had the NAME of the Messiah, and Yahweh predicted and revealed what the Messiah's name would be through this beautiful object lesson. So why not call Him by that name? Also, notice that it was not Moshe (Moses) who was able to bring the children of Israel across the Jordan, but rather it took a man named Yahushua (Joshua) the Son of Nun to lead them across the Jordan and into the promised land. In this is a lesson, for Moshe can show us the right way to live, but the law cannot save us. We need a man named Yahushua to lead us across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. At the beginning of this study I shared a number of examples where the first century believers who were proclaiming His name, baptizing in His name, healing in His name, being persecuted for His name, etc. I say, let's be willing to do the same by using the Messiah's name as it is written and understood in Hebrew, a name that is proclaimed in the law and prophets, a name with a very important Hebrew meaning: יהושעYahweh saves! Click here to listen to how "Yahushua" is pronounced.
Note: You'll notice that I do not vocalize the "H" when pronouncing His name. This is because a hard "H" is not heard in Yahweh's name, and the first 3 letters in Yahweh's name are also used in the Messiah's name. Also, you'll notice that some Hebrew names that started with "Yahu" got shortened to "Yo." For instance, "Yahu-el" is vowel pointed by the Masorites as "Yo-el" (Joel) and "Yahu-ab" was vowel pointed as "Yo-ab" (Joab). This is because the letter "Heh" was dropped entirely from those names. Remember earlier in this study that names beginning with "Yeho" were anciently written as "Yahu", and names beginning with "Yo" such as "Yochanan" (John) and "Yoel" (Joel) were written as "Yahu". This indicates John and Joel were originally pronounced "Yahuchanan" and "Yahuel".
What could possibly be the reason for the drop in the letter? It would make sense that if a hard H was not actually pronounced, a Hebrew reader still pronounce the יו as Yau if the "ah" was already understood and supplied by the reader. To me this further proves the "Yah-u" pronunciation without a hard H. For when you pronounce "ah-oo" very quickly, it almost resembles an "oh" sound. Perhaps that is why we have "Yau-el" developing into "Yo-el."
In those cases, the Masorites could have placed a vowel point under the י to indicate the "ah" sound and vowel pointed the ו to produce an "oo" sound. Possibly the Masorites, just as they improperly vowel pointed the Messiah's name as "Yeho-shua," didn't vowel point those names properly to avoid accidental pronunciation of the Heavenly Father's name, Yahweh.
Yeshua (name)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other persons named Yeshua, or other claimed transcriptions of Jesus, see Yeshua (disambiguation). For the person, teaching, and acts of Jesus Christ, see Jesus and Historical Jesus. See also Jesus in the Talmud.Yeshua (ישוע, with vowel pointing יֵשׁוּעַ – yēšūă‘ in Hebrew)[1] was a common alternative form of the name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ ("Yehoshuah" – Joshua) in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple period. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous, from which, through the Latin Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus.[2][3]
The Hebrew spelling Yeshua (ישוע) appears in some later books of the Hebrew Bible. Once for Joshua the son of Nun, and 28 times for Joshua the High Priest and (KJV "Jeshua") and other priests called Jeshua – although these same priests are also given the spelling Joshua in 11 further instances in the books of Haggai and Zechariah. It differs from the usual Hebrew Bible spelling of Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ y'hoshuaʿ), found 218 times in the Hebrew Bible, in the absence of the consonant he ה and placement of the semivowel vav ו after, not before, the consonant shin ש. It also differs from the Hebrew spelling Yeshu (ישו) which is found in Ben Yehuda's dictionary and used in most secular contexts in modern Hebrew to refer to Jesus of Nazareth, though the Hebrew spelling Yeshua (ישוע) is generally used in translations of the New Testament into Hebrew[4] and used by Hebrew speaking Christians in Israel. The name Yeshua is also used in Israeli Hebrew historical texts to refer to other Joshuas recorded in Greek texts such as Jesus ben Ananias and Jesus ben Sira.[5]
In English, the name Yeshua is extensively used by followers of Messianic Judaism,[6] whereas East Syrian Christian denominations use the name Isho in order to preserve the Aramaic or Syriac name of Jesus.[7]
Contents [hide]
- 1 Etymology
- 2 Pronunciation
- 3 Original name for Jesus
- 4 Yeshua, Yehoshua and Yeshu in the Talmud
- 5 See also
- 6 References
Etymology[edit] The Greek transliteration Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) *jesu-os → [jeˈsus] can stand for both Classical Biblical Hebrew Yehoshua [jəhoˈʃuaʕ] (top two) and Late Biblical Hebrew Yeshua [jeˈʃuaʕ] (bottom). This later form developed within Hebrew (not Aramaic).[8] All three spelling variants occur in the Hebrew Bible, including when referring to the same person. During the Second Temple Period, Jews of Galilee tended to preserve the traditional spelling, keeping the <ו> letter for the [o] in the first syllable, even adding another letter for the [u] in the second syllable. However, Jews of Jerusalem tended to spell the name as they pronounced it, [jeˈʃuaʕ], contracting the spelling to ישוע without the [o] letter. Later, Aramaic references to the Hebrew Bible adopted the contracted phonetic form of this Hebrew name as an Aramaic name.Main article: Names and titles of Jesus in the New TestamentYeshua in Hebrew is verbal derivative from "to rescue", "to deliver".[9] Its usage among the Jews of the Second Temple Period, the Biblical Aramaic/Hebrew name יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua‘ was common: the Hebrew Bible mentions several individuals with this name – while also using their full name Joshua. This name is a feature of biblical books written in the post-Exilic period (Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles) and was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, though Haggai and Zechariah prefer the spelling Joshua. Strong's Concordance connects the name יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua`, in the English form Jeshua (as used in multiple instances in Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles), with the verb "to deliver" (or, "to rescue").[9] It is often translated as "He saves," to conform with Matthew 1:21: "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (NASB).[10]
The name יֵשׁוּעַ "Yeshua" (transliterated in the English Old Testament as Jeshua) is a late form of the Biblical Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua (Joshua), and spelled with a waw in the second syllable. The Late Biblical Hebrew spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric element Yeho- to Yo-. Thus יהוחנן Yehochanan contracted to יוחנן Yochanan.[11] However, there is no name (aside from Yehoshua`) in which Yeho- became Ye-.
The name ישוע occurs in the Hebrew of the Old Testament at verses Ezra 2:2, 2:6, 2:36, 2:40, 3:2, 3:8, 3:9, 3:10, 3:18, 4:3, 8:33; Nehemiah 3:19, 7:7, 7:11, 7:39, 7:43, 8:7, 8:17, 9:4, 9:5, 11:26, 12:1, 12:7, 12:8, 12:10, 12:24, 12:26; 1 Chronicles 24:11; and 2 Chronicles 31:15, and also in Aramaic at Ezra 5:2. In Nehemiah 8:17 this name refers to Joshua son of Nun, the successor of Moses, as leader of the Israelites. Note that in earlier English (where adaptations of names of Biblical figures were generally based on the Latin Vulgate forms), Yeshua was generally transcribed identically to "Jesus" in English. It was only when the Protestant Bible translators of ca. 1600 went back to the original languages that a distinction between Jesus and Jeshua appeared in English.
The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua": Yeho- יְהוֹ is another form of יָהו Yahu, a theophoric element standing for the name of God יהוח (the Tetragrammaton YHWH, sometimes transcribed into English as Yahweh or Jehovah), and שׁוּעַ shua‘ is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry",[12][13][14] that is to say, a shout given when in need of rescue. Together, the name would then literally mean, "YHWH (Yahu) is a saving-cry," that is to say, shout to YHWH [God] when in need of help.
Another explanation for the name Yehoshua is that it comes from the root ישע yod-shin-‘ayin, meaning "to deliver, save, or rescue". According to the Book of Numbers verse 13:16, the name of Joshua son of Nun was originally Hoshea` הוֹשֵעַ, and the name "Yehoshua`" יְהוֹשֻׁעַ is usually spelled the same but with a yod added at the beginning. "Hoshea`" certainly comes from the root ישע, "yasha", yod-shin-`ayin (in the Hif'il form the yod becomes a waw), and not from the word שוע shua` (Jewish Encyclopedia[15]) although ultimately both roots appear to be related.
In the 1st century, Philo of Alexandria, in a Greek exposition, offered this understanding of Moses’s reason for the name change of the biblical hero Jehoshua/Joshua son of Nun from Hoshea [similar to hoshia` meaning "He rescued"] to Yehoshua in commemoration of his salvation: "And Ιησους refers to salvation of the Lord" [Ιησους or Iesous being the Greek form of the name] (Ἰησοῦ δὲ σωτηρία κυρίου) (On the Change of Names 21.121).
Similarly, the Septuagint renders Ben Sira as saying (in the Greek form of the name): "Ιησους the son of Naue [Yehoshua Ben Nun] who according to his name became great unto [the] salvation/deliverance of his chosen ones" (Ἰησοῦς Ναυῆ .. ὃς ἐγένετο κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ μέγας ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ ἐκλεκτῶν αὐτοῦ) (Ben Sira 46:1–2). However, Ben Sira originally wrote in Hebrew in the 2nd century BC, and the only extant Hebrew manuscript for this passage has "in his days" (בימיו), not "according to his name" (which would be כשמו in Hebrew),[16] and thus does not comment on the name Yehoshua as connoting יְּשׁוּעָה "deliverance": "Yehoshua Ben Nun, who was formed to be in his days a great deliverer for his chosen ones" (יהושע בן נון... אשר נוצר להיות בימיו תשועה גדלה לבחיריו). Possibly, the translators understood the phrase "was formed in his days" to refer to being transformed by his name change, and thus has "according to his name" as a paraphrastic translation, or else they were working from a different text.
The distinction between the longer Yehoshua and shorter Yeshua forms does not exist in Greek.
Archaeological evidence[edit]Tal Ilan's lexicon of Second Temple period names on inscriptions in Palestine (2002) includes for "Joshua" 85 examples of Hebrew Yeshua, 15 of Yehoshua, and 48 examples of Iesous in Greek inscriptions," with only one Greek variant as Iesoua.[17] One ossuary of the around twenty known with the name Yeshua, Rahmani No.9, discovered by Ezra Sukenik in 1931, has "Yeshu... Yeshua ben Yosef." The "Yeshu..." may have been scratched out.[18] Two Jewish magical incantation bowls have been discovered both bearing variant spellings of Yeshua.[19]
Apart from the "Yesh.. Yeshua ben Yosef" ossuary, the only other known evidence for the existence of a Yeshu form prior to the material related to Jesus in the Talmud, is a graffito which Joachim Jeremias identified in Bethesda in 1966, but which is now filled in.[20]
Pronunciation[edit]Yeshua יֵשוּעַ [jeˈʃuăʕ]. The Hebrew letter Yod י /j/ is vocalized with the Hebrew vowel tsere /e/ (a 'long' e like the first syllable of "neighbor" but not diphthongized) rather than with a shva /ə/ (as Y'shua) or segol /ɛ/ (Yesh-shua). The final letter Ayin ע is /ʕ/ (a rough, guttural sound not found in Greek or English), sometimes transcribed " ` " (Yeshua`). The final [ăʕ] represents the "patach genuvah" ("furtive" patach), indicating that the consonant `ayin is pronounced after the a vowel, and the word's stress is moved to the middle syllable (the characteristics of the furtive patach can be seen in other words, such as רוח [ˈruăħ] 'spirit').[21] Thus it is pronounced [jeˈʃu.aʕ] in Modern Hebrew, approximately ye-SHEW-ə.
The Hebrew name of the historical Jesus is probably pronounced 'Yeshua', although this is uncertain and depends on the reconstruction of several ancient Hebrew dialects. Talshir suggests, even though Galileans tended to keep the traditional spelling for 'Yehoshua' יהושוע with the letter Vav for /o/, they still pronounced the name similarly to the Judeans, as 'Yeshua' [jeˈʃuaʕ], who tended to spell the name phonetically as ישוע, perhaps reducing the name thus: [jəhoˈʃuaʕ] > [joˈʃuaʕ] > [jeˈʃuaʕ], with the /o/ palatizing (via 'dissimilation') before the /ʃ/.[22]
Qimron describes the general linguistic environment of Hebrew dialects by the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The articulation of the /h/ (along with other guttural phonemes /ʔ/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/, as well as approximants /j/ and /w/) weakened significantly.[23] Thus Hebrew pronunciations became less stable when two successive vowels were no longer separated by a consonant /h/. The speakers optionally either reduced the two vowels to a single vowel or oppositely expanded them to emphasize each vowel separately, sometimes forming a furtive glide in between, [w] or [j].[24] For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls spell the Hebrew word ראוי /rɔˈʔui̯/ ('seen') variously, recording both pronunciations: reduced ראו [ro] and expanded ראואי [rɔˈuwi].[25]
The Hebrew name 'Yehoshua' generally reduced to 'Yeshua', but an expanded 'Yehoshua' is possible, especially in Galilee whose traditional orthography possibly reflects this.
Original name for Jesus[edit]The English name Jesus derives from the Late Latin name Iesus, which transliterates the Koine Greek name Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs.
In the Septuagint and other Greek-language Jewish texts, such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Ἰησοῦς Iēsoûs is the standard Koine Greek form used to translate both of the Hebrew names: Yehoshua and Yeshua. Greek Ἰησοῦς or Iēsoûs is also used to represent the name of Joshua son of Nun in the New Testament passages Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8. (It was even used in the Septuagint to translate the name Hoshea in one of the three verses where this referred to Joshua the son of Nun—Deut. 32:44.)
During the second Temple period (beginning 538 BC – 70 AD), Yeshua first became a known form of the name Yehoshua. All occurrences of Yeshua in the Hebrew Bible are in I Chron. 24:11, II Chron. 31:15, Ezra, and Nehemiah where it is transliterated into English as Jeshua. Two of these men (Joshua the son of Nun and Joshua the High Priest) are mentioned in other books of the Hebrew Bible where they are instead called Yehoshua [26] (transliterated into English as Joshua).
The earlier form Yehoshua did not disappear, however, and remained in use as well. In the post-exilic books, Joshua the son of Nun is called both Yeshua bin-Nun (Nehemiah 8:17) and Yehoshua (I Chronicles 7:27). The short form Yeshua was used for Jesus ben Sirach in Hebrew fragments of the Wisdom of Sirach. (Some concern remains over whether these fragments faithfully represent the original Hebrew text or are instead a later translation back into Hebrew.[27]) The earlier form Yehoshua saw revived usage from the Hasmonean period onwards, although the name Yeshua is still found in letters from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 AD).
In the documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus, archeologist Amos Kloner stated that the name Yeshua was then a popular form of the name Yehoshua and was "one of the common names in the time of the Second Temple."[28] In discussing whether it was remarkable to find a tomb with the name of Jesus (the particular ossuary in question bears the inscription "Yehuda bar Yeshua"), he pointed out that the name had been found 71 times in burial caves from that time period.[29]
Thus, both the full form Yehoshua and the abbreviated form Yeshua, were in use during the Gospel period – and in relation to the same person, as in the Hebrew Bible references to Yehoshua/Yeshua son of Nun, and Yehoshua/Yeshua the high priest in the days of Ezra. An argument in favor of the Hebrew reduced form ישוע Yeshua, as opposed to Yehoshua, is the West Syriac dialect in which the pronunciation is Yeshu /jeʃuʕ/.
However, the New Testament describes Jesus as being a part of a Jewish milieu, reading the Hebrew Bible and debating with Pharisees over interpretations of the Jewish legal tradition. The Gospels record several Hebrew and Aramaic words or expressions spoken by him.
Isho[edit]Aramaic (Classical Syriac) and East Syriac, which are ancestral to West Syriac, render the pronunciation of the same letters as ܝܫܘܥ isho (išo) /iʃoʔ/. The Aramaic Bible (c. 200 AD) or the Peshitta preserve this same spelling. These texts were translated from the Greek, but the name is not a simple transliteration of the Greek form because Greek did not have an "sh" [ʃ] sound, and substituted [s]; and likewise lacked and therefore omitted the final ‘ayin sound [ʕ]. Moreover, Eusebius reports that Jesus's student Matthew wrote a gospel "in the Hebrew language". (Note, scholars typically argue the word "Hebrew" in the New Testament refers to Aramaic.[30]) The Aramaic of the Peshitta does not distinguish between Joshua and Jesus, and the Lexicon of William Jennings gives the same form ܝܫܘܥ isho (išo) for both names.[7] The Hebrew final letter ayin ע is equivalent to final ܥ in Classical Syriac and East Syriac. It can be argued that the Aramaic speakers who used this name had a continual connection to the Aramaic-speakers in communities founded by the apostles and other students of Jesus, thus independently preserved his historical name Isho. Those churches following the East Syrian Rite still preserve the name Isho.
Yeshua, Yehoshua and Yeshu in the Talmud[edit]In the Talmud, only one reference is made to the spelling Yeshua, in verbatim quotation from the Hebrew Bible regarding Jeshua son of Jozadak (elsewhere called Joshua son of Josedech). The Talmud does refer to several people named Yehoshua from before (e.g. Joshua ben Perachyah) and after Jesus (e.g. Joshua ben Hananiah). However in references to Jesus in the Talmud, where the name occurs, it is rendered Yeshu, which is a name reserved in Aramaic and Hebrew literature from the early medieval period until today, solely for Jesus of Nazareth, not for other Joshuas. However some scholars, such as Maier (1978) regard the two named "Yeshu" texts in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a and 107b) to be later amendments, and not original.[31]
Rabbinical commentary on the difference Yeshu/Yeshua[edit]Yeshua was used as the name for Jesus in late additions to the Yosippon; however, its usage here is a translation back into the Hebrew Yeshua from the Greek.
In general rabbinical sources use Yeshu, and this is the form to which some named references to Jesus in the Talmud as Yeshu occur in some manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud, though some scholars, such as Maier (1978) have argued that the presence of the name Yeshu in these texts is a late interpolation. Other Hebrew sources referencing Yeshu include the Toledot Yeshu, Sefer Nestor ha-Komer, Jacob ben Reuben's Milhamoth ha-Shem, Sefer Nizzahon Yashan, Sefer Joseph Hamekane, the works of Ibn Shaprut, Moses ha-Kohen de Tordesillas, and Hasdai Crescas, etc.
The name Yeshu is unknown in archeological sources and inscriptions, except for one ossuary found in Palestine which has an inscription where someone has started to write first Yeshu.. (incorrectly?) and then written Yeshua bar Yehosef beneath it.[32] There are 24 other ossuaries to various Yeshuas and Yehoshuas. None of the others have Yeshu. All other "Joshuas" in the Talmud, rabbinical writings, modern Hebrew, are always Yeshua or Yehoshua. There are no undisputed examples of any Aramaic or Hebrew text where Yeshu refers to anyone else than Jesus.[33]
Some of rabbinical sources comment on the reasons for the missing ayin from Yeshu, as opposed to the Hebrew Bible Yeshua and Yehoshuah. Leon Modena argues that it was Jesus himself who made his disciples remove the ayin, and that therefore they cannot now restore it. A tradition states that the shortening to Yeshu relates to the Y-SH-U of the yimach shemo "may his name be obliterated."[34][35] Against this David Flusser suggested that the name Yeshu itself was "in no way abusive," but "almost certainly" a Galilean dialect form of Yeshua.[36]
See also[edit]Christianity portalReferences[edit]
- Jump up ^ Strong's Yeshuwa
- Jump up ^ Ilan, Tal (2002). Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity Part I: Palestine 330 BCE–200 CE (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 91). Tübingen, Germany: J.C.B. Mohr. p. 129.
- Jump up ^ Stern, David (1992). Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, Maryland: Jewish New Testament Publications. pp. 4–5.
- Jump up ^ Franz Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament, Matthew 1:1, BFBS 1877, Isaac Salkinsohn Hebrew New Testament Matthew 1:1, TBS 1891
- Jump up ^ Robert E. Van Voorst Jesus outside the New Testament 2000 ISBN 978-0-8028-4368-5 p124 "This is likely an inference from the Talmud and other Jewish usage, where Jesus is called Yeshu, and other Jews with the same name are called by the fuller name Yehoshua, "Joshua""
- Jump up ^ Kjær-Hansen, Kai. "An Introduction to the Names Yehoshua/Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus and Yeshu". Jews for Jesus Headquarters. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Jennings
- Jump up ^ David Talshir, 'Rabbinic Hebrew as Reflected in Personal Names', Scripta Hierosylamitana vol. 37, Magnes Press, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1998:374ff.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Brown Driver Briggs Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon; Hendrickson Publishers 1996 ISBN 1-56563-206-0
- Jump up ^ "The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers 1990)
- Jump up ^ David Talmshir, "Rabbinic Hebrew as Reflected in Personal Names" in Scripta Hierosolymitana: Publications of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, vol. 37 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press: Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1998)
- Jump up ^ "וֹשֻׁשׁוּעַ", Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company 1987), where it means "a cry for help".
- Jump up ^ "וֹשֻׁשׁוּעַ", William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1971), where it means "a cry for help".
- Jump up ^ "שָׁוַע", M. Jastrow, Dictionary of the Talmud reprinted (Jerusalem: Khorev 1990), where שׁוֹשֻׁוּעַ is explained by the verb "to cry for help",
- Jump up ^ Jewish Encyclopedia. entry JOSHUA (JEHOSHUA): Funk and Wagnalls. 1901-06-19.
- Jump up ^ Segel, Moshe Tsvi (1953). Sefer Ben-Sira Hash-Shalem. Chapter 46 verse 2: Mosad Byalik. p. 317.
- Jump up ^ Buried Hope Or Risen Savior: The Search for the Jesus Tomb 2008 p81 Charles Quarles – 2008 "The distinction between the longer and shorter forms does not exist in Greek. The Greek Iesous (Ineous) was used to represent both Yehoshua' and Yeshua'. There are 48 instances of Iesous (Iesous and several eccentric spellings), "
- Jump up ^ Photo in Witherington & Schanks pp 59–60
- Jump up ^ Incantation bowls in Montgomery and Moussaief/Levene 2002. See transcription in Bauckham essay in Quarles.
- Jump up ^ New Testament theology Joachim Jeremias – 1977 "... 1965, 284–93: 285; a graffito which I found in the south wall of the southern pool at Bethesda, now covered in, also read [y\fw ', see my: The Rediscovery of Bethesda, New Testament Archaeology Monograph No I, Louisville, Ky., 1966, ..."
- Jump up ^ http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Three/Furtive_Patach/furtive_patach.html
- Jump up ^ Talshir 1998:374,376.
- Jump up ^ Elisha Qimron, The Hebrew Of The Dead Sea Scrolls, Scholars Press, Harvard Semitic Studies vol. 29, 1986:25.
- Jump up ^ Qimron:26, 31–35.
- Jump up ^ Qimron:35.
- Jump up ^ Price, James D. Yehoshua, Yeshua or Yeshu; Which one is the name of Jesus in Hebrew?, accessed March 6, 2006.
- Jump up ^ William Chomsky, Hebrew: The Eternal Language, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1957 p.140
- Jump up ^ Mendel, Roi (25 February 2007). "Ha-"chasifa" shel qever Yeshu: qiddum mkhirot". Yedioth Ahronoth. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- Jump up ^ Pilkington, Ed; Rory McCarthy (27 February 2007). "Is this really the last resting place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene – and their son?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- Jump up ^ Wycliffe Bible Dictionary. entry HEBREW LANGUAGE: Hendrickson Publishers. 1975.
- Jump up ^ J. Maier Jesus von Nazareth 1978. G. Theissen, Historical Jesus. 1998. R. Voorst Jesus outside the New Testament 2000
- Jump up ^ Brother of Jesus Hershel Shanks, Ben Witherington photo of the "Yeshu... Yeshua bar Yehosef" ossuary and dual inscription
- Jump up ^ Jesus outside the New Testament p124 Robert E. Van Voorst - 2000 "This is likely an inference from the Talmud and other Jewish usage, where Jesus is called Yeshu, and other Jews with the same name are called by the fuller name Yehoshua, "Joshua" (e.g., b Sanh. 107b on p. "
- Jump up ^ Michael H. Cohen A Friend of All Faiths - Page 42 - 2004 "In Hebrew school, one of my teachers had explained that Yeshu (Hebrew for Jesus), rather than meaning "Saviour," in fact was an acronym that stood for yimach shemo ve-zichrono: "may his name and memory be erased "
- Jump up ^ Proceedings: Volume 4 Aḳademyah ha-leʼumit ha-Yiśreʼelit le-madaʻim - 1969 "Perhaps the most significant of these is the passage where instead of the printed 'that certain man' we find 'Jesus the Nazarene — may his name be obliterated' (thus also in a Genizah MS, British Museum, Or. 91842). "
- Jump up ^ New Testament theology Joachim Jeremias - 1977 "... deliberate truncation made for anti-Christian motives; rather, it is 'almost certainly' (Flusser, Jesus, 13) the Galilean pronunciation of the name; the swallowing of the 'ayin was typical of the Galilean dialect (Billerbeck I 156f.
Yahushua... Yeshua... Eesho... Iesous... Jesus
(Article from http://wahiduddin.net/words/jesus.htm)
As odd as it may seem, the name Jesus is a relatively new invention, only a few hundred years old, that was created by multiple translations and stylistic changes to the original name.
The name of the one born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph about 2000 years ago was written as in Aramaic. Most scholars agree that the common language of the entire region was Aramaic and that Jesus probably spoke Aramaic and was most likely named in Aramaic.
The modern transliteration of the Aramaic into English has been written in many forms, including Yeshu', Eesho' or Eshoo. There were, and still are, many different, and often contradictory, dialects of Aramaic, making it impossible to know for certain how his name was actually pronounced 2000 years ago. That same name would be written as in Hebrew and is commonly transliterated into English as Yeshua, which is a Hebrew contraction for the name Yehoshua meaning Yah is salvation or Yah saves. Many Biblical references, such as Young's Analytical Concordance, have concluded that his name was Yeshua.
The really odd changes to his name all began with translation into non-Semitic languages.
When the name was translated into Greek, the translators were first faced with the task of deciding whether they should translate the name phonetically to try to keep the sound the same, or whether they should translate the name according to its meaning. Apparently, they chose to use the phonetic approach so that the sound of the name would be preserved, even though the meaning of the name would be lost in the phonetic translation.
Unfortunately, the Greek language lacks some of the sounds used in Aramaic. And to further complicate the issue, all Greek masculine names must end with the letter "s". So, without the proper sounds and forced to add the "s" to the end of the name, the best that the Greek translators could do was translate the name as which may be pronounced something like "ee-ay-soos". Still, that's pretty close to the original name, except for the letter "s" that was added at the end.
Then, as the books of the bible began to gain wider circulation, the name was again translated, this time from Greek into Latin. In the official Catholic bible version called the Vulgate, the name was established in Latin as "Iesus". In Latin the letter "I" when used as a consonant has somewhat of a "Y" sound, so the name may have been pronounced something like "ye-soos", which is a still pretty good approximation to the original name, except for the "s" at the end.
Over the years, as the pronunciation of the European languages gradually changed, and as the manner of writing the various letters also changed, an embellished version of the letter "I" gradually acquired a sound of it's own and over time became an entirely new letter, the letter "J" with it's current "J" sound. And, along the way, the long "u" sound of "oo" was lost and it became a short "u". So, as the newly invented printing press churned out bibles, the Latin version of the name gradually became written as "Jesus" and the English pronunciation as we know it today was gradually adopted.
Although the spelling "Iesus" or "Iesvs" was used in the King James version of the New Testament from 1611 to 1628, by the year 1629 the King James version began to adopt the spelling "Jesus". Gradually, during the 17th century, the name shifted from "Iesus" to the pronunciation "Jesus" that we are still using today.
Thus, the name was gradually changed to the English name Jesus.... which is indeed quite a different sounding name.
Fortunately, it seems that the pronunciation of the words in our prayers is much less important than the heartfelt intent of our prayers. And thereby all true seekers receive the same results whether they have learned to call on the sacred name of Jesus or Eeso or Yeshu' or Iesous.
That is to say, the pronunciation of the name is really not very important, but rather it is our intent, purpose and faith that truly matter.
The ancient Semitic root of the word for "name" is s-m, and while it does certainly mean "name" it also means much more. The s-m of something is that by which it is known, it is that which makes something different in a way that it can be distinguished from something else, it can mean light or sound or vibration, it is the very essence of something.
So, to call upon someone's "shem" is not simply to call upon the sound of their name, but it means to call upon their very essence... which is far beyond the mere utterance of a name.
Words come and words go, languages come and languages go, yet the magnificent heart of each person remains the glorious temple of God, the abode of Love Everlasting... if only we will cast off our veils of selfishness and allow the Divine Light to shine forth.
Matters such as alphabets and names and spelling are ephemeral matters, they come and go like the shifting sands. For those who are willing to seek it, there is something which is like a rock in the midst of those shifting sands, something more fulfilling than any ephemeral matter... and that "something" is the goal of the spiritual path. Let us strive to focus our attention beyond words, beyond momentary concerns, and strive to discover that glorious ever-present essence which is beyond the name.
The name of the one born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph about 2000 years ago was written as in Aramaic. Most scholars agree that the common language of the entire region was Aramaic and that Jesus probably spoke Aramaic and was most likely named in Aramaic.
The modern transliteration of the Aramaic into English has been written in many forms, including Yeshu', Eesho' or Eshoo. There were, and still are, many different, and often contradictory, dialects of Aramaic, making it impossible to know for certain how his name was actually pronounced 2000 years ago. That same name would be written as in Hebrew and is commonly transliterated into English as Yeshua, which is a Hebrew contraction for the name Yehoshua meaning Yah is salvation or Yah saves. Many Biblical references, such as Young's Analytical Concordance, have concluded that his name was Yeshua.
The really odd changes to his name all began with translation into non-Semitic languages.
When the name was translated into Greek, the translators were first faced with the task of deciding whether they should translate the name phonetically to try to keep the sound the same, or whether they should translate the name according to its meaning. Apparently, they chose to use the phonetic approach so that the sound of the name would be preserved, even though the meaning of the name would be lost in the phonetic translation.
Unfortunately, the Greek language lacks some of the sounds used in Aramaic. And to further complicate the issue, all Greek masculine names must end with the letter "s". So, without the proper sounds and forced to add the "s" to the end of the name, the best that the Greek translators could do was translate the name as which may be pronounced something like "ee-ay-soos". Still, that's pretty close to the original name, except for the letter "s" that was added at the end.
Then, as the books of the bible began to gain wider circulation, the name was again translated, this time from Greek into Latin. In the official Catholic bible version called the Vulgate, the name was established in Latin as "Iesus". In Latin the letter "I" when used as a consonant has somewhat of a "Y" sound, so the name may have been pronounced something like "ye-soos", which is a still pretty good approximation to the original name, except for the "s" at the end.
Over the years, as the pronunciation of the European languages gradually changed, and as the manner of writing the various letters also changed, an embellished version of the letter "I" gradually acquired a sound of it's own and over time became an entirely new letter, the letter "J" with it's current "J" sound. And, along the way, the long "u" sound of "oo" was lost and it became a short "u". So, as the newly invented printing press churned out bibles, the Latin version of the name gradually became written as "Jesus" and the English pronunciation as we know it today was gradually adopted.
Although the spelling "Iesus" or "Iesvs" was used in the King James version of the New Testament from 1611 to 1628, by the year 1629 the King James version began to adopt the spelling "Jesus". Gradually, during the 17th century, the name shifted from "Iesus" to the pronunciation "Jesus" that we are still using today.
Thus, the name was gradually changed to the English name Jesus.... which is indeed quite a different sounding name.
Fortunately, it seems that the pronunciation of the words in our prayers is much less important than the heartfelt intent of our prayers. And thereby all true seekers receive the same results whether they have learned to call on the sacred name of Jesus or Eeso or Yeshu' or Iesous.
That is to say, the pronunciation of the name is really not very important, but rather it is our intent, purpose and faith that truly matter.
The ancient Semitic root of the word for "name" is s-m, and while it does certainly mean "name" it also means much more. The s-m of something is that by which it is known, it is that which makes something different in a way that it can be distinguished from something else, it can mean light or sound or vibration, it is the very essence of something.
So, to call upon someone's "shem" is not simply to call upon the sound of their name, but it means to call upon their very essence... which is far beyond the mere utterance of a name.
Words come and words go, languages come and languages go, yet the magnificent heart of each person remains the glorious temple of God, the abode of Love Everlasting... if only we will cast off our veils of selfishness and allow the Divine Light to shine forth.
Matters such as alphabets and names and spelling are ephemeral matters, they come and go like the shifting sands. For those who are willing to seek it, there is something which is like a rock in the midst of those shifting sands, something more fulfilling than any ephemeral matter... and that "something" is the goal of the spiritual path. Let us strive to focus our attention beyond words, beyond momentary concerns, and strive to discover that glorious ever-present essence which is beyond the name.
The Evolution of the Name Jesus
The Hebrew name Yehoshua
Etymology is the study of word origins and how those words change in meaning and pronunciation over time. In Jewish thought, a name was never a random combination of sounds. A name was meant to convey the nature, essence, history, and reputation of the thing named. The importance of the power in a name is illustrated when Moses asked God what his "name" was. God told Moses he was the God of his ancestors and that he would save his people from bondage. God said "I am who am" (which sounds like "Yahweh"). God then said "This is my name forever, this is my name for all generations" (Exodus 3:11-15).
The basic root name of Jesus comes from the Hebrew name HO-SH-U-A (Joshua) meaning "Salvation." But "salvation" was only half the essence of his name. The full essence of the name Jesus comes from the story of Twelve Scouts when Moses gave Hoshea his new name "Yeho-shua," meaning "Yahweh-is-Salvation"
"The Lord said to Moses, send men to scout the land of Caanan, which I am giving to the Israelites. Send one man from each tribe, all of them princes. So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran as the Lord had ordered. All were leaders among the Israelites. By name they were ... Shammua, Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Hoshea, Palti, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, and Geuel (this quote leaves out the father & tribe names). These are the names of the men who Moses sent out to scout the land. But Ho-shea, son of Nun, Moses called Yeho-shua" (Num 13:1-16).
As you can see, Hebrew names always had a meaning and a history in the Old Testament. The early Christians pointed to Mose's authority to "make up names" when titles and names were given to Jesus or when Jesus "made up names" for his twelve disciples (Mk 3:13-19). The genius of the Greek names of Christianity was in their hidden meaning ... all the major names and titles of Jesus and his disciples were related in some way or another to the isopsephia value of Jesus.
By the 5th Century BC the name YEHOSHUA was shortened to YESHUA (see Neh. 8:17). By the 1st century AD, probably due to Greek influence, the name YESHUA was shortened twice more ... first to Y'SHUA, and then again to Y'SHU. The Y'shu form seems be a deliberate attempt by orthodox Jews of that time to express their displeasure to the name of Jesus, the recently arrived Greek Christian God who was trying to seduce Jews away from their religion.
The Greek name Ihsous
When the Greeks wanted to turn a Hebrew name into a Greek name there were two ways to bring it across the language barrier. One way was by translation, which tries to capture the meaning of a word ... but in the process, loses it's sound. The other way was by transliteration, which tries to capture the sound of the Hebrew word ... but in the process, loses it's meaning.
Let's look at the most probable scenario of how the four Hebrew letters in the name Y'-Sh-U-A (Yod-Shin-Vav-Ayin) were transliterated to Koine Greek.
The first Hebrew letter YOD has a “YE” sound. Unfortunately, the Greek language does not have a letter nor a diphthong that has the "Y" sound as in YES! The Greek solution was to pair the two letters IOTA-ETA to produce the sound “EE-AY” which was deemed to be close enough to the Hebrew sound "YE."
The second Hebrew letter SHIN has the "SH" sound. This was an even bigger problem because the "SH" sound does not exist in Greek. The Greek solution was to employ the "S" sound made by the letter SIGMA.
The third Hebrew letter Vav has a "U" sound. The Greek diphthong "ou" OMICRON-UPSILON is an exact match because it has the same "OO" sound.
The fourth Hebrew letter AYIN has the "AH" sound. According to the Greek rules of grammar, masculine names never end in a vowel sound, and when they do, the name should always be closed with the letter "S" whenever possible. The Greek solution was to drop the final "AH" sound and close out the name with an "S."
These four steps produce the name “Iesous” (IhsouV) which is pronounced "EE-AY-SOOS." The name Jesus now has an isopsehia value of "888" units which conjured up the "888" power structure of the whole Greek alphabet.
Joshua is mentioned two times in the New Testament (Acts 7:45; Heb 4:8), and in both places the Greek text spells his name "IhsouV" ... the same as Jesus. The original Hebrew translation of the name of Yeho (Yahweh) - shua (saves) is alluded to in the following gospel passage where an angel of the Lord tells Joseph what to name his future son: "you are to name him Iesous because he will save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21). This passage shows Matthew knew that the first two vowel sounds (ee-ay) in the name of Jesus were meant to be a transliteration of the vowel sounds in the name Yahweh, the almighty monotheistic God of the Hebrews. The gospel of John echoed that knowledge by having Jesus say "I come in the name of my Father" (John 5:43). The last syllable in the name of Jesus (eeay-soos) was probably recognized by the Greeks for it's similarity to the name Zeus (dzoos), the most powerful God in the polytheistic Greek pantheon. Putting the two word plays together, the name Ee-ay-sous oozed with supernatural power because that name implies "Yahweh-Zeus."
The Latin name Iesus
The entire New Testament was written in “Koiné” or common Greek, but as the gospel spread into areas where Greek was not spoken, missionaries made translations in other languages such as Coptic, Slavic, and Latin. By the end of the second century many different Latin versions were in circulation. In 382 Jerome translated a standardized Latin Bible called the “Vulgate,” or common Bible. The Latin Bible transliterated the Greek name of Jesus by bringing across all of the Greek sounds in his name. His name was written as "IESUS." The Latin spelling differed from the Greek because the two alphabets are not identical. The Latin pronunciation however was still identical to the Greek "ee-ay-soos." Theodosus made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire in 391. Jerome's Latin Vulgate soon became the undeclared “official” text of the Roman Church. The Council of Toulouse in 1229 made the Latin Bible official by "expressly forbidding it's translation into vulgar tongues." In 1234 the Council of Tarragona declared: "No person except a cleric may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments and if anyone is found to possess them he must be turned over to the local bishop so that he may be burned at the stake" The Latin spelling and pronunciation of Iesus dominated the Western Christian world for almost 1,000 years.
The English name Jesus
The Norman invasion of 1066 introduced the letter "j" to England but the sound of the letter did not exist in the Old English language until the early 1200's. Over the next 300 years the hard "J" sound started to replace male names that began with I or Y because it sounded so masculine. Names like Iames became "James," Iakob became Jacob, and Yohan became "John." During the time the letter J was starting to gain acceptance, John Wycliffe became the first person to translate the New Testament from Latin into English in 1384. He preserved the Latin spelling and pronunciation of IESUS but his translation was unread by the common man because only a few hand-written copies of his Bible were produced which were quickly banned by the Church.
When Gutenburg invented the printing press the Latin Vulgate Bible became the first book ever printed in 1455. The first printed bible in a foreign tongue was the German Mentel Bible of 1466 followed by the Martin Luther bible of 1522.
After William Tyndale was denied permission to print an English bible he went to visit Martin Luther and completed his translation of the New Testament in 1525. Tyndale had 18,000 copies printed at Worms and smuggled into England of which only two copies survive. After printing his revised edition of 1534 he was captured in Belgium, tried for heresy by order of the pope, and put to death in 1536 by strangulation after which his body was burned at the stake.
By the year 1611 the letter "J" was officially part of the English languge and the King James Bible was printed along with pronunciation guides for all proper names like Jesus, Jew, Jeremiah, Jerusalem, Judah, and John. The name "Jesus" has been in use ever since.
The basic root name of Jesus comes from the Hebrew name HO-SH-U-A (Joshua) meaning "Salvation." But "salvation" was only half the essence of his name. The full essence of the name Jesus comes from the story of Twelve Scouts when Moses gave Hoshea his new name "Yeho-shua," meaning "Yahweh-is-Salvation"
"The Lord said to Moses, send men to scout the land of Caanan, which I am giving to the Israelites. Send one man from each tribe, all of them princes. So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran as the Lord had ordered. All were leaders among the Israelites. By name they were ... Shammua, Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Hoshea, Palti, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, and Geuel (this quote leaves out the father & tribe names). These are the names of the men who Moses sent out to scout the land. But Ho-shea, son of Nun, Moses called Yeho-shua" (Num 13:1-16).
As you can see, Hebrew names always had a meaning and a history in the Old Testament. The early Christians pointed to Mose's authority to "make up names" when titles and names were given to Jesus or when Jesus "made up names" for his twelve disciples (Mk 3:13-19). The genius of the Greek names of Christianity was in their hidden meaning ... all the major names and titles of Jesus and his disciples were related in some way or another to the isopsephia value of Jesus.
By the 5th Century BC the name YEHOSHUA was shortened to YESHUA (see Neh. 8:17). By the 1st century AD, probably due to Greek influence, the name YESHUA was shortened twice more ... first to Y'SHUA, and then again to Y'SHU. The Y'shu form seems be a deliberate attempt by orthodox Jews of that time to express their displeasure to the name of Jesus, the recently arrived Greek Christian God who was trying to seduce Jews away from their religion.
The Greek name Ihsous
When the Greeks wanted to turn a Hebrew name into a Greek name there were two ways to bring it across the language barrier. One way was by translation, which tries to capture the meaning of a word ... but in the process, loses it's sound. The other way was by transliteration, which tries to capture the sound of the Hebrew word ... but in the process, loses it's meaning.
Let's look at the most probable scenario of how the four Hebrew letters in the name Y'-Sh-U-A (Yod-Shin-Vav-Ayin) were transliterated to Koine Greek.
The first Hebrew letter YOD has a “YE” sound. Unfortunately, the Greek language does not have a letter nor a diphthong that has the "Y" sound as in YES! The Greek solution was to pair the two letters IOTA-ETA to produce the sound “EE-AY” which was deemed to be close enough to the Hebrew sound "YE."
The second Hebrew letter SHIN has the "SH" sound. This was an even bigger problem because the "SH" sound does not exist in Greek. The Greek solution was to employ the "S" sound made by the letter SIGMA.
The third Hebrew letter Vav has a "U" sound. The Greek diphthong "ou" OMICRON-UPSILON is an exact match because it has the same "OO" sound.
The fourth Hebrew letter AYIN has the "AH" sound. According to the Greek rules of grammar, masculine names never end in a vowel sound, and when they do, the name should always be closed with the letter "S" whenever possible. The Greek solution was to drop the final "AH" sound and close out the name with an "S."
These four steps produce the name “Iesous” (IhsouV) which is pronounced "EE-AY-SOOS." The name Jesus now has an isopsehia value of "888" units which conjured up the "888" power structure of the whole Greek alphabet.
Joshua is mentioned two times in the New Testament (Acts 7:45; Heb 4:8), and in both places the Greek text spells his name "IhsouV" ... the same as Jesus. The original Hebrew translation of the name of Yeho (Yahweh) - shua (saves) is alluded to in the following gospel passage where an angel of the Lord tells Joseph what to name his future son: "you are to name him Iesous because he will save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21). This passage shows Matthew knew that the first two vowel sounds (ee-ay) in the name of Jesus were meant to be a transliteration of the vowel sounds in the name Yahweh, the almighty monotheistic God of the Hebrews. The gospel of John echoed that knowledge by having Jesus say "I come in the name of my Father" (John 5:43). The last syllable in the name of Jesus (eeay-soos) was probably recognized by the Greeks for it's similarity to the name Zeus (dzoos), the most powerful God in the polytheistic Greek pantheon. Putting the two word plays together, the name Ee-ay-sous oozed with supernatural power because that name implies "Yahweh-Zeus."
The Latin name Iesus
The entire New Testament was written in “Koiné” or common Greek, but as the gospel spread into areas where Greek was not spoken, missionaries made translations in other languages such as Coptic, Slavic, and Latin. By the end of the second century many different Latin versions were in circulation. In 382 Jerome translated a standardized Latin Bible called the “Vulgate,” or common Bible. The Latin Bible transliterated the Greek name of Jesus by bringing across all of the Greek sounds in his name. His name was written as "IESUS." The Latin spelling differed from the Greek because the two alphabets are not identical. The Latin pronunciation however was still identical to the Greek "ee-ay-soos." Theodosus made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire in 391. Jerome's Latin Vulgate soon became the undeclared “official” text of the Roman Church. The Council of Toulouse in 1229 made the Latin Bible official by "expressly forbidding it's translation into vulgar tongues." In 1234 the Council of Tarragona declared: "No person except a cleric may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments and if anyone is found to possess them he must be turned over to the local bishop so that he may be burned at the stake" The Latin spelling and pronunciation of Iesus dominated the Western Christian world for almost 1,000 years.
The English name Jesus
The Norman invasion of 1066 introduced the letter "j" to England but the sound of the letter did not exist in the Old English language until the early 1200's. Over the next 300 years the hard "J" sound started to replace male names that began with I or Y because it sounded so masculine. Names like Iames became "James," Iakob became Jacob, and Yohan became "John." During the time the letter J was starting to gain acceptance, John Wycliffe became the first person to translate the New Testament from Latin into English in 1384. He preserved the Latin spelling and pronunciation of IESUS but his translation was unread by the common man because only a few hand-written copies of his Bible were produced which were quickly banned by the Church.
When Gutenburg invented the printing press the Latin Vulgate Bible became the first book ever printed in 1455. The first printed bible in a foreign tongue was the German Mentel Bible of 1466 followed by the Martin Luther bible of 1522.
After William Tyndale was denied permission to print an English bible he went to visit Martin Luther and completed his translation of the New Testament in 1525. Tyndale had 18,000 copies printed at Worms and smuggled into England of which only two copies survive. After printing his revised edition of 1534 he was captured in Belgium, tried for heresy by order of the pope, and put to death in 1536 by strangulation after which his body was burned at the stake.
By the year 1611 the letter "J" was officially part of the English languge and the King James Bible was printed along with pronunciation guides for all proper names like Jesus, Jew, Jeremiah, Jerusalem, Judah, and John. The name "Jesus" has been in use ever since.
http://www.yashanet.com/library/Yeshua_or_Yahshua.htm
The Messiah's Hebrew Name: "Yeshua" Or "Yahshua"?by Dr. Daniel Botkin
Dr. Daniel Botkin explains the Hebrew linguistics of the names "Yeshua" and "Yahshua" and how "Yahshua" is a mistransliteration by Sacred Name advocates to fit an erroneous interpretation of John 5:43 and how "Yeshua" is far more accurate. He also clearly establishes the fact that the English name "Jesus" has absolutely no pagan connection and is simply a derivation of "Yesous," the Greek transliteration of "Yeshua." Most important, Dr. Botkin addresses that slander and criticism surrounding the name controversy in entirely non-Scriptural and not glorifying to the Holy One of Israel.
The Messiah’s Hebrew name is usually transliterated as either Yeshua or Yahshua. Under normal circumstances I would not bother to write an article about something as trivial as the difference between the vowel sounds "e" and "ah." There is a need to address the subject, though, because some people who use the Yahshua form say untrue things about those who use the Yeshua form. The opponents of the Yeshua form claim that this pronunciation is the result of a Jewish conspiracy to hide the Savior’s true name. Those who call the Messiah Yeshua are accused of perpetuating a Jewish conspiracy and "denying His name" or "degrading Him" by their use of the Yeshua form. If you have never read or heard these outlandish accusations, you probably will eventually. From time to time I receive personal letters to this effect.
The proponents of the Yahshua form claim that the Messiah’s name was the same as Joshua’s, written [vwhy or [wvwhy (Strong’s #3091). The only problem is that neither of these Hebrew spellings of Joshua’s name can possibly be pronounced "Yahshua." The third letter in Joshua’s name (reading from right to left) is the letter vav (w) and a vav cannot be silent. The letter vav must be pronounced as either a "v" or an "o" or an "u." (In the case of Joshua, it takes an "o" sound, giving us "Ye-ho-SHU-a." Strong’s confirms this pronunciation.) For a name to be pronounced "Yahshua," it would have to be spelled [wv--hy, and no such name exists anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. You don’t have to just take my word for it, though. Dr. Danny Ben-Gigi says of the Yahshua form that "there is no such name in Hebrew" and that "people invented it to fit their theology."[1] Dr. Ben-Gigi is an Israeli and the former head of Hebrew programs at Arizona State University. He is the author of the book First Steps in Hebrew Prayers, and he designed and produced the "Living Israeli Hebrew" language-learning course. Dr. David Bivin, a Christian, says that the Yahshua form "is rooted in a misunderstanding."[2] Dr. Bivin is a renowned Hebrew scholar and teacher and author of Fluent Biblical Hebrew.
I do not know of a single individual that knows Hebrew well enough to actually read it and understand it and converse in it who uses the Yahshua form.
Please do not misunderstand. A person does not need to know Hebrew and Greek linguistics in order to be spiritual. However, if a person is going to take it upon himself to instruct others about subjects of a linguistic and Hebraic nature, he should know the Hebrew language and he should know some basics about linguistics. This is especially true if he is going to use his Hebrew-based linguistic teachings to accuse his brethren of being part of a "Jewish conspiracy" to "deny the true name of the Messiah."
To people who actually know Hebrew – people like Dr. Ben-Gigi, Dr. Bivin, and others – it is very obvious that those who insist on the Yahshua form know very little about the Hebrew language. The only Hebrew that most of these self-appointed scholars know is what they can learn from a Strong’s Concordance.[3] Strong’s is a great study tool and a fine place to start, but it is not a means by which a person can learn the Hebrew language.
The English form Jesus is derived from the New Testament Greek name Ihsouß, pronounced "Yesous." According to Strong’s, Yesous (Strong’s #2424) is "of Hebrew origin" and can be traced back to Joshua’s Hebrew name, Yehoshua (#3091, [wvwhy). But how do we get the Greek Yesous from the Hebrew Yehoshua? Someone armed with nothing more than a Strong’s Concordance may have difficulty answering that question. Someone who reads the Bible in Hebrew, though, knows that the name Joshua sometimes appears in its shortened form, Yeshua ([wvy) in Neh. 8:17 it is apparent even in English: "Jeshua the son of Nun." (The letter J was pronounced like a Y in Old English.) Strong does not tell the reader that the Greek Yesous is actually transliterated from this shortened Hebrew form, Yeshua, and not directly from the longer form Yehoshua. The process from "Yehoshua" to "Jesus" looks like this:
Hebrew Yehoshua à Hebrew Yeshua
Hebrew Yeshua à Greek Yesous
Greek Yesous à English Jesus
There is no "sh" sound in Greek, which accounts for the middle "s" sound in Yesous. The "s" at the end of the Greek name is a grammatical necessity, to make the word declinable.
In Neh. 8:17, Joshua’s name is 100% identical to the name which today’s Messianic Jews use for the Messiah, Yeshua ([wvy). Strong’s confirms this pronunciation, and tells us that there were ten Israelites in the Bible who bore this name (#3442). Therefore the shortening of Yehoshua to Yeshua predates the Christian era by at least 500 years, and cannot be the result of a Jewish conspiracy to hide the Savior’s true name.[4] To claim that the shortened form Yeshua is the result of a Jewish conspiracy is to ignore the facts of history and the facts of the Hebrew Scriptures. The form Yeshua existed for several hundred years before the Messiah was even born. Even in the pre-Christian Septuagint, we see the Greek form IHSOUS (Yesous) in the title of the Book of Joshua. (This is also proof that Yesous has no connection to the pagan god Zeus.)
So where did the transliteration Yahshua come from? This form of the name can be traced back to the beginnings of the Sacred Name movement, a movement that grew out of the Church of God, 7th Day, in the late 1930s. I have in my files an article entitled, "A Brief History of the Name Movement in America" by L.D. Snow, a Sacred Name believer.[5] According to this article, "John Briggs and Paul Penn were the FIRST to pronounce and use the name Yahshua" (emphasis Snow’s). This was in 1936 and in 1937, the article states. No information is given about how Briggs and Penn came up with this (mis)translation.
Later Sacred Name literature appeals to the Messiah’s statement in John 5:43 as "proof" of the Yahshua form: "I am come in My Father’s name," He said. In the minds of Sacred Name believers, this means that "Yah," a shortened form of Yahweh, must appear in the name of the Son. However, the Messiah did not say "My name contains My Father’s name" or "My Father’s name must appear inside My name" or any such statement. He said absolutely nothing here about His own name. The only "name" mentioned here was the Father’s name. He said, "I am come in My Father’s name," which simply means that He was coming by His Father’s authority, on His Father’s behalf. If we take Yeshua’s statement "I am come in My Father’s name" to mean that His own name must contain the Father’s name, then we ourselves cannot do anything "in the Father’s name" unless our own personal name happens to contain the syllable "Yah." The folly of this interpretation is also evident if the same line of reasoning is applied to the rest of Yeshua’s statement: "…if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." If the logic of Sacred Name believers is applied to this half of the verse, it would be saying "a person’s name must contain his own name," which is meaningless. If, on the other hand, "in his own name" means "by his own authority," then the statement makes sense.
Why is the Yahshua form used by no one but Sacred Name believers and people who have been influenced by Sacred Name believers? Probably because no such name exists in the Hebrew Bible and, to my knowledge, no such name exists in any extra-Biblical Hebrew literature. It appears that Dr. Ben-Gigi is correct when he says that people invented the name Yahshua to fit their theology.
I have read a lot of literature from writers who seek to expose the "errors" of those who refer to the Messiah as Yeshua. The only thing these writers actually expose is their lack of knowledge. I could give several examples of statements which are absolutely ridiculous. I do not have the space in this publication to give all the examples I have in my files, and I do not wish to embarrass sincere people for their honest but misguided efforts. There are some examples, though, that grossly misrepresent the facts, and some of these examples need to be exposed.
In one popular booklet published by a well-known Sacred Name organization, the anonymous author makes this statement: "Most reference works agree with Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the NT statement on page 284, which states that the name Yahoshua was shortened after the exile to the short form Yahshua." This statement makes it sound like Kittel uses the forms Yahoshua and Yahshua. I went to the library and looked at this page in Kittel’s. The words Yahoshua and Yahshua do not appear even one time on this page. This can be verified by going to a library and looking up this page. (It’s in Volume III.) If your library does not have Kittel’s, I can send a photocopy of this page to any skeptics.
This same Sacred Name organization which misrepresents Kittel’s also misrepresented a Jewish author. In a magazine article written by this organization’s main leader, a lengthy segment is quoted from a book published by KTAV, a Jewish publishing house. When copying this quotation for his magazine article, this Sacred Name author freely used Yahshua, making it appear tat the Jewish author used that transliteration in his book. I got the book from the library, though, and discovered that "Yahshua" did not appear in the book. I wrote to this Sacred Name leader asking for an explanation. I told him that unless he had some other explanation, I could conclude one of three things: either he deliberately misrepresented the facts, or he did it accidentally, or the book I got from the library was a different version from his, in which case I would owe him an apology. My letter was sent September 1, 1997, and I am still waiting for a reply. I will not embarrass this man by mentioning his name or the name of his ministry. It is not my intention to embarrass anyone.
I am not writing this article to persuade people to quit saying "Yahshua." If people want to continue using a mistransliteration that was erroneously contrived by early Sacred Name pioneers who didn’t know Hebrew, it really doesn’t matter to me. I don’t that the substitution of an "ah" sound for an "e" sound matters much to the Lord, either. What does matter, though, is the spreading of false accusations against Messianic Jews and others who called the Messiah "Yeshua."
Paul warned Timothy about "doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising [suspicions]" (1 Tim. 6:4). Unfortunately, this is an accurate description of what goes on among many people in the Sacred Name movement. Personally, I would rather fellowship with non-contentious people who call the Messiah "Jesus" than with contentious people who insist that everyone call Him "Yahshua."
NOTES
[1] Love Song to the Messiah newsletter, March 1999, p. 1.
[2] "The Fallacy of Sacred Name Bibles," Jerusalem Perspective Nov.-Dec. 1991, p. 12.
[3] These teachers very heavily rely on Strong’s Concordance, yet when Strong proves them wrong, as he does with the pronunciation of Yehoshua, they insist that Strong’s rendering is erroneous! I have a Sacred Name publication which actually claims that Strong wrote down incorrect pronunciations because "his understanding of the Name was lacking." Anyone who wants to disprove this ludicrous assertion can simply look at Joshua’s name in a Hebrew Bible and see that Strong used the very same vowel marks that are used in the Bible.
[4] There is some debate over whether or not the Jews’ final shortening of Jesus’ name to Yeshu (wvy) was a deliberate attempt to avoid acknowledging Yeshua of Nazareth as Savior.
[5] This article first appeared in a publication called The Eliyah Messenger in May-June 1966, and was reprinted in 1975 in World Today Analyzed, a publication of the Assembly of Yahvah in Tahlequah, OK.
The Messiah's Hebrew Name: "Yeshua" Or "Yahshua"?by Dr. Daniel Botkin
Dr. Daniel Botkin explains the Hebrew linguistics of the names "Yeshua" and "Yahshua" and how "Yahshua" is a mistransliteration by Sacred Name advocates to fit an erroneous interpretation of John 5:43 and how "Yeshua" is far more accurate. He also clearly establishes the fact that the English name "Jesus" has absolutely no pagan connection and is simply a derivation of "Yesous," the Greek transliteration of "Yeshua." Most important, Dr. Botkin addresses that slander and criticism surrounding the name controversy in entirely non-Scriptural and not glorifying to the Holy One of Israel.
The Messiah’s Hebrew name is usually transliterated as either Yeshua or Yahshua. Under normal circumstances I would not bother to write an article about something as trivial as the difference between the vowel sounds "e" and "ah." There is a need to address the subject, though, because some people who use the Yahshua form say untrue things about those who use the Yeshua form. The opponents of the Yeshua form claim that this pronunciation is the result of a Jewish conspiracy to hide the Savior’s true name. Those who call the Messiah Yeshua are accused of perpetuating a Jewish conspiracy and "denying His name" or "degrading Him" by their use of the Yeshua form. If you have never read or heard these outlandish accusations, you probably will eventually. From time to time I receive personal letters to this effect.
The proponents of the Yahshua form claim that the Messiah’s name was the same as Joshua’s, written [vwhy or [wvwhy (Strong’s #3091). The only problem is that neither of these Hebrew spellings of Joshua’s name can possibly be pronounced "Yahshua." The third letter in Joshua’s name (reading from right to left) is the letter vav (w) and a vav cannot be silent. The letter vav must be pronounced as either a "v" or an "o" or an "u." (In the case of Joshua, it takes an "o" sound, giving us "Ye-ho-SHU-a." Strong’s confirms this pronunciation.) For a name to be pronounced "Yahshua," it would have to be spelled [wv--hy, and no such name exists anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. You don’t have to just take my word for it, though. Dr. Danny Ben-Gigi says of the Yahshua form that "there is no such name in Hebrew" and that "people invented it to fit their theology."[1] Dr. Ben-Gigi is an Israeli and the former head of Hebrew programs at Arizona State University. He is the author of the book First Steps in Hebrew Prayers, and he designed and produced the "Living Israeli Hebrew" language-learning course. Dr. David Bivin, a Christian, says that the Yahshua form "is rooted in a misunderstanding."[2] Dr. Bivin is a renowned Hebrew scholar and teacher and author of Fluent Biblical Hebrew.
I do not know of a single individual that knows Hebrew well enough to actually read it and understand it and converse in it who uses the Yahshua form.
Please do not misunderstand. A person does not need to know Hebrew and Greek linguistics in order to be spiritual. However, if a person is going to take it upon himself to instruct others about subjects of a linguistic and Hebraic nature, he should know the Hebrew language and he should know some basics about linguistics. This is especially true if he is going to use his Hebrew-based linguistic teachings to accuse his brethren of being part of a "Jewish conspiracy" to "deny the true name of the Messiah."
To people who actually know Hebrew – people like Dr. Ben-Gigi, Dr. Bivin, and others – it is very obvious that those who insist on the Yahshua form know very little about the Hebrew language. The only Hebrew that most of these self-appointed scholars know is what they can learn from a Strong’s Concordance.[3] Strong’s is a great study tool and a fine place to start, but it is not a means by which a person can learn the Hebrew language.
The English form Jesus is derived from the New Testament Greek name Ihsouß, pronounced "Yesous." According to Strong’s, Yesous (Strong’s #2424) is "of Hebrew origin" and can be traced back to Joshua’s Hebrew name, Yehoshua (#3091, [wvwhy). But how do we get the Greek Yesous from the Hebrew Yehoshua? Someone armed with nothing more than a Strong’s Concordance may have difficulty answering that question. Someone who reads the Bible in Hebrew, though, knows that the name Joshua sometimes appears in its shortened form, Yeshua ([wvy) in Neh. 8:17 it is apparent even in English: "Jeshua the son of Nun." (The letter J was pronounced like a Y in Old English.) Strong does not tell the reader that the Greek Yesous is actually transliterated from this shortened Hebrew form, Yeshua, and not directly from the longer form Yehoshua. The process from "Yehoshua" to "Jesus" looks like this:
Hebrew Yehoshua à Hebrew Yeshua
Hebrew Yeshua à Greek Yesous
Greek Yesous à English Jesus
There is no "sh" sound in Greek, which accounts for the middle "s" sound in Yesous. The "s" at the end of the Greek name is a grammatical necessity, to make the word declinable.
In Neh. 8:17, Joshua’s name is 100% identical to the name which today’s Messianic Jews use for the Messiah, Yeshua ([wvy). Strong’s confirms this pronunciation, and tells us that there were ten Israelites in the Bible who bore this name (#3442). Therefore the shortening of Yehoshua to Yeshua predates the Christian era by at least 500 years, and cannot be the result of a Jewish conspiracy to hide the Savior’s true name.[4] To claim that the shortened form Yeshua is the result of a Jewish conspiracy is to ignore the facts of history and the facts of the Hebrew Scriptures. The form Yeshua existed for several hundred years before the Messiah was even born. Even in the pre-Christian Septuagint, we see the Greek form IHSOUS (Yesous) in the title of the Book of Joshua. (This is also proof that Yesous has no connection to the pagan god Zeus.)
So where did the transliteration Yahshua come from? This form of the name can be traced back to the beginnings of the Sacred Name movement, a movement that grew out of the Church of God, 7th Day, in the late 1930s. I have in my files an article entitled, "A Brief History of the Name Movement in America" by L.D. Snow, a Sacred Name believer.[5] According to this article, "John Briggs and Paul Penn were the FIRST to pronounce and use the name Yahshua" (emphasis Snow’s). This was in 1936 and in 1937, the article states. No information is given about how Briggs and Penn came up with this (mis)translation.
Later Sacred Name literature appeals to the Messiah’s statement in John 5:43 as "proof" of the Yahshua form: "I am come in My Father’s name," He said. In the minds of Sacred Name believers, this means that "Yah," a shortened form of Yahweh, must appear in the name of the Son. However, the Messiah did not say "My name contains My Father’s name" or "My Father’s name must appear inside My name" or any such statement. He said absolutely nothing here about His own name. The only "name" mentioned here was the Father’s name. He said, "I am come in My Father’s name," which simply means that He was coming by His Father’s authority, on His Father’s behalf. If we take Yeshua’s statement "I am come in My Father’s name" to mean that His own name must contain the Father’s name, then we ourselves cannot do anything "in the Father’s name" unless our own personal name happens to contain the syllable "Yah." The folly of this interpretation is also evident if the same line of reasoning is applied to the rest of Yeshua’s statement: "…if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." If the logic of Sacred Name believers is applied to this half of the verse, it would be saying "a person’s name must contain his own name," which is meaningless. If, on the other hand, "in his own name" means "by his own authority," then the statement makes sense.
Why is the Yahshua form used by no one but Sacred Name believers and people who have been influenced by Sacred Name believers? Probably because no such name exists in the Hebrew Bible and, to my knowledge, no such name exists in any extra-Biblical Hebrew literature. It appears that Dr. Ben-Gigi is correct when he says that people invented the name Yahshua to fit their theology.
I have read a lot of literature from writers who seek to expose the "errors" of those who refer to the Messiah as Yeshua. The only thing these writers actually expose is their lack of knowledge. I could give several examples of statements which are absolutely ridiculous. I do not have the space in this publication to give all the examples I have in my files, and I do not wish to embarrass sincere people for their honest but misguided efforts. There are some examples, though, that grossly misrepresent the facts, and some of these examples need to be exposed.
In one popular booklet published by a well-known Sacred Name organization, the anonymous author makes this statement: "Most reference works agree with Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the NT statement on page 284, which states that the name Yahoshua was shortened after the exile to the short form Yahshua." This statement makes it sound like Kittel uses the forms Yahoshua and Yahshua. I went to the library and looked at this page in Kittel’s. The words Yahoshua and Yahshua do not appear even one time on this page. This can be verified by going to a library and looking up this page. (It’s in Volume III.) If your library does not have Kittel’s, I can send a photocopy of this page to any skeptics.
This same Sacred Name organization which misrepresents Kittel’s also misrepresented a Jewish author. In a magazine article written by this organization’s main leader, a lengthy segment is quoted from a book published by KTAV, a Jewish publishing house. When copying this quotation for his magazine article, this Sacred Name author freely used Yahshua, making it appear tat the Jewish author used that transliteration in his book. I got the book from the library, though, and discovered that "Yahshua" did not appear in the book. I wrote to this Sacred Name leader asking for an explanation. I told him that unless he had some other explanation, I could conclude one of three things: either he deliberately misrepresented the facts, or he did it accidentally, or the book I got from the library was a different version from his, in which case I would owe him an apology. My letter was sent September 1, 1997, and I am still waiting for a reply. I will not embarrass this man by mentioning his name or the name of his ministry. It is not my intention to embarrass anyone.
I am not writing this article to persuade people to quit saying "Yahshua." If people want to continue using a mistransliteration that was erroneously contrived by early Sacred Name pioneers who didn’t know Hebrew, it really doesn’t matter to me. I don’t that the substitution of an "ah" sound for an "e" sound matters much to the Lord, either. What does matter, though, is the spreading of false accusations against Messianic Jews and others who called the Messiah "Yeshua."
Paul warned Timothy about "doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising [suspicions]" (1 Tim. 6:4). Unfortunately, this is an accurate description of what goes on among many people in the Sacred Name movement. Personally, I would rather fellowship with non-contentious people who call the Messiah "Jesus" than with contentious people who insist that everyone call Him "Yahshua."
NOTES
[1] Love Song to the Messiah newsletter, March 1999, p. 1.
[2] "The Fallacy of Sacred Name Bibles," Jerusalem Perspective Nov.-Dec. 1991, p. 12.
[3] These teachers very heavily rely on Strong’s Concordance, yet when Strong proves them wrong, as he does with the pronunciation of Yehoshua, they insist that Strong’s rendering is erroneous! I have a Sacred Name publication which actually claims that Strong wrote down incorrect pronunciations because "his understanding of the Name was lacking." Anyone who wants to disprove this ludicrous assertion can simply look at Joshua’s name in a Hebrew Bible and see that Strong used the very same vowel marks that are used in the Bible.
[4] There is some debate over whether or not the Jews’ final shortening of Jesus’ name to Yeshu (wvy) was a deliberate attempt to avoid acknowledging Yeshua of Nazareth as Savior.
[5] This article first appeared in a publication called The Eliyah Messenger in May-June 1966, and was reprinted in 1975 in World Today Analyzed, a publication of the Assembly of Yahvah in Tahlequah, OK.
In 2007, my father shared with me about the true name of Jesus.
I am so thankful to God for opening my eyes to this new understanding.