YAHSHUA “A PHILOLOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY”?
Is the name YAHSHUA a “philological impossibility”? A certain biblical scholar in no uncertain terms labeled the name “YAHSHUA” a “philological impossibility!” What is philology? “Philology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships of a language or languages.” In other words, the love of learning literature by the study of the meaning of words, names, and written records in order to determine origin and authenticity. With that understanding comes the affirmation that “YAHSHUA” is the revealed name of the Savior, however, this name was suppressed by the Jews (Acts 4:17). The Jews used the common Aramaic name “Yeshua” for the Man from Nazareth, and they refused to mention God’s name YAH. This is evident by the reaction of the Jews to the name of the Savior spoken to them from the apostles, a name which has the name (YAH) which is above every name, and by the reaction of the Jews to His name, that the Apostolic Church of the 1st century held to the revealed name of YAHSHUA. In Jewish society, compromising Christian Jews (Nazareans, Acts 24:5) would call the Savior “Yeshua” in order not to offend the Jews, and yet within their inner circle they called upon the name of YAHSHUA, the very name the apostle Peter testified to in the Sanhedrin. Accordingly, sometime later, the similar-sounding Aramaic name Yeshua was transliterated into the Greek language causing the pronunciation “Iesous,” as the Greek name for Yeshua. This was a mistake in that the revealed name of Christ must remain as revealed from heaven, otherwise, it is a rejection of the name revealed by God (John 3:18) with a substitute name. Based on revelation, it stands to reason that the Greek language needed to conform, and adapt, to the name and not the name conform and adapt to the Greek causing a total change, indeed an entirely different name. Accordingly, Iesous was modified to the Latin language causing yet another change to the one name given under heaven by which we must be saved, and thus the name and pronunciation became “Iesus” in English, and after the 17th century, the name changed yet again to Jesus. Would not the historical fact that the name Jesus has only existed since the 17th century renders this name Jesus a philological impossibility?
The name “Iesus” can be found in the 1611 English version of the Bible. The result is that the revealed name of YAHSHUA, the one name given under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), and the very name “which has the name (YAH) which is the name above every name” (Exodus 3:15; Philippians 2:9) has transformed into a totally different name, “Jesus”. This is unacceptable. The Linguistics of man does not override the revelation of God. The name of God was strongly suppressed by the Jews and later obscured by an apparent linguistic evolutionary process furthered by antisemitism. The desire of the Gentiles seeking to establish Christianity to be less Jewish allowed for the transliteration of the Aramaic name pronounced “Yeshua” to the Greek name pronounced “Iesous,” thus causing the true revealed name of the Messiah YAHSHUA to be obliterated. Based on the Jewish practice (of hiding the name YAH), the name YAHSHUA forbidden in Jewish society, and Gentile transliteration and subsequent translations of the name (Iesous, Iesus, Jesus), it is understandable why many would consider YAHSHUA to be a “philological impossibility,” however, its authenticity can be found in the New Testament. YAHSHUA, according to the formal name YAHOSHUA, is the only name by which we must be saved. “YAH”, not Yeh, is “the I AM” (HaYAH, not Eyeh), as the Savior acknowledged Himself as “I AM,” YAH (John 8:58). YAH is the name which is above every name, and shua means salvation (Matthew 1:21).
Although well known and accepted since the 17thcentury, the name “Jesus” is not the true name of salvation according to the revelation of God. The present alleged name of the Savior (Jesus) is not historically His true name, and thus the name “Jesus,” which is not His original name, can also be considered a “philological impossibility”. Just as the name Jehovah, a concoction of the four consonants of God’s true name with the vowels of an entirely different Hebrew word (Eloah, namely e-o-a) could also be considered a philological impossibility. There is no such name (Jesus, or Jehovah) in Hebrew, and again, the name Jesus did not exist for 1,600 years after Christ, a historic fact. According to history, and the fact that this name Jesus has only been in existence in its present form since the 17th century, which gives us irrefutable evidence that the name Jesus was never the name of the Savior in His lifetime, and the name “Jesus” was improperly placed into the Bible. This has been stated by scholars, such as the eminent scholar Ernest Renan, who stated that the Savior was never in His lifetime called “Jesus,” (Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus, p. 90). Also, as stated, in the year 1611, the English Bible did not have the name “Jesus,” but it had the name “Iesus.” The letter “J” is the last consonant letter to be added to the English alphabet (see “J”, The Encyclopedia Americana). Iesus is Latin, and therefore, the name Jesus is of Latin origin, and not a Hebrew or English name. The English letter “Y” correctly corresponds to the Hebrew letter Yod. Scholars know that the true name of Christ is not the name “Jesus,” and that the English name is more rendered as “Joshua,” which comes from the Aramaic name Yeshua, a name acknowledged by many scholars to be the name of Christ, and a common name in the regions of Judea at the time of the Messiah (Ilan, Tal, “Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity” Part I: Palestine 330 BCE-200 CE, p. 129). The name Yeshua at the time of the Savior was a name held by many living in the time of Christ and therefore was as common as the name “Mike” is in America today. The Jews would only forbid the name YAHSHUA precisely because as the apostle Paul informed the church, He has the name which is above every name (Philippians 2:9), which the Jews sought to hide.
YHWH, (יהוה transliterated in English as YHWH and represented in the Bible as “LORD”) is based on the four Hebrew consonant letters of God’s actual name, which God revealed to Moses as His personal name. God has a personal name, and all other so-called names are descriptive names or titles. This is an important distinction. The true name is, according to modern scholarship, based on the Hebrew pronunciation of the four Hebrew consonants of God’s name: Yod Hey Waw Hey. This name, or letters, has reached a consensus to transcribe as the name “Yahweh” (Alter, Robert, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Volume 3, 2018). The shortened form "YAH” appears in personal names and in phrases but with the Y changed by Greek transliteration to an I as found in English, such as “Jeremiah,” Isaiah, and yet “HalleluYAH”, which means “Praise YAH,” is there, except for the improper spelling of “hallelujah,” as it is, unfortunately, more likely to be spelled with a J (JAH), however inconsistent in that we do not spell YAHWEH with a J. Many find this to be trivial, however, it is one of many inconsistencies of the ways we change the revelations and commandments of God (Mark 7:6-9). The angel gave a commandment from God to Joseph, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name YAHSHUA, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21 Nazarean Version). The sacredness of the name YAH, as well as the Commandment against "taking the name ‘in vain’”, do not afford any transformation due to linguistics. The Jewish fears of Gentiles profaning the name led to the increasingly strict prohibitions on speaking or pronouncing HaShem (the Name) and in writing the name (HaShem), and consequently against our Savior’s true name YAHSHUA being widely known.
This name “YAH” was known very well to the Jews. Rabbinic sources suggest that, by the Second Temple period, the name of God was pronounced only once a year, by the high priest, on the Day of Atonement (The Cambridge History of Judaism: The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period, p. 779, William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz – 2006). This refusal by the Jews to speak the very name YAH is what led to the total obscurity of the revealed name of the Savior, YAHSHUA. When the Jews heard the name of the Savior, they would refuse to say “YAHSHUA” and would say “Yeshua” instead. When the Sanhedrin heard Peter say YAHSHUA, they told him in no uncertain terms not to preach in that name (Acts 4:17). The Sanhedrin did not forbid the name “Jesus” because this name would not exist until 1,600 years later! With all the suppression from the Jews and the antisemitic sentiment of Gentile converts to Christianity and the church more and more against most things Jewish, is it any wonder that the revealed name (YAHSHUA) given from Heaven would be considered a philological impossibility today?
Towards the end of the Babylonian captivity, the name YAH, or YAHAWAH was not to be spoken, not for superstitious reasons, but so that the Gentiles would have no knowledge of the name, and therefore could not profane the very name of God, which would be unbearable to the Jews for violating the Torah. During the Second Temple period, speaking the name of YAH in public became regarded as taboo and Jews instead began to substitute the name with “title names,” primarily Adonai (“Lord”) or HaShem (the Name) instead of God’s personal name, the very name revealed to Moses. The practice of hiding the true name of Adonai began when the Babylonians invaded the Kingdom of Judah in the year 605 BCE.
During the Roman occupation of Judea, following the Siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of its (2nd) Temple in the year 70 CE, the original pronunciation of the name was believed to have been forgotten entirely. This is not entirely true. His name is attested to in the Hebrew Scriptures, as God spoke to Moses, “HaYAH Ashar HaYAH” ("I AM Who I AM") meaning “YAH”, and this is the revealed name presented in Exodus 3:14-15, however, in some cases improperly appearing as “Eyeh asher Eyeh”, which is a late theological gloss invented at a time when the original meaning had been supposedly forgotten, or they sought to alter it to keep the name hidden. In addition to understanding more of Yahweh, He was originally described as one of the sons of EL in Deuteronomy 32:8–9, but this was removed by a later emendation to the text (Parke-Taylor, G. H, 1975,Yahweh: The Divine Name in the Bible). YAH is correct and Jeh (as in Jehovah), or Yeh (as in Yehovah) is incorrect. Also as demonstrated in Isaiah 44:6-8, the God of Israel is “the Rock,” which in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, identifies Christ, the Son of God, as this very Rock. The significance is, therefore, the New Testament reveals that the Father gave all things to the Son, who is our only God (YAH) and the Creator (Matthew 11:27; John 5:37-38; Colossians 1:13-20; Hebrews 1:8-10), and in Hebrews 1:10, the Father calls the Son by the name YHWH, or LORD, with the name which is above every name YAH. Humanity does not know the Father except by the revelation of the Son of God YAHSHUA (John 1:18). Until all things are fulfilled, Christ, the Son of God, has the right to claim that He is our only God (Isaiah 45:5). Christ is YAH, and Christ is salvation, behold the only name of salvation YAHSHUA. “And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). “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 4:12). Every tongue, language, is to know this one name, YAHSHUA (Philippians 2:11).
The Heavenly Person, YAHWEH, or better YAHAWAH, which means, “I AM ever-present,” is the same Person (Christ) who came to save His people (Matthew 1:21), and given the name YAHSHUA, which means, “I AM Salvation.” This is what the New Testament teaches: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father (EL), when He (YAHSHUA) puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He (YAHSHUA) must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For ‘He (EL, the Father) has put all things under His (YAHSHUA’S) feet’ But when He says ‘all things are put under Him,’ it is evident that He (the Father) who put all things under Him (YAHSHUA) is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him (YAHSHUA), then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him (the Father) who put all things under Him, that God (the Father) may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:20-28). The Father has nothing to do with sin but has put all things under the Son, who alone deals with the sin of the world. Because all things have been given to the Son, from the foundation of the world, the Son, the actual creator, has the right to claim to be our only God, and this remains in effect until all things are fulfilled and death is no more. The one speaking in Isaiah 44:6-8 was Christ alone, and He alone is the Shema of Israel (John 5:39-40; Deuteronomy 6:4).
“In the year 587 BCE, Jerusalem fell to the Neo-Babylonians (Semitic people originally of Chaldea, the Chaldeans, as opposed to the original Babylonians, who were of the Cushites), and the Temple was destroyed, and the leadership of the community along with the intelligentsia were deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. The next 50 years, under the Babylonian exile, were of pivotal importance to the history of Judea and the Jewish religion. In the writing of Isaiah, Yahweh was no longer seen as exclusive to the Jews but as extending the knowledge of His supreme sovereignty to all who would keep the sabbath and observe His commandments, which is a provision in the Torah. In the year 539 BCE Babylon fell to the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great, the exiles were given permission to return (although only a minority did so), and by the year 500 BCE the Temple was rebuilt. Towards the end of the Second Temple period, now within the Jewish culture speaking the name of Yahweh in public was regarded as taboo. When reading from the scriptures and upon seeing the divine name, Jews began “the practice” to “substitute the divine name with the Hebrew word Adonai meaning ‘Lord’” (Leech, Kenneth, 2002, Experiencing God: Theology as Spirituality). “The High Priest of the kingdom of Judah was permitted to speak the name once in the Temple during the Day of Atonement, but at no other time and in no other place. During the Hellenistic period, the scriptures were translated into Greek by the Jews of the Egyptian diaspora” (Cogan, Mordechai, 2001, "Into Exile: From the Assyrian Conquest of Israel to the Fall of Babylon", The Oxford History of the Biblical World. Oxford University Press). “Greek translations of the Hebrew scriptures rendered the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) as Adonai and in Greek: Kyrios, meaning ‘Lord’. After the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was forgotten” (Anderson, James S., 2015 Monotheism and Yahweh's Appropriation of Baal). Would not the assumption that the name of God was forgotten make it easier for the Jews to hide the name?
How well did the Jews truly know their Messiah? The early Israelites were believed by many scholars to have been originally polytheistic, or better defined as Monolatrians (Zvi D. Bar-Kochba, "Monolatrism or Monotheism in the Book of Exodus", p. 2, Chicago, 1996). which means that they ultimately believed in only one true God, who is supreme over all other existing gods (Deuteronomy 10:17). YAH (Hayah, the I AM) was and is the God they worshiped, YaHaWaH, and yet accepting the existence of many gods. Those who recognize the God of gods in the Bible are regarded as Monolatrians rather than strict Monotheists [Eakin, Frank E. Jr., 1971, The Religion and Culture of Israel. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. pp. 70 and 263). Without the premise of strict monotheism, Trinitarianism is in jeopardy, or superfluous. Israelites did not believe Yahweh was the only God in existence but instead believed He was the only supreme God more powerful than any other god, as demonstrated to Pharaoh when Aaron threw down his staff or rod, and it turned into a snake, and likewise, the Egyptians’ sorcerers did the same, but Aaron’s (rod) snake, ate the other snakes produced by the Egyptians, a demonstration of the supreme power of YAH over other gods (Exodus 7:8-13). “Post Babylonian invasion of Judea, in the national crisis of the exile, the followers of Yahweh went a step further and outright denied that the other deities aside from Yahweh even existed, thus marking the transition from Monolatrism to...Monotheism” (Betz, Arnold Gottfried, "Monotheism", Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible). The notion that Yahweh is "to be venerated as the Creator-God of all the earth" is elaborated byIsaiah, though the case for the theological doctrine again rests on Yahweh's power over other gods rather than independent monotheistic reasoning (Rosenberg, Roy A., 1966). "Yahweh Becomes King", Journal of Biblical Literature. The Society of Biblical Literature, 85 [3]: pp. 297–307). Suffice it to say, the Jews went through many changes due to the Babylonian invasion, from Monolatrians to strict Monotheists, and due to the rape and pillaging by Babylonian soldiers, the determination of ethnicity of a child being a Jew by a Jewish mother and not according to the father, and most important to our discussion, the hiding of the name of their God (YAH).
A Biblical Scholar’s Response to the Name YAHSHUA:
“‘Where can we prove the name of Jesus is correct to use in its English translation and pronunciation?’ The original Hebrew-Aramaic name of Jesus is Yeshua, which is short for Yehōshua (Joshua according to the English), just as Mike is short for Michael. The name Yeshua occurs 27 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, primarily referring to the high priest after the Babylonian exile, called both Yehōshua (see Zechariah 3:3) and, more frequently, Yeshua (see Ezra 3:2). So, Yeshua’s name was not unusual, in fact, as many as five different men had that name in the Old Testament. And this is how that name came to be “Jesus” in English, and simply stated, this is the etymological history of the name Jesus: Hebrew/Aramaic Yeshua became Greek Iēsous, then Latin Iesus, passing into German and then, ultimately, into English, as Jesus.
The Nazarean Respond:
According to the apostle Peter, “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 4:12). The apostle Peter never said, “Jesus.” “No other name,” but the name was given from heaven! What was the given name of the Savior? If there is no other name then how can we have so many names? Was it Jesus, Iesus, Iesous, Isa, Gesu, or even the Spanish pronunciation, “Hey-zeus”? Philologically, we know that the letter “J” did not exist officially in the English alphabet until the 17thcentury. Therefore, the letter “J” and the sound of “J” are not in our Lord and Savior’s revealed name. In truth, the letter “J” does not belong in His name. This makes the name Jesus incorrect.
In the English Bible of 1611, the name appears as “Iesus.” Can we change the name of our Savior when Scripture tells us there is only one name? The acknowledgment of the biblical scholar for the name Yehoshua is very interesting. Yehoshua has a supposed meaning in Hebrew and that is “YAHSaves,” however, Yeh is not YAH, and therefore the right way to pronounce this name and write it is: “YAHOSHUA.” It was YAHOSHUA that was shortened in the Bible from Yahoshua (see Zechariah 3:3) to YAHSHUA (see Ezra 3:2). Since the Jews refrained from expressing the name of God (YAH), the Aramaic name Yeshua became popular, as after the Babylonian invasion, names that had YAH were frowned upon, such as Isayah (Isaiah), or Jeremyah (Jeremiah). It is well noted that the name Jesus has nothing in common with the name Yeshua, except the vowel of ‘e’. Etymologically, Iesous from the Greek language is a transliteration of Yeshua, a literal transformation into an entirely different name and pronunciation. The name Yeshua should have never been transliterated. According to the New Testament, there is only one name by which we must be saved, as by the name YAHOSHUA. According to the revealed name of the Savior, YAHSHUA should have never been changed to Yeshua, which lacks the essential name of God, YAH. Because Yahoshua is His true name shortened to YAHSHUA there is now a strong precedent for the name YAHSHUA according to the Bible, and God meant to establish the name of salvation in Hebrew, therefore, the apostle Paul, who spoke many languages, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, however, when he encountered the Savior on the road to Damascus, Paul said, “I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (see Acts 26). The Savior told the apostle His name in Hebrew, so what did He say? Since in truth, His formal name is YAHOSHUA, and we agree that it was shortened, as by all indications, the angel told Joseph, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name YAHSHUA, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). This is a commandment, “You shall call His name YAHSHUA.” YAHSHUA, not Yeshua or Jesus, which do not have the name which is above every name (YAH), and the shua, which means salvation, therefore, as YAH is I AM, and shua is salvation, the meaning of YAHSHUA is “I AM Salvation,” for He will save His people. The name YAH is the name which is above every name, and the apostle Paul heard the name which is above every name in Hebrew, for this is what he wrote: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of YAHSHUA every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that YAHSHUA the Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). This means every language is to know this name, YAHSHUA, the only name for our salvation, as His name is revealed from Heaven.
The Jews hid the name YAH, and so we have Yeshua, a name devoid of the name YAH, and the Christians reject the name YAHSHUA due to their traditions.
Why then do some people refer to Jesus as Yahshua?
The biblical Scholar’s response:
There is absolutely no support for this pronunciation—none at all—and I say this as someone holding a Ph.D. in Semitic languages. My educated guess is that some zealous but linguistically ignorant people thought that Yahweh’s name must have been a more overt part of our Savior’s name, hence YAHshua rather than Yeshua—but again, there is no support of any kind for this theory. The Hebrew Bible has yeshu‘a; when the Septuagint authors rendered this name in Greek, they rendered it as Іησους (Iesous, with no hint of YAH at the beginning of the name); and the same can be said of the Peshitta translators when they rendered Yeshua’s name into Syriac (part of the Aramaic language family). All this is consistent and clear: The original form of the name Jesus is Yeshua, and there is no such name as Yahshua.
According to the late A. B. Traina in his Holy Name Bible, “The name of the Son, Yahshua, has been substituted by Jesus, Iesus, and Ea-Zeus (Healing Zeus).” There is no such name as Yahshua (as we have just explained). The response to this statement is quite simple: We know where the name Iesous came from the Jewish Septuagint! In other words, this was not some later, pagan corruption of the Savior’s name; rather, it was the natural Greek way of rendering the Hebrew/Aramaic name Yeshua at least two centuries before His birth, and it is the form of the name found in more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. This is saying something! The name Iesous, which is also found in Greek writings, in reference to the Savior, outside the New Testament and dating to that same general time frame. So, to every English-speaking believer I say: Do not be ashamed to use the name JESUS! That is the proper way to say his name in English—just as Michael is the correct English way to say the Hebrew name mi-kha-el and Moses is the correct English way to say the Hebrew name mo-sheh. And for those who want to relate to our Messiah’s Jewishness, then refer to Him by His original name Yeshua, and not Yahshuaremembering that the power of the name is not in its pronunciation but in the person to whom it refers, our Lord and Redeemer and King.
The Nazarean Response:
The Scholar’s answer to the question: “Why then do some people refer to Jesus as Yahshua?” followedwith “There is absolutely no support for this pronunciation—none at all...” is absolutely false. I would like to see him discredit the name YAHWEH as he seeks to discredit the true name of YAHSHUA! He acknowledged the name Yehoshua, which should be YAHOSHUA, and he acknowledged that the name was shortened as found in the word of God. The Jews have done a really excellent job in their attempts to hide the name “YAH.” And this has been a great stumbling block for the Scholar, as there is little but the Bible to reestablish the true name of the Savior. This is how the Bible establishes the name of YAH:
Moses asked for God’s name, and so it is written: “Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.’” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations’” (Exodus 3:13-15). The LORD said, “HaYAH Ashar HaYAH,” which translated to “I AM Who I AM.” “I AM” means “YAH.” This is where we get the expression of “Halleluyah,” which means: “Praise YAH.” YAHSHUA identified Himself as YAH (I AM) in John 8:58.The prophets identify His essential name YAH as our salvation as per the Hebrew Scriptures (OT).
“Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation’” (Isaiah 12:2 NKJV).
“Sing to God, sing praises to His name;
Extol Him who rides on the clouds,
By His name Yah,
And rejoice before Him” (Psalm 68:4 NKJV).
The Scholar states: “My educated guess is that some zealous but linguistically ignorant people thought that Yahweh’s name must have been a more overt part of our Savior’s name, hence YAHshua rather than Yeshua—but again, there is no support of any kind for this theory.” Is the Scholar linguistically ignorant of the linguistic evolution of our Savior’s name? He spoke the name YAHWEH, but would he spell this name YEHWEH? YAH is the name which is above every name. Is the scholar ignorant of the name YAH? Does he understand the meaning of “Halleluyah”? What name is greater than the revealed name of God given to Moses? The apostle Paul heard the name YAH, as he stated the Savior has the name which is above every name and he acknowledged as much (Philippians 2:9). “And it shall come to pass thatwhoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). Linguistics is of man, and philology is of man, but the truth is of the Lord, Halleluyah, Praise YAH, Praise YAHSHUA!
The Scholar said, “The Hebrew Bible has yeshu‘a; when the Septuagint authors rendered this name in Greek, they rendered it as Іησους (Iesous, with no hint of YAH at the beginning of the name).” This response by the Scholar is very deceptive. No one will find YAH in any Greek text translated by the Jews. The Septuagint is the Hebrew Scriptures translated by the Jews into the Greek language. For example, “YAHWEH,” not found in the Septuagint. YAH is not found in the Septuagint because the Jews deliberately hide the name of God. Take the four letters of God’s name, not found in the Septuagint, not even Yod Hey Waw Hey with the equivalent Greek letters not found in the Septuagint. YHWH in the Hebrew Scriptures is almost on every page, but in the Greek Septuagint, nowhere to be found. In most English Bibles, which unknowingly continued the Jewish practice of hiding the name, therefore, YHWH is represented as LORD, as a result, few know about the Tetragrammaton. Because the disciples taught in the name of YAHSHUA, the Jews, who painstakingly, sought to hide the name of God, namely YAH, objected to the name YAHSHUA (Acts 4:17). Jesus is not the revealed name of God, and if Jesus is the proper way to say it in English, what of Iesus, Iesous, or Yeshua? Are all these names proper? The bottom line is that the Bible says there is no other name and every tongue, and language, is to know this one name (Philippians 2:11), but the Scholar says they are all proper. Now we know something about what the Lord dealt with when dealing with the Pharisees (scholars of the time of Christ), who hold to the traditions, and commandments, of men, and not of God. As YAHSHUA said to them, for:
“He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites,
as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with theirlips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
For laying aside the commandment of God,
you hold the tradition of men...”
He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God,
that you may keep your tradition” (Mark 7:6-9).
In truth Joseph, the husband of Mary the mother of YAHSHUA was commanded to name the child “YAHSHUA.” “…After His mother, Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name YAHSHUA, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:18-21).
Disclaimer:
The Nazarean Ministry of YAHSHUA is working to bring glory to Christ’s revealed name, the only name by which we must be saved. To witness to the true and only name of salvation according to the Scriptures is the mission. The essence of the gospel is found in John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” We are not saying that because you did not know of the true name of salvation (YAHSHUA), as you were in ignorance of the name, you stand condemned. YAHSHUA said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). But the problem comes when the true name of salvation is revealed to one, and that one rejects the name and consequently does not believe in the true name of salvation. It is then that one who stands condemned according to the word of God. God does not accept falseness or substitute names, as names not revealed by Him are to be rejected. That is why this Ministry takes to preaching in order that the knowledge of the revealed name of salvation may be taken seriously, but the naysayers take the name of YAHSHUA as trivial, and thereby reject the name of salvation for a substitute name never revealed by God. Therefore, this is the essence of the gospel and a warning contained in the New Testament, as expressed in John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
In YAHSHUA’S name, Halleluyah, Praise YAH, Praise YAHSHUA!
