THE HEBREW ORIGIN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (PT.1)

Presented by Evangelist Steve Marlowe

PART I

The Nazarean Ministry of YAHSHUA accepts and holds to both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. We generally hold to the New King James Version, which does not preclude the use of other Versions. We especially hold to the centrality of Christ in all things and to the revealed name of the Savior “YAHSHUA,” as according to the testimony of the apostle Peter, who stated that there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord YAHSHUA, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17). God revealed the Savior’s name in Hebrew, as He, the Messiah, revealed His name to Saul in Hebrew, for he testifies to king Agrippa, “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of YAHSHUA of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am YAHSHUA, whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 26:9-15). The names of Jesus, Iesus, Iesous, or Hey’zeus are not recognized because God never revealed them to us.

The name of Jesus has only existed in its present form since the 17th century. The name Jesus came about through linguistic evolution caused by man, and not authorized by God. Whereby this name, Jesus, replaced the 1611 English Bible name “Iesus,” and Iesus comes from the Greek name of Iesous, and therefore none of these names could possibly be the one true name revealed from God, and this, therefore, precludes the name Jesus as the true name of the Savior revealed from Heaven that the apostle Peter testified about. Historians know that the Savior was never known in His lifetime as Jesus, as the often-quoted historian Ernest Renan acknowledges that the Savior was never called Jesus by those who knew Him (The Life of Jesus, p, 90). We do not accept the substitute names provided by the linguistics of mankind, but rather hold to the revealed name of the Savior, YAHSHUA!

We have been commanded by our Savior and Lord YAHSHUA to: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). Through diligent seeking and asking, the true name of the Savior can be found and restored in the lives of His people. Since we know of certainty of the revealed name of the Lord YAHSHUA, we can see why the Gospel has testified to the necessity of knowing the revealed name of YAHSHUA. It is with eyes open to the truth of the Savior’s name that we read the following, “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). All languages are to conform and to maintain the revealed name of the Savior.

What is the name which is above every name? “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 (HAYAH ASHAR HAYAH).’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM (YAH) has sent me to you.’ ‘Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord (YAH) 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 name above every name is YAH! The Savior YAHSHUA told the people that He was YAH. In truth, “YAHSHUA said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58).

“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).

The Gospel warns us not to reject the name, for if we do, we will remain under condemnation: “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” (John 3:16-18).

Examining all evidence it is apparent that the New Testament was inspired in Hebrew, and later translated into the Greek language. Most writers of the New Testament were Jews, as our Lord YAHSHUA has stated, “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jew” (John 4:22). Despite the New Testament written in the Greek language, “the thoughts and idioms are Hebrew” (Companion Bible, appendix 94). The New Testament is undeniably Hebrew in grammar, idiom, and thinking. The question is, does arguing for a Greek-based New Testament bring you closer to the truth, or take one further from it, after all the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. Should we hold to Hellenistic thought, practice, and understanding? Not according to the apostle Paul, who stated, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, YAHSHUA the Messiah Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). In regards to the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, YAHSHUA said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). The apostle Paul speaking of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, stated, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The name of salvation (YAHSHUA) is to remain the same in all languages (Philippians 2:11). Bottom-line there are no replacements for the Hebrew name of YAHSHUA.

Why did the translators change the name of the Savior? Clearly, the New Testament forbids any changes to the one name revealed from Heaven, namely YAHSHUA, from being changed. And yet these translators maintained quite a few Hebraic/Aramaic names and expressions in the New Testament. The Savior is quoted on the cross as saying, “Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani” [“My God, My God why have You forsaken Me”]. The examples are many, Abba [Father], Messiah [Anointed one], Rabbi [teacher]; also, Hosanna [Save, we beseech], Amen [let it be so], talitha cumi [little girl], ephphatha [be opened], corban [a dedicated gift], Sabbath, and Mammon [riches], Satan [Adversary], Raca [fool], Maranatha [LORD come], Passover, Emmanuel [El, or God, with us]. The Gospel According to Matthew was originally written in Hebrew (see Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History 3:39; and Irenaeus’ Against Heresies 3:1; Epiphanius’ Panarion 29:9:4; Jerome’s Lives of Illustrious Men 3).

Jews from the time of the Maccabees to the time of the Roman’s occupying the Jewish nation were not Greek speaking. Flavius Josephus was a 1st-century Jewish historian (37 – 100 AD), admitted that he could not speak Greek fluently and that the Jews frowned on any Jew that did. He writes, “I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understanding the elements of the Greek language although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own language, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness: for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of nations” (Antiquities, 20:11:2). From what we have learned, why would the apostles want to write originally in the Greek language?

It is believed today that Josephus did in fact write about YAHSHUA, “As scholars have thought about this over the years, the picture has become clearer. Especially helpful is a passage of a 10th century Arabic manuscript of Josephus that was cited by historian Schlomo Pines of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1972, quoting Josephus:

‘At this time there was a wise man who was called YAHSHUA. And his conduct was good, and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders’ (Antiquities 18:63-64, 10th Century Arabic Text).

A reading like this is very likely close to the original Josephus penned.

The apostle Paul (Heb. “Shaul”) is considered by many to have been a Hellenist Jew from Tarsus who wrote his letters to Greek-speaking churches in Asia Minor, Rome, and Greece, however, this is simply not true, although he was born in Tarsus (located in modern-day Turkey), he was foremost a Pharisee, which is a Jewish sect very much opposed to Hellenization. He was of the Tribe of Benjamin. He writes in Philippians 3:5, “...circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee...” The expression “Hebrew of Hebrews,” means in terms of “Language, attitudes, and lifestyle.” Paul was sent to Judea at a young age, and he was educated by Gamaliel, a prestigious teacher in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3). On missionary journeys, the apostle Paul would first speak to the Jews. “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Messiah had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This YAHSHUA whom I preach to you is the Messiah.’ And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas” (Acts 17:1-4). When the apostle Paul wrote his epistles to the churches, it was up to the Christian Jews to translate and teach them to the Greek-speaking Corinthian church, as he spoke at times specifically to the Christian Jews, as shown here, “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).  And so it was that the converted Jews in these Greco-Roman communities where the Christian Church was established would receive the letters from the apostle Paul and then teach the Gentles among them.

Paul spent most of his youth and young adulthood in Jerusalem. The language of the Temple and the synagogues at this time was Hebrew, not Greek. He, upon arrival, would typically go to the synagogue in town and then the church (Acts 13:14; 14:1; 17:1-17; 18:4-19; 19:8). Paul followed this directive, as he wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16).  The apostle Paul was no champion for a gentile cause. He was a champion of a Hebrew Messiah and the Scriptures given to his people Israel, as he expressed, “But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets” (Acts 24:14). Paul was identified as a Nazarean by the religious leaders in Jerusalem, and they said, “For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazareans (Acts 24:5).

The question is which culture, world view, should prevail among the followers of Christ? Is it a Greek-speaking Gentile-Hellenistic heritage? Or the birthright of those grafted into the promise given to Israel by which the Gentile receives the Gospel by faith. Paul made it clear that his heart’s desire is for his people, “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is overall, the eternally blessed God. Amen” (Romans 9:1-5). The name of the Savior (YAHSHUA) was revealed in Hebrew from the mouth of God, but the name of Jesus is of the tradition of men, an interpolation inserted into the original Scriptures.

Now to those who receive this truth, “May the Lord YAHSHUA bless you and keep you; and the Lord YAHSHUA make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you, and the Lord YAHSHUA lift up His countenance upon you, and give you shalom. So they shall put My name upon them, and I will bless them.”  (based on Numbers 6:24-27).