YAHSHUA VS. YAHOSHUA

Presented Steve Marlowe, Evangelist

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THE MAZORETES

(Hebrew Scholars of 800 AD)

In the days before printing presses, everything had to be copied by hand by scribes. The Hebrew language of the Old Testament was written without vowels, and essentially only had one vowel (called qamets with an ‘a’ sound). This was not a problem as long as everyone was thoroughly familiar with the language. However, with the passage of time, many Jews did not maintain a thorough familiarity with the original Hebrew. Depending on where the Jews lived in the Roman Empire, many influences help alter the Hebrew language.

This started as far back as 535 BC, as some stayed in Babylon after the exile.

Others were being Hellenize—raised in the Greek language and culture from 330 BC where speaking Hebrew with variants. Some, of course, were in Palestine, but even there Hebrew was not always spoken, as most spoke Aramaic, which eventually became the language of the common Jews of Judea, Galilee, and other regions, although Hebrew was spoken in the Temple and at synagogues.

In the first century AD, there was an effort to standardize the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, taking into account all of the manuscripts and variants from across the Roman Empire. Once a reading was agreed upon, the variants were removed, and the scribes began their meticulous work to make exact copies. A group of scribes called the Tannaim produced extensive guidelines for producing accurate copies. Around AD 200, another group called the Amoraim (“expositors”) began preserving and explaining the text, producing the Talmud,which is anti-Crhistian. There were actually two groups of Talmudic scholars, one centered in Babylon and another in Palestine, and their work produced the Babylonian Talmud and the Palestinian Talmud. The Talmud is largely of the traditions of men.

The Masoretes were the final group of scribes who came together to help preserve the biblical text.

The Masoretes’ primary work, which lasted from about AD 500 to 900, was meticulously copying the text and adding vowels so that pronunciation (and in some cases meaning) would be preserved. The Masoretes did not want to add new letters to the text itself,

so they added vowels as “points,” which were combinations of dots and dashes above and below the consonants, this was done so that the reader would be able to easily tell the difference between the consonants of the original text and the points that had been added. Because of the Masoretes’ reputation for accuracy, “the Masoretic Text” came to prominence and was generally accepted by Jewish readers as the most accurate. The Masoretes also added additional material, including some variant readings and other explanatory notes. This material is called the Masorah.

The Masoretic Text is the primary foundation of most of today’s Bible translations for today. Although the final version of the Masorah is only about 1,000 years old, it preserves tradition and scholarship which is much older. Since the vowel system was completed in 800 AD, it would be silly to argue over the spelling of YAHSHUA as opposed to YAHOSHUA, when the ‘o’ vowel may not have even been considered until later centuries. YAHSHUA is closely related to Yeshua, a common Aramaic in the time of Christ, but without the name which is above every name, namely “YAH.”

Your Brother in Christ,

Steve Marlowe