The Savior's Name
By Voy Wilks
6/25/87What is the proper way to spell the Savior's name? There are several spellings, and there may be more than one proper way to spell the Messiah's name.This brief study is for the purpose of discussing only three of these:
Yehshua,
Yahshua, and
Yahoshua. Let us first concider the last two. Either spelling is probably acceptable, although most of us use the shorter form
Yahshua.The is true of
The Sacred Scriptures - Bethel Edition and
The Holy Name Bible.The name is a combination of two names:
Yah (the short form of Yahweh) and
Hosea (meaning, salvation). This would seem to indicate the spelling of the Messiah's name should be
Yahoshua. Yet the translators tell us that the Savior's name is the same name as
Joshua, the friend of Moses.These same translators persistently use the short form,
Joshua (Hebrew, Yahshua).
What about the spelling
Yehshua? Should the second letter be an
E or and
A? There is evidence that the
e is wrong and the
a is right. The Father's name is spelled with and
a - Y
AHweh. Language scholrs seem to agree on this.Th Savior's name is a combiation of the Father's name (Yah) and the name
Hosea. This indicates the first portion of the Son's name should be spelled exactly as the first portion of the Father's name:
Yah-shua, or
Yah-oshua. The short form of the Sacred Name was included in many Hebrew names. Examples:
Ahaz
iah (Hebrew = Ahaz
yah) means, Yahweh possesses.
Ab
ia, or Ab
iah (Hebrew = Abhi
yah) means, Yahweh is father.
Iphed
iah (Hebrew = Yiphed
yah) means, Yahweh is freeing.
Jeremiah (Hebrew = Yirme
yah or Yirme
yahu) means, Yahweh is high.
Hoba
iah (Hebrew = Hobha
yah) means,
whom Yahweh hides, i.e. "protects."
Hodaviah (Hebrew + Hodhawyah) means, majesty of Yahweh.
Hezekiah (Hebrew = Hezkiyah, or Hezikyahu) means, Yahweh is strength.
Through the centuries the Hebrew people developed a taboo against pronouncing the Father's name. Even so, they still wished to use these ancient and beloved names which had in them the short form of the Sacred Name, Yah. They did this by changing the A in (Yah) to an E. This is, evidently, the reason for spelling, Jeshua, or Jehshua (with an E). As the centuries passed, the spelling became more popular as the taboo about The Name became stronger. This can be noted in Scripture. Before the senenty years spent in Babylon, there seems to be only two men mentioned in Scripture with the spelling Jeshua (1Chr. 24:11; 2Chr. 31:15). During and after the captivity there were many with this spelling. But someone asks,
"What about the many biblical names that start with the short form of the Sacred Name, Jeh (Hebrew, Yeh), such as these which appear in the following list:
Jehoash, means Yahweh supports.
Jehohanan, means Yahweh is gracious.
Jehoiada, means Yahweh knows.
Jehonadab, means Yahweh is liberal.
Jehoshaphat, means Yahweh is judge.
In ancient times the Hebrew alphabet did not have the letter J, nor does it have that letter today. The English alphabet did not have the letter J until the 15th century. It is interesting to note that the first edition of the King James version did not often employ the letter J in the text of the Scriptures. The Hebrew letter Y was, in the original Scriptures, used instead of the letter J in the J names. (Please see the booklet, The Missing "J", by Yahweh's Assemby In Messiah, Rt. 1, Box 364, Rocheport, MO 65279).
What about the E in the Jeh names in the Scriptures? In the Middle Ages the Hebrew language was being slowly replaced by other languages. Hebrew scholars (called Masoretes), feared that the Hebrew would become a "lost" language which their people would be unable to read, added to the text of the Scriptures the vowels points. Before that time, the Hebrew language was written with consonants only; the vowels being understood, but not written. Long before this, the Taboo against pronouncing The Name had become compelling. The result? In vowel pointing the Scriptures, the Masoretes evidently pointed the second letter in the J names (Yehoshaphat) to indicate the letter E. This was for the express purpose of preventing the pronunciation of The Name, Yah. * When the Scriptures were first translated into the English language, the translators evidently did not realize these changes had been made. Also, it seems they only translated the Scriptures. They made no effort to edit them. Later English translators followed the lead of the first.
A reasonable question is, "If this is true, why did the Masoretes change the vowel (A to E) in Yehoshaphat but retain the vowel A in HezekyAh"? I answer with a question. Why did the Ancient Scribes (the Sopherim) replace the name Yahweh with the title Adonai 134 times in the Scriptures, but allowed the name Yahweh to remain, undisturbed, almost 7,000 times? Perhaps there is not a good reson for this action. However, it must have been that the Masoretes felt it was permissible to end a name with YAH, but that it was improper to allow the name Yah to remain unaltered at the beginning of a name. Anson F. Rainy speaks of a similar change in Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1985, page 78, 79. He is a professor in the Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
In view of the above information, it seems clear that it is improper to spell the Savior's name YEHshua. The first portion of his name should be the same as the Father's Name - Yahshua.
Yours in His sevices,
Voy Wilks
* For a similar diclosure, please [see] the [article], "The Ghost Word Jehovah."
Articles By Voy Wilks
Webmaster's Underlined Emphasis Source Note: Ye·shu·a (Jesus)-- Variant of "Y'hoshua" (Joshua; see below). In the Tanakh nine
persons and a city have the name Yeshua, usually transliterated as "Jeshua" or
"Jeshuah". In the Septuagint and the New Testament the name was brought over into
Greek as Iesous and thence into English as "Jesus". It means "Y-H-V-H saves"(Mt 1:21)
and is also the masculine form of yeshu'ah ("saavatton"f. (1)The Messiah of Israel,
Yeshua from Natzeret. In modern Hebrew Yeshua's name is pronounced and written
"Yeshu", which may have been the ancient pronunciation in the Galil. However,
reflecting two thousand years of conflict between the Church and the Synagogue, it is
also an acronym for Yimach sh'mo v'zikhrono ("May his name and memory be blotted
out"). Mt 1:1+. (2)A Messianic Jew in Rome, "Yeshua, the one called Justus." Co 4:11.
SOURCE:
[PDF] Jewish Glossary
Webmaster's Additional Comment:
No one knows exactly how the Name of our Heavenly Father and Creator's Name was pronounced to the prophets of old. The exact pronunciation of the name of the Messiah the son of Yahweh is also not known. But it is a very well known fact among scholars of the Hebrew language that our Heavenly Father and Creator's Name was most certainly not pronounced 'Jehovah' and the name of the Messiah was most certainly not pronounced 'Jesus'.
Actually, the name 'Jesus' does not praise the Name of our Heavenly Father and Creator since the name "'Jesus' is a translation and not a transliteration or transcription of his given name. It is in fact an attempted transliteration or transcription of the name YEshua. The name YEshua simply means 'he is redeemer' which does not signify Yahweh our Heavenly Father and Creator as our Supreme Redeemer. The Name Yahshua (Joshua - eg. A.K.J.V.) which is the same name of the prophet Yahshua Ben Nun and means 'Yahweh is Redeemer'. This is why the apostles and disciples of Yahshua were told not to speak the name Yahshua anymore by the religious authorities in their time period. They did not obey them but continued proclaiming the name Yahshua the only name given among men whereby we must be redeeemed. Yahshua said that he had come in the Name Yahweh and that his people recieved him not. The fact is, the name Jesus in Hebrew has no meaning whatsoever and is in fact a Latino name which simply means 'saviour' and is pronounced heh-SOOS'. By the way, even the Jehovah's Witnesses play "The Pronounciation Game" since they pronounce our Heavenly Father and Creator's Name by the erroneous name 'Jehovah'.
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