Through out the bible we see that god places alot of importance in what someone is named, which name to use, what name is in our forehead or on our mind, which name to pray to and in and what name to use or call upon to be saved.
This is what I want to focus on right now.
Romans 10 (Complete Jewish Bible):
12 That means that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - ADONAI is the same for everyone, rich toward everyone who calls on him, 13 since everyone who calls on the name of ADONAI will be delivered.
Romans 10:13 (New International Version):
13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."[a]
Footnotes:
a.Romans 10:13 Joel 2:32
NAME:
ADONAI:
Definitions of ADONAI on the Web:
- In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title. It represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relation of ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adonai
•YHWH, the ineffable name of God, is read as Adonai ("My Lord") or as Elohim. The word Adonai is normally used only in prayer, else the speaker ...
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Adonai
•Hebrew word meaning "Lord."
www.iamuniversity.ch/moodle/mod/glossary/view.php
•adonai (Hebrew) (from 'adon lord)
www.experiencefestival.com/power_of_prayer_dictionary
•Hebrew for "the Lord;" Adonai Elohim is a favorite title for God in the Elohist author of the Pentateuch
www.jcu.edu/Bible/BibleIntroReadings/Glossary.htm
•A Hebrew word translated “lord,” that can be used to refer to a person or for the divine name. Ancient Hebrew practice was not to pronounce the sacred name of God (YHWH), but instead to substitute 'Adonai. (See “YHWH”).
www.philosophy-religion.org/bible/glossary_new-interpreters-bible.htm
•Literally, "my Lord". A word the Hebrew Bible uses to refer to God. When in large and small capital letters, it represents the ...
www.alifeinchrist.com/glossary_of_terms_and_abbreviations.html
•A Hebrew word signifying "the Lord," and used by the Hebrews when speaking or writing of Jehovah, the awful and ineffable name of the ...
www.theoccultdictionary.info/a.html
•One of the names for God found in the OT; it is translated "Lord." Heb: "O Lord, I have never been eloquent" (Exod. 4:10). -> Yahweh.
search.barnesandnoble.com/Students-Dictionary-for-Biblical-and-Theological-Studies/F-B-Huey/e/9780310459514
•(leader of LA "locusts")
www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Marvel-2099
Now the idea is to be saved from our sin....right?
And there is alot that has been done for us to make that possible. and we are told to do some certain things to be saved like;
John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
John 3:35-36 (in Context) John 3 (Whole Chapter)
John 5:25
I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
John 5:24-26 (in Context) John 5 (Whole Chapter)
John 6:27
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
John 6:26-28 (in Context) John 6 (Whole Chapter)
John 11:4
When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
John 11:3-5 (in Context) John 11 (Whole Chapter)
John 13:32
If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
John 13:31-33 (in Context) John 13 (Whole Chapter)
Acts 2:17
" 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Acts 2:16-18 (in Context) Acts 2 (Whole Chapter)
Romans 9:26
and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "
Romans 9:25-27 (in Context) Romans 9 (Whole Chapter)
1 Corinthians 15:28
When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:27-29 (in Context) 1 Corinthians 15 (Whole Chapter)
Hebrews 1:5
For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father " ? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son" ?
Hebrews 1:4-6 (in Context) Hebrews 1 (Whole Chapter)
Hebrews 1:8
But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
Hebrews 1:7-9 (in Context) Hebrews 1 (Whole Chapter)
2 John 1:3
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love.
2 John 1:2-4 (in Context) 2 John 1 (Whole Chapter)
Revelation 12:5
She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
Revelation 12:4-6 (in Context) Revelation 12 (Whole Chapter)
Revelation 21:7
He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Revelation 21:6-8 (in Context) Revelation 21 (Whole Chapter)
Now what is the name of the Son of GOD?
Over the last ten years that the Power Latent In Man SHOW has been on cable, we have done 12 shows on various aspects of the Sacred and Holy Name of our Heavenly Father and His Son. The Power Latent In Man SHOW was one of the first shows (beginning in December 1990, on Chicago Access cable) to introduce the true and sacred name Yahweh and His Son Yahshua and uses them on a regular basis. The PLIM REPORT has also published over 6 articles on the true name and they are on the public side of our website. See http://www.plim.org/truename.html.
Today many Christians and others assume that the Greek name Jesus was the original name of the Savior who was Hebrew. If one does the research, one finds out that it is impossible for the Savior’s name to be Jesus.
What is the intent of this article?
The intent of this article is to investigate the origin of the Greek name Jesus and its erroneous transliteration of the Hebrew name of our Savior Yahshua. Our Saviour’s Name in Hebrew is (read from right to left). The English name “Jesus,” which later employed the letter “J,” is a derivation from Greek “Iesous” and the Latin “Iesus” version.
This name “Jesus” commonly used in Christianity today did not exist and would not be spelled with the letter “J” until about 500 years ago. This article will also discuss the grammatical errors involved in the transliteration of Yahshua into Greek and Latin, which radically changed the form of Yahshua’s name.
Another error that will be discussed in this article is that “Yahshua’s name was not known to most translators at the time. Jewish Masoretic priests, around the 6th century A.D., created the name Jesus by changing the vowel point from the letter “a” to “e” in the Tetragrammaton YHWH. This resulted in changing the pronunciation from Yah to Yeh.
The priests continued the tradition, which was in effect at the time of the Messiah, of teaching the people that the name “Yahweh” was too sacred to pronounce, and to speak this name was blasphemy and punishable by death. Most people and lower level priests were initially taught to say “Adonai” when they saw the name “Yahweh” or the tetragrammaton written.
PLIM recommends a number of excellent websites that provide extensive research on the name. (Note: This is not an endorsement of their dogma.) The Assembly of Yahweh has an excellent article that deals with the letter J called “THE MISSING J” http://www.yaim.org/missingJ.htm. There is also another website with an article entitled “Our Saviour’s Name” http://www.iahushua.com/ST-RP/name.htm and see http://www.yahweh.org.
Does the Letter “J” exist in Hebrew, Latin or Greek?
The answer to this question is no. In fact, there was no letter ‘J’ in any language prior to the 14th century in England. The letter did not become widely used until the 17th century.
The Encyclopedia Americana contains the following quote on the J: “The form of ‘J’ was unknown in any alphabet until the 14th century. Either symbol (J,I) used initially generally had the consonantal sound of Y as in year. Gradually, the two symbols (J,l) were differentiated, the J usually acquiring consonantal force and thus becoming regarded as a consonant, and the I becoming a vowel.
It was not until 1630 that the differentiation became general in England.” Note in the original 1611 version of the King James Version of the Bible there was no “J” letter in this Bible for because it did not exist. James was spelled Iames. Jesus was spelled Iesous.
In the Hebrew alphabet there is no J letter or sound and it is shown follow: Read form right to left.”
The Greek alphabet shows that there is no letter J or sound.
Now the Oxford English Dictionary shows the derivation of the name “Jesus” as follow: “In ancient Latin Jesus is spelled Iesus, in ancient Greek (I-ee-sous), ad. late Heb. or Aramaic yeshua, Jeshua, for the earlier y’hoshua, Jehoshua or Joshua (explained as ‘Jah (or Jahveh) is salvation’: cf. y’shuah ‘salvation, deliverance’, and Matt. 1.21”
Here we see that in the ancient Latin and Greek languages “Jesus” was spelled with the letter “I” for there was no “J” in either of these languages. In Hebrew we know there is no J letter. So Jesus was originally spelled Yeshua, and y’hoshua. Note: Here the Messiah’s name was spelled in Hebrew two different ways due to the tradition of the Masoretic priests. They did not want to pronounce the sacred part of Yahweh’s name, so they changed the ‘Yah, to ‘Yeh, which will be discussed later in this article.
Webster’s New World Dictionary confirms the Oxford World Dictionary, but it shows the derivation of “Jesus” correctly transliterated in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew using the letters “I” and “Y,” showing that there was no J used in these original languages when the scriptures were translated into them.
“In Late Latin Jesus was original spelled Iesus; In Greek it was spelled Ièsous; and in ancient Hebrew spelled “yÈshÙa,” which is a contraction of yehÖshÙa (Joshua), help of Jehovah < yÀh, Jehovah + hÖshïa, to help.”
Did the angels speak in Hebrew?
In the so-called New Testament of the Bible there were two instances where an angel and the spirit form of the Messiah appeared to humans and spoke to them in Hebrew. First, Gabriel spoke to Mary regarding her unborn son. Since Mary was Hebrew of the tribe of Judah (Lk. 1:27), Gabriel had to communicate to her in the Hebrew tongue, her native language, not Chinese or Greek, for she would not have been able to understand him. “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with Elohim (God). And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS (Luke 1:30-31).” As shown in the Hebrew alphabet, there is no J in Hebrew (see alphabet on p. 8). So the question is what did the angel Gabriel say that the baby would be named? It was impossible for him to say Jesus because Jesus is Greek for Yahshua.
In another instance, the Messiah appeared in spirit form and in a vision, to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-7) and spoke in Hebrew. Paul described what happened. “And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (Acts 26:14).”
Paul asked this spirit, “Who art thou, Lord (Acts 26:15)?” The Messiah replied, “I am Jesus [in the King James Bible and most English Bibles] whom thou persecutest.”
One thing is clear. The Messiah knows His name and as was stated and repeated throughout this article it is impossible for him to have said Jesus as it is translated since Yahshua spoke to Paul in the Hebrew tongue.
Pontius Pilate wrote the name of the Messiah in Greek, Hebrew and Latin above His head on the cross when the Messiah was crucified. Luke wrote the following: “… an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS (Lk 23:38-39).”
Traditionally, most crucifixes (especially Roman Catholic) have the Latin initials of the Messiah as follows “INRI,” which means “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex, Iudaeorum”. [Note: there is no letter J (for it did not exist at this time.) This is translated into English and means “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”]
The French philosopher, historian, and religious scholar Ernest Renan stated in his book, The Life of Jesus, that the Savior was never called Jesus in His lifetime. Renan based his conclusion on his archaeological trips to the Holy Land in searching for inspiration and materials on the Savior.
What is the derivation of the name “Jesus”?
Any good dictionary will show the derivation or the history of the translation of Jesus through the various languages. All agree that the word “Jesus is a transcription or a copy of the Greek name … which is a derivation of the Hebrew Ieshoua, a common Jewish name” according to the book The Names and Titles of Jesus by Leopold Sabourin, S.J.
Is there an explanation of the error Yeh from Yah?
Now that it is clear that the Messiah’s name was not spelled with the letter J, there is another error that must be addressed. Many misspell the Messiah as “yÈshÙa,” (which is a contraction for “yehÖshÙa.”). The error is that it does not have the “Yah” part of the Father’s name in the translation.
In the King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 68:4 clearly reveals that the shortened form of the Father’s name is “Jah.” King David writes: “Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name JAH…” Since there is no j in Hebrew then “Jah” should be spelled Yah or Iah. So yehÖshÙa should be spelled yahÖshÙa.
The error of changing Yah to Yeh is due to the manmade tradition of the Jewish priests. Their reverence for the holy name caused them to believe that it was too sacred to pronounce. So they changed the vowel points from a to e in the Tetragrammaton YHWH. This changes the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. The letter “a” was the correct vowel to be inserted between the YH obtaining YaH. This is short form of the sacred Name is in Yahshua.
To prevent this pronunciation, the priests changed the vowel points from an “a” to the “e” obtaining YeH. This is how the letter “e” came to be in the Savior’s name “Jesus,” resulting today in the Jews spelling his name YEHshua.
Now the same error is explained in the Biblesoft’s Strongs New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. It spelled Yahshua’s name with the letter e Yehowshuwa‘ (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah); or Yehowshu‘ a (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah); from OT:3068 and OT:3467 OT:3091; Jehovah-saved; Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua), the Jewish leader: -Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Joshua. Now the ancient Greek use their alphabet to write and pronounce the “IE” as the shortened form of Yahweh’s name “Yah.”
What is the Importance of “ous” or “us” in Jesus’ name?
Now the “ua” ending in Yahshua’s name in Hebrew when transliterated into Greek is feminine singular, which presents a problem. Thus, it necessitates a change when transliterate into Greek (so the reader in Greek could determine the gender of this name).
What most people do not understand is the ending “us” of Jesus name was setup to denote this in the transliteration into Greek and Latin. The “ous” and the “us” ending in the Greek name “Iesous” and the Latin name “Iesus,” respectively, denote the masculine singular gender in Greek and Latin respectively.
In most languages there are endings that denote gender as well as endings that denote singular or plural. (For example, in English we just add the letter ‘s’ to make a noun plural as in boys or girls. In Spanish gender is denoted by the last vowel of the word, such as chico-boy and chica-girl.)
Only the letters “Jes” in “Jesus’ name has any relationship to the Hebrew name Yahshua for the letters “us” denote gender.
This transliteration that observes Greek and Latin grammer further adds confusion to other errors in the transliteration of the name Yahshua. Latin and English had already seen the results of the Jewish Masoretic priests changing the vowel points.
Finally, it also should be noted that Greek has no “sh” sound as in Yahshua Hebrew name. To denote this “sh” Hebrew sound in the Greek, the letter “s” is used.
Thus, this article has examined all five of the letters in “Jesus” name and showed their derivation from Hebrew, Greek Latin and English.
AND.....
Yahshua, Yehoshua, Y'shua, Yeshua, Iesous, Iesus Or Jesus
The Sacred Name or True Name
There has been much controversy about what the True Name or Sacred Name of the Messiah is, with all sorts of speculation and conjecture being taught as fact. Below are some statements that I have heard over the years:
"The name of YAHshua has been replaced by the names of G-zeus (Jesus), and Ea-zeus meaning healing zeus (Iesus, and Iesous) which are pagan in origin."
"Now that we know that his real Hebrew name is YAHshua, we can't use Jesus any more in good conscience."
"I prefer to use the Hebrew name YAHshua, instead of His Gentile nickname Jesus."
"As true believers we need to refuse the blasphemous talmudic moniker of Yeshua and use his true name YAHshua."
“The name Baal means “Lord” in Hebrew. The church translators replaced the true name of the Messiah, YAHshua with the title “Lord”. When people use that title, they are unknowingly worshiping a pagan idol, and that is why it is so important that we restore the true Hebrew name YAHshua back into the English translations.”
"Jesus" is nothing more than a pseudo substitute for the true name YAHSHUA."
"You should not use the name Ge-sus because the Ge means earth or soil in Greek, and the sus means swine or pig in Latin, so you are saying "earth pig".
"Jesus is a corrupted name derived from the Greek IESOUS. Ies, or iysh in Hebrew means man, while sus -soos means horse, so when you speak that name, you are referring to the Messiah as “man horse” or “man beast”."
"The name IESOUS or “hey-soos” means “hey horse”. Just look at this example: Ps.33:17, “An horse (Heb. hey-soos/Grk. Iesous/ Eng. Jesus) is a vain hope for safety; neither shall he deliver any by its great strength.”"
Many in the Hebrew roots and sacred name circles have continually and fervently expressed the sentiment outlined in the above statements. Some of the popular sacred name bibles have even reinforced the Jesus/zeus fallacy by supplying supposed scholarship to demonstrate this in the explanatory notes section of their translations.
It has been stated by some that the Name Jesus is a false Hellenic (Greek) name that was conspiratorially created by the early church, in an attempt to give glory to zeus and the Greek goddess Iaso while intentionally censoring the "true name" of Messiah which they say is YAHshua. Some have said, that since the Name of Jesus shares the same letter sigma (V) or "s" from the end of the Greek god zeus' name, that at the very least, it constitutes a pagan connection with the Name of Jesus.
This would be the same as saying that all Greek masculine nouns, that have the added sigma as a case ending are somehow related to zeus. If this were factual, which it is not, it would make for an incredibly long list of supposedly pagan names. One excellent example would be John 1:1 where Theos (God) and logos (word), which are both masculine nouns end with a final sigma. We should also note that when the name Iesous is rendered in the genitive form of Iesou there is no final sigma, so in this case according to the theory, would the pagan connection then be eliminated? The same elimination of the final sigma also happens with the name zeus in Acts 14:12. Amazingly, I have seen it claimed by some that Jesus is the name that actually represents the person of the anti-messiah, and is an indicator of the far greater evils being promoted by traditional Christianity.
Iesou (Ihsou) and zeu (zeu) are not related, and have two completely different spellings. The first letter from zeus (zeta) is vocalized with a 'dz' sound, and the dipthongs eu (zeu) and ou (Iesou) have a totally different vocalization. The final sigma (V) or "s" added on at the end of Iesous occurs in the standard transliteration of the proper masculine noun from Hebrew to Greek. Greek nouns and names almost always have case endings, so the sigma (V) or "s" is added at the end of the word to distinguish that the name is the masculine form, and also makes it declinable. There is absolutely no relation between these words, and the most basic scholarship can easily prove this.
If we take the same logic used in the the Jesus/zeus fallacy, and apply it to a Hebraic context, then people could never name their children Nathan or Jonathan, because those names have the same ending as satan. Of course we all know that those are scriptural Hebrew names (Nathan and Yehownathan).
Because of the many errant allegations that have been used to create fear, and other so called scholarship, many have been falsely led to believe that "YAHshua" is the original Hebrew name for the Messiah. In order for YAHshua to be an actual name in Hebrew, it would need to be spelled in Hebrew as Yod-Hey-Shin-Vav-Ayin. Unfortunately for it's supporters, this name can not be found anywhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. What you will find in the Hebrew Scriptures is Yehoshua (H3091) which is written in the Hebrew as Yod-Hey-Vav-Shin-Ayin or Yod-Hey-Vav-Shin-Vav-Ayin, or the shortened form Yeshua (H3442-H3443) which is written in the Hebrew as Yod-Shin-Vav-Ayin.
The main obstacles in trying to render His name as YAHshua instead of Yeshua, is created by the fact that there is no Hebrew letter "hey" in Yeshua, and also by the Masoretic vowel pointings or nikud. The tsere that is under the Yod in "Yeshua" in the Hebrew scriptures demonstrates the vocalization of the first syllable as "yay," and not "YAH." This is also true of the Greek vowel eta, which is pronounced "Yay", and is found in the transliterated Greek rendering of Yeshua which is Iesous. Many use Y'shua thinking that it is a shortened version of YAHshua, when in fact, Yshua would represent a truncated version of the long form Yehoshua with the theophoric element "Yeho" removed. This shortening occurred with many names that possessed the theophoric element of the Name of the Almighty during the second temple period.
Another example would be Yehowseph shortened to Yoseph. Biblical names such as Yehonatan (Jonathan), Yehoyaqim (Jehoiakim), Yehoshafat (Jehoshaphat), Yehoram (Jehoram), and Yehoshua (Joshua), all have the shva under the yod signifying the "Yeh" vocalization, but the later shortened version of Yehoshua (Yeshua) does not.
Some 'teachers' have promoted in their videos and books, that the Messiah's Name is YAHshua, and that it means "Yahweh is our salvation". If we review the meanings of the correct scriptural names, we find that the long form of Yehoshua would translate as "YHVH is salvation" or "He who is (or will be) saves". I am not sure where the 'our' could possibly come from in their constructed name of YAHshua. Some of these same teachers have stated that they do not like to use the name Yeshua, because it only means "salvation". This needs to be clarified, as it is an incorrect statement. Yeshuah (H3444) written Yod-Shin-Vav-Ayin-Hey, is a feminine noun that means "salvation". Yeshua (H3442) written Yod-Shin-Vav-Ayin, is a masculine noun that means "He is salvation" or "He saves." It is the name that refers to Joshua in the TeNaKh (OT), and is the shortened form of Yehoshua which the name Jesus was derived from. In scripture we find in Matthew 1:21 "for He will save His people from their sins"
If someone firmly believes that the manufactured rendering of YAHshua is a scriptural name, then I would recommend that they check it out for themselves in the Hebrew texts. Creating one's own language concepts while ignoring the rules that govern transliteration and vocalization, and then applying them to other languages to aid in the formation of a Hebrew sounding name does not demonstrate sound or acceptable scholarship. It appears according to the above explanation that "YAHshua" is a manufactured name that has been assembled using faulty scholarship in an effort to support a theological agenda.
Let's now take a look at how the name Iesous, which is rendered in the English Bibles as Jesus (G2424) came about from the Hebrew Yeshua (H3442), the short form of Yehoshua (H3091):
When transliterating Yod-Shin-Vav-Ayin -- the Hebrew name Yeshua to Greek:
Yod - "ye"> transliterates by pairing iota-eta (Ih) which is vocalized as "yay" or "ee-ay" because Greek has no consonant y.
Shin - "sh"> transliterates as sigma (s) because there is no equivalent letter for the "sh" sound in Greek.
Vav - "u" > the final u sound transliterates as the dipthong omicron-upsilon (ou) vocalized as "oo" because upsilon alone would not create the correct voicing needed.
Ayin - "ah"> the rules that govern Greek grammar dictate that this letter not be vocalized, and is due to the fact that it is not allowable for masculine names to end with a vowel during the transliteration process from the Hebrew to Greek.
The final sigma (V) or "s" on the end is part of the standard transliteration from other languages to Greek. Greek nouns and names almost always have case endings, so the sigma (V) or "s" is added at the end of the word to distinguish that the name is the masculine form, and also makes it declinable.
What we end up with is the name Iesous (IhsouV), pronounced Ee-ay-sooce or Yaysoos. The Greek Iesous then got transliterated into Latin as Iesu[s], and then into Old English as Jesus, but initially the J was at that time, still pronounced like the German J, which was pronounced with more of a 'Y' sound. This is the way that it still is spoken in Germany today. Over time, the J sound eventually began to harden into sounding more like the the French J which is where the Modern English J originated from. The end result is the current English pronunciation of Jesus.
While there is a clear etymological path concerning the name of Jesus that clearly shows its Hebrew origin, the name YAHshua can not be found in the Hebrew scriptures. The name YAHshua is also not transliterable into a Biblical Greek name, which should throw up some flags to those who believe that the Greek New Testament is the inspired Word of The Almighty.
I find the prohibition against saying the name of Jesus a little absurd, considering that the people who have imposed this prohibition, are calling the Messiah by a name that is not found anywhere in the Hebrew scriptures. Most of their reasoning, is that Jesus is an English rendering from a Greek name, and since all things Greek are pagan, this name should not be spoken, and that no self respecting Jew would have ever uttered a Greek name, and surely would not have written any scripture in Greek.
Many of these same people have used selected passages from the Septuagint (LXX) in their new translations, while referring to Jesus (Iesous) and Christ (Christos) as pagan names. One popular teacher has taught that “ the Greeks called all their gods christos from adonis to zeus,” while explaining that Christ is not an acceptable title for the Messiah. Not only is this not provable historically, but from the linguistic standpoint, as well as the textual standpoint, it is totally incorrect. In the scriptures, we find that the Apostle John used both Messiah and Christ interchangeably when he wrote his Gospel. In John 1:41 we read “ we have found the Messiah, which being translated is, the Christ”. When quoting the woman at the well in John 4:25, he also wrote “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ” It is obvious by the usage in the text that John considered the titles “Messiah” and “Christ” to be equivalent terms. Historically, the Greeks never used the word “Christ” as a title for any of their gods, or as any type of a sacred title at all. Christos (G5547) is derived from the root word chrio (G5548), which by definition means “to smear or rub with oil.”
These very same names and titles were chosen by the Jewish translators of the Greek Septuagint when transliterating the Names Yehoshua/Yeshua to Iesous over two hundred times, and the title Mashiyach from the Hebrew to their chosen Greek equivalent of Christos all thirty nine times that it appears in the text. These are the same Greek names that are rendered in the English versions of the New Testament as Jesus and Christ.
As an additional note, the title of Mashiyach (H4899) appears in the Hebrew text thirty nine times in the Hebrew Scriptures (OT). In the majority of cases, it is translated as "anointed," and refers to priests such as Aaron, or others who were anointed. It is only translated from the Hebrew twice as Messiah. The Greek equivalent for Mashiyach only appears in the New Testament as Messias (G3323) on two occasions, both in the book of John as noted above.
It has been alleged by some that the name "YAHshua" was fabricated by the sacred name movement in the late 1930's as a vehicle to assist in promoting their doctrine. Many in the Hebrew roots/ sacred name movement have tried to use this scripture to prove that the Messiah's Name is YAHshua:
John 5:
43 I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive that one.
Many have argued that if He came in His Fathers Name, then His Father's Name should somehow be represented in His name. They assert that if the Fathers Name is "Yahweh", then Yah must be the poetic shortened form, or a family name. Because of this, it is their belief that the Son must have a form of YAH incorporated somewhere in His Name. When we review this claim, we immediately find a few glaring problems with this reasoning, because King David and others also came in the Name of "YHVH" in the Hebrew scriptures, but they did not have YAH (Yod Hey) as a part their names.
If we examine the New Testament Scriptures, we will find that in first century Judea, Jews were known by who their father was, as demonstrated in this passage:
Matthew 16:
17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Barjona = "son of Jonah"
Here are some other New Testament Aramaic names:
(G912) Barabbas = son of abba
(G918) Bartholomew = son of Tolmai
(G919) Barjesus = son of Jesus
(G921) Barnabas = son of Nabas
(G923) Barsabas = son of Sabas
(G924) Bartimaeus = son of Timaeus
We also see this same type of identification in Matthew 23:35 where we read "Zechariah the son of Berechiah"
This is how the family name was noted in the Hebrew culture. Bar means son in Aramaic, and in Hebrew it is "ben."
In the Hebrew Scriptures we are shown the same:
Genesis 19:
38 And the younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.
(H1151~ Ben-ami or Ammiy = son of my people)
Genesis 35:
18 And it happened as her soul was departing (for she died) that she called his name Benoni. But his father called him Benjamin. (Ben-oni or Owniy = son of my sorrow)
1 Chronicles 4:
20 And the sons of Shimon: Amnon, and Rinnah, Ben-hanan, and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi: Zoheth and Ben-zoheth. (H1135~Ben-hanan or Chanan = son of favour)
2 Chronicles 17:
7 And in the third year of his reign he sent to his rulers, to Benhail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. (H1134~Ben-hail or Chayil = son of strength)
Joshua 15:
8 And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the south side of the Jebusite. It is Jerusalem. And the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom westward, at the end of the Valley of the Giants northward. (H2011~ Hinnom=lamentation - ben Hinnom = son of lamentation)
Other names in the Hebrew scriptures (OT):
Ben-'Abiynadab (H1125)
Ben-'Owniy (H1126)
Ben-Geber (H1127)
Ben-Deqer (H1128)
Ben-Hadad (H1130)
Ben-Zowcheth (H1132)
Ben-Chuwr (H1133)
Ben-Checed (H1136)
Ben-yemiyniy (H1145)
Using the many examples cited above in both the Aramaic and Hebrew languages as a guideline, we can put forth the assertion that possibly to the unbelievers, the Messiah was known as "Yeshua bar Yoseph" (his adopted father), or to those who understood who He truly was as "Yeshua bar Elah" in the Aramaic, or "Yeshua ben Elohiym" in Hebrew. These would both end up in the English as "Yeshua (Jesus) Son of God". In the Greek we find "Iesous Huios Theou" which is rendered in English as "Jesus Son of God." It should once again be noted that there is no YAHshua to be found anywhere in the Hebrew scriptures.
Some people have emphatically asserted that if people in the first century had called the Messiah by His Greek name Iesous (Jesus) that He would not have even recognized or answered to that name. Many have designed and marketed bumper stickers that state "WWJD? He'd use his own name YAHSHUA" and other slogans denigrating the name of Jesus as G-Zeus.
For the sake of argument, let's take a look a this controversy from a different perspective and consider the following:
The Greek language in the Koine or "common" dialect, was established as the common tongue by Alexander during his short lived reign beginning around 332 BCE. He instituted this in hopes of uniting all of the areas he presided over with one language. Alexander died unexpectedly in 323 BCE, and after his death, disputes between his generals led to the division of his empire, which was now became under the control of three of his generals. During the period between 319 to 302 BCE, the control of Jerusalem changed on seven occasions. The time period from 332 to 63 BCE is termed by historians and archaeologists as the Hellenistic period.
When the Romans conquered these areas in 63 BCE, they retained the Greek language and much of the Greek culture and customs established by Alexander which continued to be spread throughout the growing Roman Empire. At this time Israel was indirectly under Roman rule, and later became under direct rule in 4 BCE. It has been stated by historians that around the third century BCE, Ptolomy commissioned that the Torah, or the five books of Moses be translated into the Greek language known as the Pentateuch (pentateuchos) for his library at Alexandria, which we refer to today as the Septuagint (LXX).
The New Testament scriptures speaks of the Hellenist Jews in Acts 6:1 which is dated around 63 CE. The second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE which was the beginning of the dispersal of the Jews, but history tells us that the Koine Greek language was spoken in the declining Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire as late as 529 CE, which demonstrates that the Jews had exposure to Koine Greek for many generations before and after the Messiah.
While the multi lingual disciples may have personally called The Messiah by His Hebrew or Aramaic name Yeshua, I doubt if they had any reservation in referring to Him as "Iesous" when talking about Him and His teachings to the Greeks, Hellenic Jews, Romans or others living in the Roman Empire who spoke Greek, which was the recognized language of commerce and literature. The name Iesous was already firmly established in the Septuagint (LXX) at that time as the Greek rendering (equivalent) of His name. Out of the twelve apostles, eleven of them were from Galilee, also known as Galilee of the Gentiles, (Matt 4:15) and the Messiah was also a Galilean (Matt 21:11). We are told in the Gospels that the Messiah spoke with a Greek woman and cast out a demon from her daughter (Mark 7:26), and that He healed the son of a Roman centurion (Matthew 8:8). How did they address Him would be my first question, since history tells us that Greek was the official language of the Roman Empire, and had been established as such centuries before the Messiah was on Earth. In the scriptures we are told of the Greeks who traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts, who wanted to speak to Messiah, and had asked the apostles if it were possible (John 12:20).
We should consider what would be the language that Andrew and Phillip addressed them in, and while we are at it, maybe we should check the language of origin for the names Andrew and Phillip. We are also told in the scriptures that Matthew was a tax collector, so he would have to be versed in the language of commerce which was Koine Greek, and we know that Luke (Loukas) was a Greek physician. We can safely assume that Paul addressed the Greek Stoics about the "unknown god" in Greek (Acts 17:23) as that was the language of the educated philosophers, and in scripture we are also told that he addressed the Roman centurion in Greek (Acts 21:37). This should also raise the question as to what language the Messiah conversed with Pilate in.
As a side note, there is currently an inventory of almost 900 burial boxes known as ossuaries from Herodian Jerusalem (37 BCE - 70 CE). Over 200 of them have inscriptions that are in the following languages:
143 are inscribed with the local Aramaic script
2 are inscribed in Palmyrene Aramaic
14 are inscribed bilingually in Aramaic and Greek
73 are inscribed in Greek only
2 are inscribed in Latin
The different languages of the inscriptions demonstrate a cross section of the different areas where the Jews of the diaspora resided, and the multiple languages that were spoken. This is also clearly demonstrated in Acts 2:5-11. Archaeologists have also found Greek inscriptions on early synagogues in Israel, as well as on bilingual coins minted less than a century before the time of Jesus by king Alexander Janneus, who was a Hasmonean Sadducee. These coins carry a Greek inscription on the obverse side, with an Aramaic/Hebrew inscription on the reverse side. It should also be noted that there were scrolls and fragments written in Greek that were found at Qumran. You can find these listed in the Dead Sea Scrolls inventory.
If we examine the problems of trying to communicate various aspects of the gospel to Greeks using a semitic language, we would first need to examine the restrictions that might be caused by the differences between the Hebrew/Aramaic, and the Greek language. Firstly, in reference to his Name, the Greek language didn't have a true "Y" sound for the yod, nor the "sh" sound for the letter Shin and so on.
Since Koine Greek is more tonal in its approach to accents, Greek speakers were not practiced in vocal techniques such as pharyngeal fricatives/velar fricatives/glottal stops/guttural sounds and other phonemes/allophones that are utilized in semitic languages, but are not common to the Greek language. Loanwords often do cross over into various other languages that might be spoken in a region where multiple languages are commonly spoken, and in the case of proper nouns, they can and sometimes do import phonemes from one language to another. Because His Hebrew name contained phonemes that weren't native to Greek doesn't rule out that they couldn't pronounce it, but it may have been easier for them to use Iesous. And think about this ....
If everyone knew Him only as Yeshua, there would have been no need to write His Name in its other transliterated forms of Greek and Latin on the sign above Him.
John 19:
19 And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
Hebrew: Yeshua haNotzri Melech haYehudim
Greek: Iesous ho Nazoraios ho Basileus ton Ioudaion
Latin: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
The article above represents my opinion based on what I have learned, what I understand, and what I believe. As always, I would challenge everyone to research all that I have discussed, and prove it for yourself.
For we are told:
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
So if we are to "friends" with God and His hen should we not know their names?
Now lets examine this:
The New Testament Bible was written entirely in Koine Greek. The Tanakh (Old Testament) was written primarily in Hebrew and very small portion in Aramaic. All Bibles written in English are interpretations. In the original Greek New Testament text we do not find the name Jesus (gee-zuss). We find the name Ihsouv , which are the letters iota - eta - sigma - omikron - upsilon - sigma. The transliterated letters into English are I (iota), E (eta), S (sigma), O (omikron), U (upsilon), S (sigma). This spells I-E-S-O-U-S. Although most English speaking people call Him "gee-zuss", the actual literal rendering of the name IESOUS is "yeah-sooce".
This is the name of The Messiah as it appears in the original Greek Bible text
This begs the question, how then did we ever get "gee-zuss" from IESOUS? There is no letter J (or equilevent sounding letter) in Greek. The letter J did not exist until about 450 years ago. The Greek texts (ultimately assembled into what we now call The Bible) were already in existence for nearly 1500 years before the letter J was invented. It is the last letter to be added to the latin alphabet and was ultimately adopted into the common english language. The original purpose of the J was to be a variation of the letter I. The new variant was to be used to distinguish the letter I whenever it was used as a consonant. The original I was used exclusively as a vowel, and the new J was to become the consonantal version of the I. The J was still an I and even looked similar to the I, differing only by a small hook at the bottom instead of a flat line. Several hundred years later the I is still a vowel, and the J is still a consonant, but there has developed a significant dinstinction in both the sound and the identity of the J. The J no longer sounds at all like the I and is no longer considered a variant of that letter. They are supposed to sound exactly the same, since after all they represent the same letter. Unfortunately the new sound that gradually developed became much closer to the G than the I. In fact in most cases the letter J sounds similar to the letter G, however this is clearly a complete deviation from the intended purpose of the letter J. The J was supposed to sound like the I, and the I often sounds like Y. The J therefore may sound like the Y.
A word or a name in Hebrew which begins with a YODE (Hebrew Y) would have to be transliterated into Greek using an IOTA (Greek I) and would likely be followed by an ETA (Greek E) or an OMIKRON (Greek O), depending on the phonics of the original word. Since there is no letter in Greek equivalent to the Hebrew YODE the Greek IOTA (followed by another vowel to mimick the required sound) is the next best thing. Transliteration is a mimicking or "best rendering" type of work, not an exacting science. A word or a name in Greek which begins with an IOTA would then be transliterated into English using the letter I. In such cases the I would sound like a Y and if we knew for certain the origins of the first word from which the Greek transliteration was conducted (in this case being a Hebrew word that starts with a YODE) we would be justified in bypassing the I altogether and using the Y instead.
Not only was the Hebrew name of The Messiah (The Christ) transliterated into the original Greek Bible text using the letter IOTA, but all other names that we see in our modern English Bible starting with the new letter J were also originally transliterated in the Greek using the letter IOTA. The names Joseph, John, Jacob, Joel, Jonah, and Judas for example ALL started with the letter IOTA in the original Greek text. Here is what Joseph looks like in the Greek: Iwshf. The first letter I is an IOTA. All these names that start with the letter IOTA are pronounced as a Y sound. The reason why the sound was a Y is because these names are themselves transliterations from Hebrew names that begin with a YODE. We know what the original Hebrew names are. The reason Joseph starts with IOTA is because we know that the Hebrew name for Joseph is Yosef. It starts with a YODE (Y) in Hebrew, and the transliteration into Greek required an IOTA (I) to mimic the sound of the Hebrew Y. The way it was transliterated into the Greek it is pronounced as as ee-oo-safe, and if you say it quickly it approximates the name Yosef. Interestingly enough the name of Iwshf appeared in the first English Bibles as Ioseph. In fact all the names that we find in the modern English Bible which begin with the letter J were originally transliterated with an I instead of a J.
