The Mistaken J
Often heard in the churches of
our land is the refrain sung about the Savior, “There’s something about that
name…” In our English-speaking world we have been taught that the saving name
of the Redeemer of Israel is “Jesus.” So accepted is this name that few stop to
consider its authenticity.
But the truth is, there is indeed
“something about that Name.” That “something” is the inescapable fact that the
Savior’s name is not Jesus, and never was. What’s more, the Name of the
Heavenly Father is not Jehovah, a designation that is only five centuries old.
Churchianity has
so thoroughly immersed the world in the error of this tradition for the past
500 years that few even think to research the matter or to consider the
consequences of calling on the wrong name. As a result, most continue believing
that the Hebrew Savior is called by a Latinized Greek name that could not
possibly have existed at the time He walked the earth. It’s a name that would
have been completely foreign to Him.
Eminent
French historian, scholar, and archaeologist Ernest Renan acknowledges that the
Savior was never in His lifetime called “Jesus.” In his book, The Life of Jesus, Renan doubts that
the Savior even spoke Greek (p.90). Greek was mostly the language of business
and commerce in cosmopolitan circles.
As for the Father’s Name, the hybrid
“Jehovah” came into existence through the ignorance of Christian writers who
did not understand the Old Testament Hebrew. Credit for the error is given to Petrus Galatinus, confessor to
Pope Leo X in the 16th century.
Modern scholarship recognizes “Yahshua” as the best rendition for the Name of the Savior,
while “Yahweh” is the closest transliteration for the Name of the Creator as
found in ancient Scriptural manuscripts. In returning as nearly as we can to
the Bibles’ original language and meaning, we come to a deeper and more
accurate understanding of the truths contained within it.
As
we will learn, the Father and Son’s revealed, personal Names are the foundation
on which other vital, salvation truths rest. It was not without reason that
Yahweh established the foundation of the Ten Commandments with the clear
declaration of His sacred Name: “I,
Yahweh, am your Elohim…” Exodus 20:2. Our Savior,
as well, opened His Model Prayer with the words, “hallowed be Thy Name.”
Yahweh devoted the Third Commandment to
warn of the sin of taking His Name in vain (a meaning that includes bringing
His Name to uselessness, as has been done for centuries), Exodus 20:2, 7. Our
Redeemer’s Name is critically important as well, or else our Creator would not
have inspired the writer of Acts to proclaim, “Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12.
Back to the Basic Truths of the Bible
It should be evident to anyone that through
time and tradition, observances change, are added to, and also lose some of
what they first had. This is especially true of the worship originally
practiced in the Bible. Our primary goal as True Worshipers should be to return
to fundamental truths, like His true Name, once known and taught by the early
Assembly but that have been neglected or ignored through the centuries.
Shouldn’t this be the desire of every sincere Bible believer—to worship in ALL
truth? Why go only halfway, or put another way, why continue worshiping partly
in error?
Jude 3 speaks directly to us: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” This original faith as practiced in the early New Testament Assembly is being restored now, just before the Savior Yahshua returns to earth. Acts 3:21 say the heaven must receive the Savior until the time of restitution of all things. “Restitution” is the Greek apokatastasis and means re-establish from a state of ruin (Write for the explanatory ministudy, This Is the EliYah Message.) Foundational to this original truth being restored by Yahweh’s Assembly
in Yahshua is the identity of the One we worship.
Nothing in existence is more holy than the Father and His personal, revealed
Name Yahweh. Paul wrote that Yahweh has given His Son a Name that is above
every name, Philippians 2:9. The prophet Malachi tells us that if we will not
give glory unto Yahweh’s Name that He would send a curse upon us (2:2).
With a sense of gravity of the sacred Name,
let’s examine why any substitute name employing the letter J is erroneous on
its face. We will look at the facts and the overwhelming evidence and carefully
evaluate our findings, using numerous sources revealing the truth. Much of the
information we cite here is readily available in your public library, or found
in references you may even have at home. We urge you to look into this
important issue and prove it for yourself.
The ‘J’: A Letter Come Lately
Among the many reasons that both “Jesus”
and “Jehovah” are erroneous is the simple fact that they begin with the letter J, the most recent letter added to our
English alphabet. The Savior’s name could not begin with the letter J because it did not exist when He was
born –not even a thousand years later! All good dictionaries and encyclopedias
show that the letter J and its sound
are of late origin.
A chart on both the Hebrew and Greek
alphabet is found on page 48 in this booklet. Take special note that there is
no letter equivalent to J in either
Hebrew or Greek even today. Here are what major references tell us about the J and its development:
Ø
The Encyclopedia Americana contains the
following 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,
I) 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.”
Ø
The New Book of Knowledge reads:
“J,
the tenth letter of the English alphabet, is the youngest of the 26 letters. It
is a descendant of the letter I and
was not generally considered a separate letter until the 17th century. The early history of the letter J is the same as the history of the letter I. I is a descendant of the ancient
Phoenician and Hebrew letter yod and the Greek letter iota”
(Vol. 10, 1992 ed.).
Ø
The Random House Dictionary of the English
Language says about the J:
“The tenth letter of the English alphabet
developed as a variant form of I in
Medieval Latin, and except for the preference for the J as an initial letter, the two were used interchangeably, both
serving to represent the vowel (i) and the consonant (y).
Later, through specialization, it came to be distinguished as a separate sign,
acquiring its present phonetic value under the influence of the French.”
Ø
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, under “J,” offers additional information:
“J,
a letter of the alphabet which, as far as form is concerned, is only a
modification of the Latin I and
dates back with a separate value only to the 15th century. It was
first used as a special form of initial I,
the ordinary form being kept for use in other positions. As, however, in many
cases initial i had the consonantal value of the English y in iugum (yoke), &c., the symbol came to be used
for the value of y, a value which it still retains in German: Ja! Jung, & c. Initially it is pronounced in English as
an affricate dzh. The great majority of English words
beginning with j are of foreign
(mostly French) origin, as ‘jaundice,’ ‘judge’”…(p.103).
Ø
Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia (1979 edition), volume 14, page 94 under “J,” states:
“J,
the tenth letter and seventh consonant in the English alphabet. It is the
latest addition to the English script and has been inserted in the alphabet
after I, from which it was
developed, just as V and W follow U, the letter from which they arose. In form, J was originally merely a variation of I; J appeared first in
Roman times, when it was used sometimes to indicate the long i vowel sound,
but was often used interchangeably with I.
The Romans pronounced I as a vowel
in some words, such as iter,
and as a semi-vowel in others, for example, iuvenis, spelled presently juvenis. The only
difference in spelling, however, was the occasional use of double i for the y sound for example, in maiior, spelled presently major. In the Middle Ages the
elongated form (j) was used as an
ornamental device, most often initially and in numeral series; many old French
manuscripts indicate the numeral 4 by the letter sequence iiij. The use of j as an initial led ultimately to its
specialized use to indicate both the old semi-vowel sound y, found in German, and the new palatal consonant sounds (z) and (dz), found in French, Spanish and English. Not until the
middle of the 17th century did this usage become universal in
English books; in the King James Bible of 1611, for example, the words Jesus
and judge are invariably Iesus and iudge. Long after the invention of printing, j thus became more than a mere
calligraphic variation of i (which in Latin could be either vowel or semi-vowel), and, j became restricted to a consonantal
function.
“In English, j has the composite sound of d + zh, as
in journal. In French, on the other hand, the zh sound alone is given the letter, as in jour; German has retained the original y
sound of the Latin i consonant, as in jahr; and Spanish has introduced a new sound resembling a guttural ch, as in Jerez. In Middle English, before the
differentiation of i and j, the combination gi was sometimes
used to represent the dzh sounds, such as in Giew for Jew, and in modern times the soft g is used for the same sound, as in
general…”
Ø
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary confirms how the J developed from the I and became a
consonant only a few centuries ago:
“J,
j (ja),
n. 1. The tenth letter of the English alphabet: formerly a variant of I, i, in the
seventeenth century it became established as a consonant only, as in Julius,
originally spelled Iulius.”
The letter J was often used instead of the letter I, especially at the beginning of a word. This became common in the
1600s (World Book Encyclopedia, Vol.
2, 1995 ed). Medieval scribes added a tail to the
second I when two I’s appeared together. Because a
beginning I almost always has a
consonant sound, the long form, J,
came to be used generally for the consonant sound of the letter (New Book of Knowledge).
It became necessary to distinguish between
the J and the I when the dictionary came into being. In the seventeenth century,
the dictionary’s appearance forced a consistent spelling. Using either I or J became mandatory to ensure proper alphabetical positioning. Owing
to this close kinship with I, J was
inserted immediately following I in
our English alphabet.
Note the substantiating comments on the J from the Encyclopedia Americana:
“It is one of the few permanent additions
to those alphabets, made in medieval or modern times. More exactly, it was not
an addition, but a differentiation from an existing letter, I, which in Latin, besides being a
vowel (as in index), had also the consonantal value of ‘Y’ (as in maior, pronounced ‘mayor’).
“At a later state, the symbol ‘J’ was used
for the distinctive purposes, particularly when the ‘I’ had to be written initially (or in conjunction with another ‘I’). Either symbol used initially
generally had the consonantal sound of ‘Y’
(as in Year) so that the Latin pronunciation of either Ianuarius or Januarius was as though the spelling was ‘Yanuarius.’ While in some words of Hebrew and other origin
(such as Hallelujah or Junker), ‘J’
has the phonetic value of ‘Y.’”
We discover, then, that the letter J derived from the vowel letter I and originally had the same sound as
the vowel I. That is why the lower
case j still has a dot over it. The
letter I represents the Greek iota (I), which usually corresponds to
the Hebrew yothe (Y as in yes). The letter J has a Y sound (as in “hallelujah”) in Latin, German, and Scandinavian
languages. In Spanish, J is an
aspirate, having the sound of H.
The J was first pronounced as the I at the
time of the introduction of the printing press. Dutch printers fostered
utilizing the J, especially at the
beginning of a word. The letter J eventually acquired its own sound. It was the French who gave the letter J the present sound of the soft letter g as in “large” or “purge.” In Latin,
German, and other languages the J is
pronounced more like Y with an “ee” sound. The Spanish J is more like an aspirant as in San Jose. Some old European maps still show the
spelling of countries like Jugoslavia (Yugoslavia) or Sowjet (Soviet) Russia. It is only in the last
century that the letter J has firmly taken on the French pronunciation as in
joy or journal.
Ø
Webster’s Universal Dictionary (1936) reinforces the fact of the early relationship
of the letter J to I:
“As a character it was formerly used
interchangeably with ‘I,’ both
letters having originally the same sound and after the ‘J’ sound came to be common in English, it was often written where
this sound must have been pronounced. The separation of these two letters is of
comparatively recent date, being brought about through the influence of the
Dutch printers.”
First Letter of the Sacred Name is Y
As we have shown, the J came from the letter I. The New Book of Knowledge shows the
letter I (hence the J as well) derived from the Hebrew yothe (y), which is the first letter of Yahweh’s Name (hwhy, YHWH, known as the Tetragrammaton or “four letters”; Hebrew is read from right to left). It is also the first
letter of Yahshua’s Name. The letter I (yothe or yod) in Hebrew
carries the sound of “ee” as in “police.”
The King James Version and other Bibles
employ the Latinized-Greek “Jesus.” But the facts of etymology prove that this
cannot be His true name. If the King James and other Bibles are in error in
calling the Savior “Jesus,” how did the error come about? And how can we
determine exactly what that precious Name is?
The fact is, the first copies of the 1611
King James Bible did not use the letter J (see production at top). And no evidence is found to show that the letter I had the consonantal sound of J. This has been shown in the New Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia:
“Not until the middle of the 17th century did this usage become universal in English books; in the King James
Bible of 1611 for example, the words Jesus and judge are invariably Iesus and iudge.”
Oscar Ogg’s books, The 26 Letters, which gives a
history of each letter of the English alphabet, explains how the J, along with the U and W, were the last
to be added to the alphabet:
“The
three missing letters, J, U and W, were not used by the Romans at all. U and W developed from V about a thousand years ago, and J developed from the letter I about five hundred years ago,” p.
106.
As already confirmed, most of our American
vocabulary employing the letter J stems from the French. Nearly all words containing the letter J in English are
pronounced as in French, such as journal or major, although French has a
considerably softer pronunciation of J than English. In Spanish the J is
more of an h aspirate as in “San
Jose.”
After development of the letter J, the Savior’s Name was changed by the
translators to Jesus, but continued to be pronounced much like the letter Y. However, the pronunciation of the J soon changed completely from its
former “yee” sound to our present “juh” through French influence.
In
Latin the J was pronounced as a Y. Even today, the German tongue, among
others, pronounces the J like a Y (July – Yulee; Ja = Ya; Major in German is pronounced as “mayor;” June
is “Yunee”). Note the comments of author F.F. Bruce
in his The Books and the Parchments: “In the English
Bible, Hebrew proper names with yod are represented
with j, which in modern English has
quite a different sound from y. Thus
‘Jehovah-jireh’ would have been pronounced in Hebrew
something like Yahweh yeereh” (footnote, p. 40).
In his book, Story of the Letters and Figures, Hubert M. Skinner provides an
excellent summation of the discordant transformation inflicted on the Savior’s
Name:
“In some way, various modern peoples who
received the J from the Romans have
lost the original sound, and have substituted something very different. We
retain the former sound in our word ‘hallelujah,’ but we generally give the
letter the disagreeable soft sound of G. Yod is the
initial of the name Jesus. It is unfortunate that a name so dear and so sacred
is pronounced in a manner so different from that of the original word. The
latter sounded very much as if it were Yashoo-ah, and
was agreeable to the ear. Our sounds of J and hard S are the most disagreeable
in our language, and they are both found in our pronunciation of this short
name, although they did not exist in its original,” pp. 122-123.
‘Jesus’: A Word Out of Place and Time
The Bible clearly reveals that salvation is
available in only one name: “Neither is
there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The name the angel gave
to Hebrew-speaking Mary and Joseph was Yahshua, meaning “Salvation of Yah.”
This original Name has been made a hybrid
by translators and changed to the Latinized, Grecianized name Jesus – a name that came into our language about the time of Christopher
Columbus. (For a detailed explanation, request the revealing ministudy, How the Savior’s Name Was Changed.)
The following Biblical study references clearly
explain that “Jesus,” used in place of the Savior’s true Name Yahshua, is erroneous. (Some of these references correctly
show the Y or I superior to the Mistaken J.)
► Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature:
“Import of the Name. –There can be no doubt that Jesus is the Greek form of a
Hebrew name…Its original and full form is Jehoshua (Num. 13:16). By contraction it became Joshua, or Jeshua;
and when transferred into Greek, by taking the termination characteristics of that
language, it assumed the form Jesus” (vol. 4, pp. 873-874).
► The Anchor Bible Dictionary: “Jesus [Gk. Iesous]. Several persons
mentioned in the Bible bear this name, which is a Greek form of Joshua (Heb. Yehosua; cf. the
Gk of Luke 3:29; Acts 7:45; Heb. 4:8)…’Jesus Christ’ is a composite name made
up of the personal name ‘Jesus’ (from the Gk Iesous, which transliterates
Heb/Aram yesu(a), a late form of Hebrew yehosua, the meaning of which is ‘YHWH is salvation’ or
‘YHWH saves/has saved’)…” (III, p. 773).
► The Anchor Bible (note on Matthew 1:1): “Jesus. The word is the
Greek rendering of a well-known Hebrew name. It was Yahoshu first, then by inner
Hebrew phonetic change it became Yoshua, and by a still northern dialectal shift, Yeshua. The first
element, Yahu (=Yahweh) means ‘the Lord,’ while the second comes from shua ‘To help, save.’ The most
probable meaning is ‘O Lord, save.’” (Vol. 26, p.2)
► The New International Dictionary of The Christian Church: “Jesus
Christ, The Founder of Christianity bore ‘Jesus’ (the Greek form of Joshua or Jeshua) as His personal name; ‘Christ’ (Gk. Christos, ‘anointed’) is the title given
Him by His followers…” (p.531).
► Mercer Dictionary of the Bible: “Jeshua:
An Aramaic form of the name Joshua, meaning ‘Yahweh is salvation.’ It occurs
only in postexilic biblical literature, which supports the later origin of the
name. Joshua, the son of Nun, is referred to in one passage as Jeshua (Neh. 8:17)” (p.444).
► Newberry Reference Bible (on Matt. 1:24): “Jesus, Heb. Joshua, or Jehoshua. Compare Num. 13:8, 16, where ‘Oshea,’
verse 8, signifying ‘Salivation,’ is
altered in v.16 to ‘Jehoshua,’ ‘the Salvation of Jehovah,’ or ‘Jehovah the Savior.’”
► The
International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia:
“Jesus (Iesous)
is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Joshua’ (ucwhy, Yehoshua) meaning ‘Jehovah
is salvation.’ It stands therefore in the LXX and Apoc for ‘Joshua,’ and in Acts 7:45 and Heb. 4:8 likewise represents the OT
‘Joshua.’ In Mt. 1:21 the name is commanded by the angel to be given to the son
of Mary, ‘for it is he that shall save his people from their sins…It is the
personal name of the L-rd in the Gospels and in the Acts…’” (Vol. 3, p.1626).
► The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary: “The given
name Jesus means ‘savior,’ it is the Greek equivalent of Jeshua (Heb. Yesua,
from yehosua ‘Yahweh saves’ [=Joshua]. Christ is the title, indicating that he is the
‘anointed one,’ the Messiah from Hebrew masiah).” …”Jeshua (Heb. Yesua ‘Yahweh is
salvation’)” (p.573).
► The Bible Almanac: “The name Jesus (which is identical with Joshua
and means ‘God is Savior’) emphasizes His role as the Savior of His people
(Mat. 1:21). Christ is the New Testament equivalent of Messiah, a Hebrew word
meaning ‘anointed one’…” (p.522).
► Holman Bible Dictionary: “Jesus Christ: Greek form of Joshua and of
title meaning ‘Yahweh is salvation’ and ‘the anointed one’ or ‘Messiah.’”
(p.775).
► New International Dictionary of the New Testament Theology, “OT Iesous is the Gk.
Form of the OT Jewish name Yesua, arrived at by transcribing the Heb. And adding an –s
to the nominative to facilitate declension. Yesua (Joshua) seems to have come
into general use about the time of the Babylonian exile in place of the older Yehosua. The LXX rendered both the ancient and more
recent forms of the name uniformly as Iesous. Joshua the son of Nun, who according to the
tradition was Moses’ successor and completed his work in the occupation of the promised
land by the tribes of Israel, appears under this name…It is the oldest name
containing the divine name Yahweh, and means ‘Yahweh is help’ or ‘Yahweh is
salvation’ (cf. the verb yasa,
help save). Joshua also appears in one post-exilic passage in the Heb. OT (Neh.
8:17) as Yesua the son of Nun, and not as in the older texts, Yehosua” (Vol. 2, pp.330-331).
► The
Classic Bible Dictionary (Jay P. Green), page 633, under Jesus: “Jesus is
the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Joshua,’ meaning ‘Jehovah is salvation.’ It
stands therefore in the LXX and Apocrypha for ‘Joshua,’ and in Acts 7:45 and
Heb. 4:8 likewise represents the OT Joshua.”
Author Green also comments on the Greek
word “Christ:” “Christ (Christos) is
the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messiah, meaning anointed.”
Thus we see that the Savior’s name as well
as the descriptive title “Messiah” have been undermined and appear in Greek in
changed form. Our Savior has been stripped of His Israelite roots.
► The SDA Bible Dictionary, page 565: “Jesus Christ [Gr. Iesous] (a transliteration of the Aramaic Yeshua, from the Heb. Yehoshua, ‘Joshua,’ meaning
‘Yahweh is Salvation’), Christos (a
translation of the Heb. Mashiach,
‘Messiah,’ meaning anointed or anointed One).] The English form ‘Jesus’ comes
from the Latin.”
► In Strange Facts About the Bible, author Garrison notes on page 81:
“In its English form, ‘Jesus’ goes back to church Latin Iesus which is a transliteration
of the Greek Iesous.
But in its original Hebrew form it was Y’hoshua (‘Yahweh saves’), frequently abbreviated to Joshua…”
► Ian Wilson’s Jesus: The Evidence, says on page 66; “’Yeshua’,
as Jesus would actually have been addressed, means ‘God saves’, and is merely a
shortened form of the more old fashioned ‘Yehoshua (‘Joshua’ of the Old Testament).”
► New Bible Dictionary (edited by J.D. Douglas) reads under Jesus:
“The name Jesus is not strictly a
title for the person who bore it. It is, however, a name with a meaning, being
a Greek form of ‘Joshua’, i.e. ‘Yahweh is salvation’. The NT writers were well
aware of this meaning (Mt. 1:21). The name thus indicated the function which
was ascribed to Jesus, and this later found expression in the title Saviour…”
(p.584).
► Alford’s Greek Testament, An Exegetical and Critical Commentary:
“Jesus –The same name as Joshua, the former deliverer of Israel.”
► Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion: “Jesus (The Name) –Matthew’s
Gospel explains it as symbolic of His mission, ‘For He will save His people
from their sins.’ This agrees with its popular meaning as ‘Yahweh saves…’” p.
1886.
► A Dictionary of the Bible, by James Hastings: “Jesus –the Greek
form (Ihsous) of the name Joshua (ucwhy) or Jeshua. Jeshua – Yahweh is salvation or Yahweh is opulence”
(pp.603-602).
► New International Dictionary of the Christian Church: “Jesus
Christ, The Founder of Christianity bore ‘Jesus’ (the Greek form of Joshua or Jeshua) as His personal name; ‘Christ’ (Gk. christos,
‘anointed’) is the title given Him by His followers…” (p. 531).
All of these authorities and scholars
agree. His name is not the Latinized Grecianized name “Jesus,” but reflects His Hebrew
heritage and the mission He was given to save His people through the Name of
the Heavenly Father Yahweh.
So how did He end up with the name so many
erroneously call on today?
Greek Not the Original New Testament
Language
Very
early in history, even before the Messiah, Greek had become a world language.
Alexander the Great conquered the lands east and south of Greece, establishing
Hellenistic culture and society as far as the Indus River and south into Egypt.
The koine or common Greek dialect prevailed, becoming dominant
in the wake of Alexander’s exploits. Greek survived the ravages of Roman
persecution, as well as the crusades, and continued to be spoken up to the time
of the Muslim conquest of the Mediterranean area.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem in
70 C.E., Rome crushed the Bar Kochba rebellion in 135
C.E. The Roman army destroyed anything Jewish, especially religious scrolls and
books, including their Torah. This was followed by the Catholic inquisitions in
Europe, eradicating anything Jewish. The crusaders made fair game of the Jews,
ruthlessly destroying any vestiges of Hebrew writings.
Thus, between the suppression carried out
by the Romans and the later Crusades, any Hebrew copies of both Old and New
Testament writings were lost. Only Greek copies survived. Neither are there any
original Hebrew Old Testaments manuscripts, only copies of copies of copies.
An increasing number of competent Bible
scholars now agree with scholar Charles Cutler Torrey (Documents of the Primitive Church) that the New Testament in whole
or part was first written in Hebrew and only later translated into Greek.
(Write us for a list of renowned Bible scholars who uphold an original Hebrew
New Testament, as well as the ministudy, Was
the New Testament Originally Greek?)
In the September 12, 1986 issue of The Washington Times, David Bivin notes that Yahshua, like
His contemporaries, most likely spoke Hebrew, Bivin,
the director for the Jerusalem School for the Study of the Gospels, also
believes that the original account of Yahshua’s life
was written in Hebrew, not Greek of Aramaic. In addition, he and his Jerusalem
scholars agree that by considering the Evangels Hebraic, many textual
difficulties are cleared up, strongly suggesting that the Evangels were first
written in Hebrew.
Even Martin Luther recognized the Hebrew
roots of the New Testament. He wrote in Tischreden, “Although the New Testament was written in
Greek, it is full of Hebraisms and Hebrew expressions. It has therefore been
aptly said that the Hebrews drink from the spring, the Greeks from the stream
that flows from it, and the Latins from the
downstream pool” (translated by Pinchas E. Lapide in Hebrew in
the Church, p.10).
Where is the justification for changing the
Savior’s Name? Even in a Greek context, there is no J or J sound in the Koine or in any
Greek dialect known. The Greek New Testament of the Bible provides the basis
for our present Latin and English translations. Obviously the J came from another source, as Greek
has no phonetic equivalent of the letter J in its 24 characters of the alphabet. Neither does Hebrew. The words judge,
journal, jack, jam, jet, jog, etc., likely would all be spelled beginning with
the Greek iota (English I) and would be pronounced as “ee.” In English the letter j would be replaced by the letter i. We would read iudge, iournal, iack, iam, iet, iog, etc. Some orthographers would prefer that these examples begin with today’s letter y instead of i.
We cannot ignore the fact that there was no
letter J in ANY language until
around the 15th century, and therefore must conclude that the name
“Jesus” never existed before 500 years ago. Let us not forget that we read from
a Hebrew Bible. It is the account of Yahweh’s dealing with His people Israel.
Yahweh spoke to a people who understood Hebrew. Yahweh is the Mighty One of the
Hebrews. Remember also that there was no Jew before the time of Abraham, Isaac
or Jacob. So the Sacred Name is not Jewish.
The seeker of truth must not shy from the
Hebrew roots of true Biblical faith, for we are children of Abraham, a Hebrew
(Gen. 14:13). Hebrew means to “cross over,” and we are to “cross over” the
falsity and error of this world and join in pure worship of Yahweh and His Son Yahshua.
Savior’s Name Explained in Bible Versions
Inspired Scripture calls attention to a
singular Name wherein rests our eternal salvation.
The following Bible versions have these
footnote explanations on Matthew 1:21, the verse where the angel tells Joseph (Yowceph) what to name the Redeemer of mankind:
● “’Jesus’ (Hebr. Jehoshua)
means ‘Yahweh saves’”—The Jerusalem
Bible.
● “’Jesus’ is the Greek form of
Joshua, which means ‘the Lord saves’” –New
International Version.
● “’Jesus,’ from the Greek form of a
common Hebrew name (Joshua) derived from yasha, ‘he
saves’” –Harper Collins Study Bible
● “She will give birth to a son, and
you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves’], because he will save his people from their
sins” –Jewish New Testament, David
Stern, translator.
● “Heb. Yoshia, reflected in the name Yeshua (Gr. Jesus)” –The
Original New Testament, Hugh J. Schonfield.
● “Jesus: The Greek form of ‘Jeshua’….The full significance of the name ‘Jesus’ is seen
in the original ‘Yehoshua,’ which means ‘Jehovah the
Savior,’ and not merely ‘Savior,’ as the word is often explained” –Weymouth’s New Testament in Modern Speech.
● “Jesus Christ. The name ‘Jesus’ is
from the Greek (and Latin) for the Hebrew ‘Jeshua’
(Joshua), which means ‘the Lord is salvation.’ ‘Christ’ is from the Greek for
the Hebrew ‘Meshiah’ (Messiah), meaning ‘anointed
one’”—Ryrie Study Bible
● “Jesus, Yeshua,
meaning ‘Jehovah Is Salvation’” –The
Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures.
The
following commentaries add their observations on the Savior’s Name:
♦ Matthew Henry’s Commentary (on Matthew 1:21): “Jesus is the same name with
Joshua, the termination only being changed, for the sake of conforming it to
the Greek.”
♦ Interpreter’s Bible (Note on Matthew 1:21): “Jesus for He shall save: The play on words (Yeshua, Jesus; yoshia, shall
save) is possible in Hebrew but not in Aramaic. The name Joshua means “Yahweh
is salvation.”
♦ Barnes’ Notes (Note on
Matthew 1:21): “His name Jesus: The name Jesus is the same as Saviour. It is derived from the verb signifying to save. In
Hebrew it is the same as Joshua. In two places [Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8] in
the New Testament it is used where it means Joshua, the leader of the Jews
[Israel] into Canaan, and in our translation the name Joshua should not have
been retained.”
The prefix Yah is the short or poetic form of YAH-weh the Heavenly Father’s Name as found in HalleluYAH and
in names of many Biblical personalities, as we will see. Thus, the Savior’s
Name begins with the prefix “Yah” that begins Yahweh’s Name, as revealed in
Psalm 68:4: “Sing unto Elohim, sing praises to his name: extol him that rides upon
the heavens by his name JAH [YAH], and rejoice before him.” “Shua,” the last part of the Savior’s Name, carries the
primary meaning of “salvation.” Thus, Yahshua means
“the salvation of Yah.”
When Israel crossed over the Red Sea, Moses
sang a song of thanks to Yahweh in Exodus 15. The saving name appears in verse
2, “Yah is become my salvation,”
which was to be Yahshua!
The following reasons clearly show why the
name Jesus could never have been the Savior’s Name:
► There is no letter J or equivalent
in Hebrew.
► There is no letter J or equivalent
in Greek.
► There was no letter J in English
until about 500 years ago.
► “Jesus,” an etymological hybrid
from Greek and Latin, has no inherent, etymological meaning in Greek or Latin,
not to mention Hebrew or English.
► Joseph (“Yowceph”
in Hebrew), a Hebrew and a Jew, was told by the angel Gabriel that Mary
(Miriam), a Jewess, would give birth to One Who would “save His people Israel
from their sins,” Matthew 1:21. Only the Hebrew name “Yahshua”
means “Salvation of Yah” (“Yah”shua). He Himself said
that He is come in His Father’s Name (“Yah”weh/”Yah”shua) and “you receive me not,” John 5:43.
► Mary, a Hebrew, was told the same
thing that Joseph was, Luke 1:31.
► Would a celestial being announce
the coming Savior to Jews who spoke Hebrew (or Aramaic), proclaiming a
Romanized, Grecian name beginning with a letter J that did not exist, but would originate in a European tongue 1500
years later? Remember it was to Israel, a Semitic people who spoke and
understood Hebrew, that His saving Name was first revealed.
► Would HEBREW parents give their
baby a hybridized GREEK name devoid of any meaning – especially such an
important name that would identify the very Savior of the world?
How Did ‘Yahshua’ Become
‘Jesus’?
It is necessary that we understand the
prefix “YAH” has come to us in the form “YEH” (a type of which is found in “Yeshua” commonly used for Yahshua).
It is also manifest in the names JEHovah and Jesus.
Almost any scholarly reference work will
acknowledge that Rabbinic tradition has suppressed the true Name Yahweh
centuries before the Messiah came at Bethlehem. Writing Yahweh’s Name in the Hebrew,
Jewish scribes inserted a shewa (:) instead of the proper qamets (T), thus changing the
vowel sound “ah” in “Yah” to “eh.” This was done to conceal the sacred Name,
thus yielding the improper Yehovah and Yeshua.
This is practiced even today by such groups
as the Jews for Jesus, who contend that “Y’shua’ is
the Jewish way to say “Jesus.” This may have been done to avoid offending the
Jews and their proscription against even the short form YAH.
Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary
clearly shows the erroneous vowel pointing of YAH to YEH in the first column of
page 48 where the resulting “YEH” is obvious. In every name in this column, a shewa (:) appears under the Hebrew letter yod (y:), and the pronunciation given following the Hebrew
spelling begins with the prefix “YEH.”
Using the “e” instead of the proper “a” is
another ploy of the Adversary to do away with the family Name YAH, the first
syllable of both Yahweh’s and Yahshua’s Name.
This explains how the “e” came about in the
name Jesus. The next letter in Jesus, s, results from the fact that Greek has
no “sh” sound, only “s” (sigma) sound. This was incorporated into the Latin text. The “u” in
Jesus comes from the u in Yahshua. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology explains, “Iesous is the
Greek form of the Old Testament Jewish name Yesua [Yahshua], arrived at by transcribing the Hebrew and adding
an s to the nom. to facilitate declension.”
The final “s” in “Jesus” is the Greek
nominative masculine singular ending. Matthew 1:8-11 contains the genealogy of
Joseph’s line, where we can find similar examples of “s” added to produce
Greek-inflected Hebrew names: Uzziah becomes Ozias; Hezekiah becomes Ezekias; Jonah becomes Jonas, etc.
The errors that we find among names in most versions can be traced to
translators. The early Christian translators relied upon the Greek translation
called the Septuagint as their source of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Is it not significant that even though
these Hebrew names were Grecianized, that they still
are recognizable? Why then in English versions does Yahweh’s Name become
changed to a completely foreign “God,” while “Yahshua”
mutates into “Jesus,” a substitute that is not even close to the original?
Why the change, when even the name of the
Adversary – Satan – retains its original Hebrew form and close pronunciation?
(Saw-tawn, Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary No. 7854).
Adam Clarke’s respected comments on the
inferior early translations are informative: “Through the ignorance and
carelessness of transcribers innumerable mistakes have been made in ancient
names. These also have suffered very greatly in their transfusion from one
language to another, till at last the original name is almost totally
lost…Besides, neither the Greeks nor Romans could pronounce either the Hebrew
or Persian names; and when engaged in the task of transcribing, they did it
according to their own manner of pronunciation,” Clarke’s Commentary, vol. 3, pp. 393-394. Clearly, some
over-zealous scribe tampered with the text of the King James Bible and what we
have is a New Testament in which the Name of Yahshua has been adulterated and almost obscured.
For an example of this, look at Acts 7:45
in the King James Version. The sentence reads, “Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the
possession of the Gentiles whom [Elohim] drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of
David.” But the account is actually speaking of the Old Testament Joshua,
the son of Nun!
Another example is found in Hebrews 4:8, “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would
he not afterward have spoken of another day.” Many study Bibles will have
notes on these two verses pointing out that the more correct name is JOSHUA the
son of Nun.
Certain translations other than the King
James have corrected this error and inserted “Joshua” in the text. Thus, we can
see that this name is the same as that given by Moses to his successor in
Numbers 13:16. It is also the name of the Savior (corrected with the “Yah”).
This shows how the translators overzealously changed all the “Yahshua’s” to “Jesus”—even when it referred to someone in
the Old Testament not the Savior.
Go to Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary and peruse page 47, taking special note of the second name
from the top of the right column, No. 3050, YAHH. Notice this is the correct
spelling and pronunciation of the short form YAH and includes the qametes under the yod: (3050. hy Yahh, yaw).
Although author James Strong is noted for
his classic concordance, his understanding of the Name was lacking and he used
the erroneous Jehovah. However, his is correct in listing No. 3050 YAHH,
spelling it with the vowel a instead of e and the double hh to bring out the “ahh” sound.
The importance of the short form YAHH takes
on additional significance when we read John 5:43, “I am come in my Father’s name….” We understand this to mean that He
came in the authority and power of the Heavenly Father. Yet, we must understand
that His Name Yahshua also included His Father’s
Name, YAH. It is the short form, the prefix of the Name Yahshua!
(Followers of Yahshua will be carrying that Name in
the Kingdom, Eph. 3:14-15; Dan. 9:19).
The custom of reading a substitute name
when the Tetragrammaton was encountered in the Hebrew
Scriptures was carried over into the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the LXX (Septuagint). The translation
was said to have been made by seventy Hebrew translators for the King of Egypt
who wanted a copy of this great book of the Hebrews for the grand library of
Alexandria in Egypt. The letters LXX (meaning “70”) are often used as an abbreviation for the Greek Septuagint
translation of the Old Testament.
In making the Greek translation, the
copyists inserted the four characters of the Tetragrammaton in gold letters of the Hebrew, namely hwhy, wherever the name Yahweh was to appear. However, the
pronunciation was pointed with the vowels of Adonai.
After the death and resurrection of the Messiah, there arose a demand for a
Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament by the expanding church. These early
translators were not skilled in the Hebrew language, and actually detested the
Jews and refused to learn the Aramaic or Hebrew tongue. They were ignorant of
Hebrew and were often ridiculed by the Jews for their ludicrous pronunciation
of Hebrew. (See this booklet’s section, “Why the Terms ‘God’ and ‘Lord’?” on
page 26).
And What About ‘Jehovah’?
Scholars know that Jehovah could never be
the name of the Heavenly Father. Aside from the error with the letter J, this word has other problems. Even
the Catholics, who have been given the distinction of inventing the word
“Jehovah,” know it is not the Father’s Name. In the preface to the Revised Standard
Version of the Bible is the following: “The form Jehovah is of late medieval
origin; it is a combination of the consonants of the Divine Name and the vowels
attached to it by the Masoretes but belonging to an
entirely different word. The sound of Y is represented by J and the sound of W by V, as in Latin. The word ‘Jehovah’ does not accurately represent
any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew,” pp. 6-7. Perhaps the best explanation of how the
word Jehovah came about is made in the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary. A photocopy of its entry on “Jehovah” is
shown at the top of the page. The Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves admit
that “Jehovah” is inferior to “Yahweh.” In their book, Let Your Name Be Sanctified (p.16), they quote the Roman Catholic translator of The Westminster Version of
the Sacred Scriptures, saying, “I should have preferred to write ‘Yahwe,’ in which, although not certain, is admittedly
superior to ‘Jehovah,’”
On page 17 of this same book the Jehovah’s
Witnesses write, “In harmony with the practice that had developed among the
superstitious, the vowel signs for Elohim or for Adonay were inserted at the accustomed places in the text
to warn the Hebrew reader to say those words instead of the divine name. By
combining those warning vowel sings with the Tetragrammaton the pronunciation Yahowih and Yehowah were formed.”
Then on page 20 they quote the Lexicon for the Books of the Old Testament,
by Koehler and Baumgartner, under the Tetragrammaton:
“’The wrong spelling Jehovah (Revised Version: The LORD) occurs since about
1100,’ and then it offers its arguments in favor of Yahweh as ‘the correct and
original pronunciation.’”
In the foreword of their Bible, The
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (published by
the Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower Bible and Tract Society), they say on page 25:
Biblical Names Reveal the Person
Our culture today looks on names as little
more than labels, although we still talk about having a “good name” and speak
of being “true to one’s name.” These expressions are carryovers from a time
when a name expressed and conveyed a person’s attributes and character. An eye-opening study of the names of the 12
tribes of Israel appears in Genesis chapter 29-30. Situations surrounding the
birth of each of these sons is reflected in their individual names. The Hebrew
Dictionary found at the back of Strong’s
Exhaustive Concordance provides
a fascinating exercise in the meaning of names.
In his book, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, Marvin R.
Wilson writes: “In Hebrew thought, the name of an individual was considered to
be more than a title or a label for identification. Rather, a name was believed
to reveal the essence, character, reputation, or destiny of the one to whom it
was given. This is why the moral law of Moses forbids defamation of another’s
name by false witness (Ex. 20:16). Thus the name of every Hebrew sent out some
sort of message with it.”
The message of Yahweh’s Name throughout
Scripture is that it is sacred, and one either accepts it or finds oneself in
opposition to Him. The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary explains: “[Yahweh’s]
name reveals his character and salvation in which people may take refuge (Ps.
20:1; cf. Isa. 25:1, 56:6); to treat [Yahweh’s] name as empty is to despise his
person (Ex. 20:7),” p. 747.
Yahweh: The Most Sacred of All Names
Yahweh’s Name is high on a level all its
own. No name is more important than the personal Name of the One we worship.
Not only is this true because names have great significance in Hebrew, but also
because Yahweh Himself tells us to revere His Name and not to bring it to
obscurity through substitution and disuse, Exodus 20:7. The word “vain” in the
Third Commandment –“Thou shalt not take the Name of Yahweh thy Elohim in vain” –is the Hebrew shoaw, meaning to rush over, bring to devastation,
uselessness, ruin, and by implication, neglect.
The
one attribute describing Yahweh’s Name more than any other is its holiness. His
Name is not to be blasphemed (Lev. 24:16) or desecrated. It is to be treated
with reverential awe, because it expresses the essence of Yahweh Himself.
We can bring His Name to ruin by falsifying
it. If you remove an author’s name from the books he wrote and reprint them
with another name in them you falsify his works. The same is true when
translators take His Name from the Scriptures and insert generic titles in its
place.
How can we presume to call upon Yahweh and
His Son Yahshua with titles like “god” and “lord”
that are used in the worship of other deities? Elijah (EliYah,
“my El is Yah”) was calling the people’s attention to the same issue in 1Kings
18 –demonstrating that the True Heavenly Father has a personal Name and that
they in their ignorance were calling on titles of Baal (“Baal Gad” = Lord God)
in their worship (see Harper Collins
Study Bible note on Hosea 2:16).
Baal was the chief “deity” of the Canaanites.
Yahweh charged that they had forgotten His
Name for Baal, Jeremiah 23:26-27. If Yahweh was displeased with the
substitution “Baal,” why would He not be just as provoked with today’s
substitution of an equivalent word, “Lord”?
Yahweh’s Name is so central to salvation
that the Savior’s Name bears it as well. He is the Son, and the salvation
Yahweh sent. You could say “Yah” is the family Name of the Heavenly Majesty.
Author Wilson notes,
“The fact that Jesus was a Jew by birth is
crucial for understanding the nature and person of Jesus as presented in the
Gospels. Jesus was given the Hebrew name Yeshua.
(‘Jesus’ is the Latin form of ‘Iesous,’ the Greek
transliteration of Yeshua.) The name Yeshua, derived from the Hebrew verb yashua,
revealed the destiny he was to fulfill in his life and ministry on this earth”
(Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the
Christian Faith).
All religions generally are known by the one they worship or give homage to. Anciently the god of the Akkadians was Marduk; the god of the Ammonites was Moloch; the god of the Greeks was Zeus; the god of the Romans was Jupiter; the god of the Moabites was Baal-peor; the god of the Hebrews was…God?! Using an all-inclusive, indefinite, impersonal title simply does not identify the One you worship! Capitalizing that title doesn’t help, either, no more than t |