A SIMPLE AND SPIRITUAL LIFE
What is the name of The Messiah?
Is it a Greek or a Jewish name? Should not a disciple of The Messiah know The Messiah’s GOD given birth Name, and it’s pronunciation, as given by the angel Gabriel when he prophesied to Miriam (Mary)? (Luke 1:31)
When The Messiah spoke His Name from heaven to Paul on the road to Damascus, what Name did The Messiah speak? Paul testified that he heard an utterance from The Messiah’s mouth. “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice SAYING to me in the HEBREW dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am ??????? Whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 22:14; 26:14-15). Surely the apostle Paul was not puzzled over the language when he was told “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His Name” (Acts 22:16). What Name did the apostle Paul “call on”?
What then was the utterance from the mouth of The Messiah that proclaimed His Name, since IT IS VERY CLEAR THAT THE MESSIAH SPOKE IN HEBREW? Many names are promoted these days besides the “catholic/christian” name of “jesus”: Y’Shua, Yeshua, Yahshua, Joshua, Yehoshua. Shouldn’t we be able to know the Name of The Messiah? “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Should not a man, especially The Son of GOD and Son of man, be called by the same Name, His GOD given birth Name, all over the world?
Who and what is “Iesous”?
Hundreds of times in the New Testament the Greek name Iesous is translated as ‘Jesus’. But if you have ever read an older King James Bible you might have noticed something odd in Acts 7:45. In his speech to the Jewish council, Stephen refers to the man who led Israel into the earthly Promised Land as “Jesus”, not Joshua! Why? Is this an error?
Well, yes and no, since the Greek name in verse 45 is Iesous, the same word translated as jesus everywhere else. Stephen could not possibly have been referring to anyone else but the leader Joshua who took over after Moses and led the israelites into the earthly Promised Land. And immediately afterwards, in verse 59, Stephen cried out when being stoned, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Again the name is Iesous in the Greek. Was Stephen crying out to the historical figure Joshua, long dead, to save him, or was he calling upon the Son of GOD, since both names in the Greek are Iesous? So what does Iesous mean, Jesus or Joshua? Was Stephen, a man so righteous that heaven opened up at his martyrdom, was Stephen so overcome by the stress of the moment that he couldn’t tell a long dead forefather from The Messiah, Whom he saw standing at the right hand of GOD?
Jesus or Joshua?
Modern translations of the Scriptures, and even recent revisions of the King James version, have noticed this contradiction and changed the name in Acts 7:45 to Joshua so that it makes sense. (The same problem is found in Hebrews 4:8 also.) But where did these translators get their authority to change the Scriptures? Is it through integrity and honesty that Iesous is translated “Jesus”, except when it obviously has to mean Joshua? Or are the traditions of men so strong that translators can take liberties with the Word of GOD? At least the translators of the original King James Version were consistent enough to translate Iesous as Jesus in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8 even when it made no sense.
So if the new translations change Jesus to Joshua in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8, why didn’t they also change Jesus to Joshua in all the other Scriptures where they found the name Iesous? In Acts 7:45 the name Iesous is obviously Joshua, and could not possibly refer to anyone else. Isn’t the name Iesous really Joshua everywhere it is found? Isn’t The Name of The Messiah, in modern English, really Joshua instead of Jesus? If it would be tampering with the Scriptures to change the translated savior’s name of jesus back to Joshua, would it not also be tampering with the Scriptures to change Jesus back to Joshua in Acts 7 and Hebrews 4? It’s all the same word – Iesous! We want to know GOD’s Will about these things, because it doesn’t make sense that the translators would change the Holy Scriptures in one place and not the other. Not wishing to disturb tradition, do they hang on to the name of jesus for the sake of selling bibles?
For certain, one thing is true. Miriam and Yoseph (Mary and Joseph in English) named the child just as the angel commanded them. Did the angel speak to them in Hebrew or did he speak Greek? Everything would be more understandable if he had spoken Greek to them. Then Jesus could have been exactly what came out of the angel’s mouth and the multitudes today pronounce The Messiah’s GOD given Name exactly as the angel did. Except that there never was a “J” sound in Greek .. or Hebrew .. or even English .. until the 1500’s.
So what is the answer? Why should there be confusion concerning the Name by which all men must be saved? Did not GOD reveal to HIS followers the name HE gave to The Messiah, “the given Name above all given Names to Whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess”? Will all HIS people gather around HIS throne someday and mumble but distorted sounds as if we were gathered around the tower of Babel? Are we not speaking of the GOD who longs to speak to the human heart, to save all men who call upon the Name of The Messiah!
What The Messiah’s Name Means
Does the name of The Son of GOD have any meaning other than as a label? It certainly did to Yoseph! “And you will name Him ???????, because He will save His prople from their sins”. (Matthew 1:21) Now if The Messiah’s name is Jesus, this scripture makes no sense, since obviously the Name of The Messiah means that “He will save His people from their sins”.
But do you know what the name Jesus literally means?
No, you don’t, and neither does anyone else, because it has no meaning as a word in any language. It is, at best, a mere tag. Now today we might take a mere tag somewhat lightly, but not the Jews. When Yoseph and Miriam brought the child to the Temple in Jerusalem to dedicate Him, they dared not even utter such a name as Iesous(Joshua in english). The Jewish priests jealously guarded the holiness of the Temple, and considered Greek to be a loathsome language.
If Yoseph and Miriam had dedicated their child in a Greek name it would have been viewed as an abomination, and they would have been roughly ejected from the Temple! Obviously, this did not happen, and they performed everything according to the Law (Luke 2:21-39).
But if the Greek Iesous really translates as Joshua in Hebrew, the language that Yoseph, Miriam, and every other Jew spoke, including the Savior Himself, then the angel’s proclamation makes total sense. Hebrew names in the Bible are always meaningful, as were all names until recent times, and the name Joshua is even more than that for the name Joshua is prophetic.
In John 17:11 our Master prayed, “Holy Father, keep them in Your Name, the Name which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as we are.” Since according to the words of the Savior, the Father’s Name is in His Name, it will help to know the Father’s Name.
Fortunately this is pretty easy, because the Old Testament was only written in Hebrew and a number of verses are very clear in proclaiming the Father’s name, such as, “Sing to GOD … whose name is YAH” (Psalm 68:4).
Also the Scriptures are full of the expression Hallelujah, a phrase very familiar to Christians, but do you know what it means in Hebrew? It is actually HalleluYAH, a command meaning, “Give praise to YAH.” None of this is secret stuff, for it is found in the marginal readings of many bibles today; for example, look at Psalms 116:19 in the new american standard bible.
So how do you say the Savior’s name in His language? Well, it would be Joshua, except that the letter “J” in English was originally a “Y” sound. So His name, which has His Father’s name in it, is Yahshua.
And it has such a wonderful meaning that both Yoseph and Miriam marveled over it, because they knew full well their native language. It means YAH (translated “I Am”, Exodus 3:14) Shua (“mighty and powerful to save”).
So when the angel told this name to them, they were astounded, for His name was a declaration from The GOD of Heaven to mankind that there would be born a man who would be “mighty and powerful to save”.
“And you shall call His name Yahshua, for it is He who will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). When the GOD given birth Name of The Messiah is used this scripture makes total sense, so why use an “imag”ined name given by religious systems less than 600 years ago?
The Weight of Tradition
But does it really matter to GOD what Name we call The Messiah? It certainly was important enough for the Savior to cry out during the last hours before He was betrayed, “Holy Father, keep them in YOUR Name, the Name which YOU have given Me” (John 17:11).
And as stated before, it was clear to the Jews what that name was and how to pronounce it. HalleluYAH is a universal expression, and YAH is the universal name of GOD. Yet so great is the weight of tradition that men have been blindly clinging to a name that has no meaning and makes the Scriptures mentioned void of meaning also.
Can anyone possibly maintain that the name of The Only True GOD, Father of ALL, is somehow incorporated into the name Jesus, or that the name Jesus means that HE will save HIS people from their sins?
Those with “eyes to see”, can see that The Messiah’s GOD given Olde English Name at birth was Yahshua, yet if you prefer the modern day English translation, of The Messiah’s GOD given birth Name, that would be Joshua, in Spirit and Truth…….
The vain “imag”inations that gave birth to the “catholic” and “christian” systems of religion have caused “The Way of Truth to be evil spoken of”, so why continue to use their “imag”ined name for “The Son of Living GOD”? As for me, my preference is to call The Messiah, Y’shua or Immanuel, for as the apostle Paul testified, “GOD was in The Messiah”. Paul did not testify that “god was the messiah”!
Immanuel(GOD with us) indeed, Spirit and Truth!
And while there is breath(spirit) there is hope!
For Miracles do happen!
Hope is there would be those who experience The Miracle that is receiving “a love of The Truth” for they will “see” that The Messiah’s GOD given birth name was not the “imag”ined ‘jesus’ of catholic/christian tradition! ‘jesus’ was a name they “imag”ined less than 600 years ago!
Peace, in spite of the dis-ease(tradition) that is of this wicked world and it’s systems of religion, for “the WHOLE world is under the control of the evil one” (1John 5:19) indeed and Truth…….
Truth IS, a lie never was and is not…….
Abide in Truth……. francis
Yahushua's Cleansing Reign 