What's In a Name
Some time ago when I was in college, I was searching for
something meaningful in life. I wasn’t finding it
in school. I had been primed all my life to go to college
and then on to “life,” whatever that meant.
Somehow, being one more cog in the machine didn’t
appeal to me. I wanted true friends and I wanted to do something
with my life that really made a difference. I was experiencing
neither.
A few years earlier in high school, I was at a concert
in much of the same state of mind as I would be several
years later — lonely and searching for something.
When I left the concert someone must have handed me a
little paper. It was from some people who lived in a community.
This was very interesting to me since I was looking for
something like this. However, in the busyness of my life,
I put it into my closet and forgot about it.
As
the
years
went
by,
I
would
see
them
at
many
of
the
events
that
I
went
to.
They
were
beginning
to
capture
my
interest.
One
day
a
friend
and
I
happened
to
park
right
behind
their
big
maroon-and-cream-colored
bus.
On
the
back
it
read, “We Know the Way, We’ll Bring You Home.”
I thought to myself, “That’s what I want, a
real home.” As we were sitting there, I asked my friend
if he knew anything about them. He answered, “Yeah,
they are some community that follows God.”
When he said this, my heart leapt inside. That was what
I was looking for — a community where people loved the
God of the Bible. So I asked him, “Do they believe
in Jesus?”
“No way,” was his reply, “they follow
some guru called ‘Yahshua.’”
“Yahshua,” I thought to myself, “who is
that?” I was disappointed, to say the least. These
people seemed so nice, but if they didn’t follow the
Son of God then I didn’t want to have anything to
do with them. If there was one thing I didn’t need
to get involved with, it was some strange religion. So I
decided to steer clear of them.
Eventually, there I was in college, still very lonely and
still searching. Some friends had invited me to several
concerts that would be happening that summer. I decided
to go with them. At one of the first shows, I saw that same
bus and I was instantly intrigued again. Something about
these people seemed so special, but, I had to remind myself,
they didn’t follow the Son of God. It had been a couple
of years since I had first come in contact with them. I
had gone my way, searching for something real, but had found
nothing.
At one of those shows, I was walking through the parking
lot and saw a good friend of mine. Oddly enough, he was
sitting very near that bus. He was talking with someone
and I sat down to join the conversation. After a few minutes,
I asked him if he knew anything about that bus. He told
me that I should talk to the other man, because he was part
of the community that was traveling on the bus.
I was excited, since I had never actually talked to anyone
from the bus; I had just heard things about them. The things
I had heard about them following “Yahshua” had
kept me away for almost two years. But I was full of questions
about the community and what they believed. My first question
was, of course, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”
To my surprise, the man said, “Of course we do. Our
entire life revolves around Him and His teachings!”
I could hardly believe it!
He went on to explain to me that while most people call
the Son of God Jesus, they preferred His original Hebrew
name – Yahshua. He told me that it actually meant “God’s
Salvation.”
The more he talked the more everything began to make sense
to me. I had grown up in a society that had caused me to
question everything, but somehow I never questioned what
had been handed down to me at church. I thought that because
these people didn’t say Jesus, although they were
full of love and kindness, they must be bad. But what I
found out was that Jesus wasn’t even the Savior’s
name!
So now, as you have guessed, I am a part of this people
who follow the Son of God, and I would like to share with
you the amazing things I have learned about His name.
In the days of John the Baptist and the Son of God, the
preserved language of the devout Jews was Hebrew. So, when
the angel Gabriel brought the good news to the Hebrew virgin,
Miriam (or Mary in English), that she would give birth to
the Savior of the world, and told her what His name would
be, what language do you suppose he spoke? Hebrew, of course!
And certainly Miriam and Yoceph (or Joseph in English) named
the child just as the angel had commanded them — Yahshua.
In Matthew 1:21, your Bible probably reads, “… and
you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people
from their sins.” But the name Jesus is a modern English
adaptation of the Greek name, Iesous, which is itself a
corruption of the original Hebrew name Yahshua. The name
Jesus or Iesous has no meaning of its own, but the Hebrew
name Yahshua literally means Yahweh’s Salvation,
which makes sense out of what the angel said in Matthew
1:21, “…you shall call His name Yahshua [Yahweh’s
Salvation], for He shall save His people from their sins.”
If you look in an old King James Bible, you will find the
name Jesus in these two passages:
Which also our fathers that came after brought in with
Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave
out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David?
(Acts 7:45, KJV)
For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward
have spoken of another day. (Hebrews 4:8, KJV)
However, if you look in any modern Bible, including more
recently printed King James Bibles, you will find that in
place of the name Jesus they use the name Joshua, for in
the context it is clear that it is speaking there of Moses’
successor and not the Son of God. But in the Greek manuscript
the name in both of these verses is Iesous.
You see, Joshua is the popular English transliteration of
the Hebrew name Yahshua. Joshua of the Old Testament had
the same name as the One called Jesus in the New Testament,
for Joshua was the prophetic forerunner of the Son of God,
bringing Israel into the Promised Land and leading them
to victory over their enemies. But since the translators
obviously know this fact, why do they only translate Iesous
as Joshua in these two verses, and as Jesus everywhere else?
The fact is, the name of God’s Son was not even pronounced
as “Jesus” in English until the 16th century,
simply because there was no “J” sound or letter
in English until then. The modern letter “J”
developed from the letter “I” which began to
be written with a “tail” when it appeared as
the first letter in a word. So in old English the name now
written as Jesus was actually written and pronounced much
like the original Greek Iesous. Eventually the hard “J”
sound crept into the English language to accompany the different
way of writing the initial “I” in the name.
You may also find it interesting that in Acts 26:14-15,
it says that the apostle Paul heard the name of the Son
of God pronounced “in the Hebrew tongue” by
the Son of God Himself, so he certainly didn’t hear
the Greek name Iesous or the English name Jesus, but rather
the Hebrew name, the name above all names, Yahshua.
I’d much rather call the Son of God, my Savior,
by His true name —the name His own mother, Miriam,
and foster father, Yoceph, and all of His Jewish friends
called Him. Not only have I found out what His true name
is, but His true Body on earth as well. I am so thankful
to have finally found true rest with the true Savior. Please
take the time to read the other articles in this paper.
You are always welcome to come visit us in any of our communities.
Some authorities say that Iesous is derived from an earlier form meaning healing Zeus, the supreme god of ancient Greek mythology.
Yah is the personal name of God, and shua is from a Hebrew root word that means to save. God identified Himself to Moses as YAH (meaning
I AM) in Exodus 3:14, as in Psalm 68:4 (whose name is Yah), and as most familiar in the word Halleluyah (Praise Yah). And in John 5:43
and 17:11, Yahshua says that He came in His Fathers name, the name which You have given Me (NASB), so it is not surprising that the Fathers
name would be incorporated into the Sons name, Yahshua.
Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 1496,1507.
Philippians 2:9; Acts 4:12
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