Yahshua

Yahshua is a proposed transliteration of the original Hebrew name of Jesus of Nazareth (Hebrew: יהושע), considered by Christians and Messianic Jews to be the Messiah. The name means Yahweh (Yah) is salvation (Shua).

Etymology
Further information: Jesus (name) § Etymology

The Messiah's name is explained in Matthew 1:21 which reads "She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." The 'save his people' element relates to a Hebrew verb meaning salvation.

According to Josephus, in The Jewish War, Book 5, Chapter 5, Section 7, the first three letters of the Sacred Name are actually vowels. The whole Tetragrammaton is never applied to the name of a mortal in the Sacred Scriptures, only the abbreviated form.

Jacob O. Meyer writes:

Therefore, the first three letters are pronounced as one syllable and waw (Hebrew: ו) draws out the hay (Hebrew: ה), so that instead of a short exhalation as is normal at the end of the hay, the sound emerges as YAHW. Try saying it to yourself

— What is the Messiah's Name, by Jacob O. Meyer

The last two letters of Jesus' name are in Hebrew: שע.

Language of the New Testament
Main articles: Language of the New Testament, Aramaic New Testament, and Greek New Testament

In The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Albert Schweitzer says:

The fact is that from the language of the New Testament it is often difficult to make out whether the underlying words are Hebrew or Aramaic.[1]

The following is a quote from Robert Taylor's Diegeses, published 1869:

It is a false representation, or what would be called in common parlance – a lie, upon the title-page, where it is represented, that the New Testament is ‘translated out of the original Greek’ seeing there never was any original Greek.

The Assemblies of Yahweh teach that the New Testament was not originally written in Koine Greek. The Assemblies believe that during this time these manuscripts, which we have in Greek, most likely were translated.[2]:2

Due to the decision by Jews to no longer pronounce the name, the message of Yahshua – that Yahweh is salvation – would have angered many.[2]:15 George Howard of the University of Georgia considers the possibility that the Tetragrammaton was retained in the first documents of the Greek translation just as it had been retained in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.[2]:8

Although the original manuscripts could be called inspired, Meyer writes that "there is no such thing as an inspired translation".[2] :2 Mistakes are sometimes made in translation and these are passed down to each subsequent translation. An example of a perceived mistake by a translator translating the Hebrew original manuscripts is found in Revelation 19:16. The scripture here says that the Messiah has a name written on His thigh. As explained by the Assemblies of Yahweh:

The word thigh in the Hebrew is 'ragel' (#7271 in Strong's) while it should be banner "dagel" (#1714). Evidently a sloppy scribe omitted the little extension on the top of the dalet and made it into a resh, changing from a Hebrew 'Dālet ד(d) to a Hebrew Rēsh ר(r).[2]:8

Yahshua, Yeshua, or Jesus
See also: Yeshua and Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament

Some time after the destruction of Solomon's Temple, the use of God's name as it was written ceased among the Jews,[3] and they began to use titles such as Hashem and Adonai to refer to Yahweh.

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament states that the "Greek form of a list of OT characters who in pre-exilic Hebrew are called יְהוֹשֻׁעַ and usually after the Exile יֵשׁוּעַ [Yeshua']".[4] Thus the term Yeshua seems to be supported by scholarly works to be a post-Exilic innovation.

The Assemblies of Yahweh believe there was a ploy to prevent the name of Yahweh (or Yah) appearing in the Messiah's name:

The term 'Yeshua' appears (as the Kittel Theological Dictionary asserts) to date from the time when the rabbinical authorities turned toward employing a substitution for the Tetragrammaton Yahweh and using another name for the Almighty in their worship. In proper nouns—the names of people—the Tetragrammaton was omitted wherever possible, or it was distorted or obliterated by the addition of the vowel points for Adonai, the surrogate name of worship: viz – Jehovah, Yehoshua, Jehoshophat, etc.

— The Memorial Name Yahweh

Using the term Jesus
Further information: Jesus (name)

The Sacred Name Movement argues that the New Testament was not originally written in Greek, therefore there is no reason to use the term Jesus. Thus the Assemblies of Yahweh concludes that the word Jesus is no older than the 16th or 17th century.[5]:2

The term that we actually find for the Messiah's name is Jesus (Greek Ἰησοῦς), however this is only an attempted transliteration from the original into the Greek language. Meyer writes:

'Jesus' has been corrupted because it was derived from a foreign, second generation attempt to transliterate the Hebrew name Yahshua. ... Much corruption has entered True Worship over the past 1,900 years since the Apostolic era and it is up to you and me in the last days to eliminate it when it is encountered if we wish to restore true Apostolic worship[5]:4

Furthermore, Meyer claims the term Jesus has actually been linked etymologically to the pagan Greek deity Zeus.[5]:2 This is rejected by Christian scholars of Hebrew, such as Jewish-Christian pastor Dr. Michael Brown: “Jesus is as much related to Zeus as Moses is to mice.” [6] Dr. Michael Heiser, another Christian Hebrew scholar, concurs and refers to Dr. Brown’s work. [7]

Using the term Yeshua

Meyer writes:

The term Yeshua is of late Hebrew or Aramaic. It is from the time when the Jews began to suppress the use of the tetragrammaton in mundane usage. They began to distort the pronunciation of the name "Yah" pronouncing it "Ye". They are still doing this in our day. Again allow us to emphasize the fact that the Saviour's Name is recognized as being Yahshua in Hebrew, and not Yeshua or Jesus.[5]:5

Criticisms

Yahshua is not Hebrew

Dr. Michael Brown, a Jewish-Christian pastor and Hebrew scholar, emphatically denies that “Yahshua” was the Hebrew name of Jesus:

The original Hebrew-Aramaic name of Jesus is yeshu‘a, which is short for yehōshu‘a (Joshua), just as Mike is short for Michael... Why then do some people refer to Jesus as Yahshua? There is absolutely no support for this pronunciation-none at all-and I say this as someone holding a Ph.D. in Semitic languages. My educated guess is that some zealous but linguistically ignorant people thought that Yahweh's name must have been a more overt part of our Savior's name, hence YAHshua rather than Yeshua-but again, there is no support of any kind for this theory... The original form of the name Jesus is yeshu‘a, and there is no such name as yahshu‘a (or,yahushua or the like). [8]

So, for the record, once again, THERE IS NO SUCH NAME AS YAHSHUA. It didn’t exist in biblical times and it has not existed as a genuine Hebrew name in history — until people who really didn’t understand Hebrew made it up, thinking that it somehow restored the “Yah” element (from “Yahweh”) into the Savior’s name... there’s no such either as Yahushua — Joshua was pronounced ye-ho-shu-ah.[9]

A silent 'waw'

Critics say that in their labor to get the pronunciation "Yahshua" out of יהושע, they are ignoring Hebrew linguistics that do not allow the waw to be silent. [10]

However, Meyer writes:

In my book, The Memorial Name – Yahweh, chapter 11, "Back to That Name Again!" I show how this Name should be pronounced. In the Hebrew text the letters are (in the Sephardic Hebrew) yothe, hey, waw, shin and ‘ayin; the yothe, hey, waw becomes a dipthong, and it relates to the Sacred Name Yahweh because it contains three of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton (the four letter word; the fourth letter, the hey is repeated, duplicated). Consequently, when we pronounce the Messiah's Name – Yahshua, that is the way it should be pronounced.

— "The Seven Lamps of Yahweh," Elder Jacob O. Meyer, False Doctrine Abounds in Popular Worldly Religion, p. 83, 2006 (Emphasis Ours).

Pre-1900s

Another criticism is that the name Yahshua cannot be found with that spelling anywhere in history or in Hebrew writings prior to the 1900s.[11]

See also

References
  1. Schweitzer, Albert (1968). The Quest of the Historical Jesus. New York City: New York:Macmillan Co. p. 275. ISBN 0-06-621330-4.
  2. Jacob, Meyer (1973). "Exploding the Greek New Testament Myth" (PDF). Assemblies of Yahweh. Retrieved 2019-12-20. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Davidson, Baruch. "Why Don't Jews Say G‑d's Name?". Chabad. Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  4. Werner Foerster, "Ἰησοῦς," ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 284.
  5. Jacob, Meyer (2004). "What Is The Messiah's Name?" (PDF). Assemblies of Yahweh. Retrieved 2019-12-20. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. Brown, Michael. 60 Questions Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices. Chosen. p. 164. ISBN 0800795040.
  7. "YHWH". The Naked Bible.
  8. "What Is The Original Hebrew Name For Jesus? And Is It True That The Name Jesus Is Really A Pagan Corruption Of The Name Zeus?". ASKDrBrown.
  9. "Can We Please Stop With This "Yahshua" Nonsense?". ASKDrBrown.
  10. "The Name Yahushua" (PDF). Evangelistic Assembly Of Yahweh.
  11. 60 Questions Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices 2011 "According to the late A. B. Traina in his Holy Name Bible, "The name of the Son, Yahshua, has been substituted by Jesus, Iesus, and Ea-Zeus (Healing Zeus)."[164] In this one short sentence, two complete myths are stated as fact."
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