Yeshua
I thought that you all might like to know something about the name “Jesus.” Here are the comments of Jewish Rabbi Robert Gorelik, a believer in the Messiah Yeshua and the teacher who will be accompanying us on the trip to Israel on October 14.
By the way, there are only 4 spaces left for this 10 day teaching trip with Bob. If you want to go, you must sign up now. If you already sent your interest form, we have you on the list.
Here’s what Bob has to say:
From Rabbi Robert Gorelik
Yeshua-masculine form of the Hebrew word “salvation.” Yeshua is the proper Hebrew name of Jesus. “Jesus” is derived from the Greek Iêsous. Iêsous is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Y’ho-shua or Joshua and means “the Lord is salvation.”
According to Mathew 1:21, Yeshua was named Salvation (not “the Lord is salvation”), because he would “save his people from their sins.” The “word-play” employed, i.e., between the name Yeshua and the Hebrew word for “save” exists only in Hebrew-it does not exist in Greek-and, it does not exist in English:
–v’ka-ra-tah et sh’mo yeshua ki hu yo-shi-ah et amo me-avono-tei-hem.
In my opinion, the name Yeshua also implies the deity of the Messiah, since the text in Matthew says that “Yeshua will save … from sins”-a statement that can only be true if Yeshua is the very “form of God” (Philippians 2:6-7). See also Exodus 15:2; Psalm 27:1; 37:39; 74:12; John 10:28; Acts 4:12)
Ironically, even though the name Jesus is the name by which Yeshua is known in English-in the First-century, he was never called by that name.
I talk about this frequently, because saying Yeshua’s name as Yah-shua is not only incorrect – it; 1) betrays an ignorance of Hebrew and 2) is an agenda-driven attempt (on the part of some) to insert God’s “Sacred Name” into the name of the Messiah, and 3) is not even the proper pronunciation of “YHVH saves” or “YHVH is salvation”.
Dear brother Skip,
I bless the day that your brother John B. Samuel encouraged me to visit your website. It is the fulfilment of a prayer of many years: “Lord we sense that there is so much more “hidden” in your Word, and we yearn to know what that is. We feel till into our chromosomes that “they” taught us during many years “denominational bound rubish”.
So I pray that the Lord will continue to bless you and your dear spouse, your beloved ‘ezer.
Me too, I’m blessed with a sacred gift of heaven, my dearest ‘ezer.
I have a rime for her. It is dutch, but I am pretty sure that you will understand it: my wife is my:”Sacrament” my “Medicament” and my “Monument”.
We are going to celebrate Pesach this afternoon, according, more or less, to the Jewish way, to end with the celebration of our salvation and the resurection of our Lord Yeshuah Hamashiah!
With a big hug of a brother from over the ocean, united in the Love of Christ.
Leo
So what name must Jesus have been called while he walked on earth if not Yeshua?
Makes one wonder how many of our prayers have not been heard when we don’t pray in His real name? What are the implications of “His name is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved.” ?
I know He makes room for our intent. But it shows just how far we have been led astray by our pagan roots to not even know his NAME! It feels so satisfying to call upon Yeshua knowing I am calling Him by His name. Imagine your best friend calling you Bob all the time, when your name is really Skip. It would get frustrating. It must be frustrating to Him. And just how decieved your friend is to think your name is Bob!
Since Christians have been making this mistake for about 1800 years, I am quite sure that Yeshua is more than tolerant. But, you’re right. How embarrassing. It’s about time we started calling Him by His real name, right?
Of course, if we really want to get serious about this, we must also notice that we don’t call God by His personal name either. And no Jew has done so for perhaps 2500 years or more. There is no indication that believers didn’t use God’s personal name prior to the Babylonian captivity.
If you want to see how all this happened, read Todd Bennett’s book called “Names”
I am taking the rest of the weekend off. I hope you are all refreshed too. See you Monday.
Skip
Shalom Skip and Brethren, -This will go in 2 parts due to “spammy” restrictions 😉
With all due respect to our brother, Rabbi Robert Gorelik, his opinion on the pronunciation of our Saviors name may not have the validation he proclaims.
Matt 1:21 NASB
21 “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus [Iesous- NT#2424], for it is He who will save His people from their sins.”
NT:2424
Iesous (ee-ay-sooce’); of Hebrew origin [OT:3091]; Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites: KJV – Jesus.
OT:3091 Yehowshuwa` (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah); or Yehowshu`a (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah); from OT:3068 and OT:3467; Jehovah-saved; Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua), the Jewish leader: -Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Joshua. Compare OT:1954, OT:3442.
[Of course there is no “j” sound in either Hebrew or Greek- so a “y- yuh” sound would be more appropriate- TW]
Rabbi Gorelik renders it “-v’ka-ra-tah et sh’mo yeshua ki hu yo-shi-ah et amo me-avono-tei-hem.” From Greek into Hebrew yet his translation displays his bias that here “Iesous” should be translated “Yeshua” rather than the multiple times in the Septuagint where “Iesous” was used to translate Yehoshua/Yahushua [either pronunciation comes from the same Hebrew letters with different vowel points- yet have the same meaning- “YHWH is salvation” ] [See, we don’t even have to be ignorant in Hebrew to use a rendering other than Yeshua 😉 ]
There are studies, too detailed to recount here, that explain why the Masorites used false vowel points over the Hebrew letters of the Tetragram so that people would not speak the real name of GOD which by their traditions was too holy to be spoken out loud. This carried into names which incorporated YHW or YH into them. An excellent article that you can read on this topic can be found at: http://www.eliyah.com/yahushua.html [The author admits that the pronunciation is not salvational, yet he ascribes more importance to it than I necessarily would.]
—> Part two
Part Two:
Bottom line: the “name” of GOD or Messiah is not really about how we enunciate syllables, but speaks to His authority and reputation. We can see that in the millions of believers who came to salvation in “the name of Jesus”- a pronunciation He never heard. Yet their salvation is secured by His authority because He knows who we refer to when we say Jesus/Yeshua/Yehoshua/Yahshua/Yahushua. o/o/ Frankly, I use all of them, depending on who I am speaking to. 😉 Same goes for the pronunciation of YHWH. 🙂
I do not believe that it was and accident that the Holy One chose Yahushua for the name of our Savior. It will fascinate you to look up the times Yahushua [OT3091] is used and relate things about these men to our Savior and what it teaches us about Him:
-Yahushua/Joshua gets us into the Promised Land.
-Yahushua/Joshua receives his authority from Moses (Torah).
-Yahushua/Joshua promotes keeping the Torah- as did Yahushua/Jesus.
-the high priest Yahushua was the son of Yahutzedak- their names mean YHWH’s salvation comes from (ie son of) YHWH’s righteousness. Zec 3:1
Zech 6:9-15 NASB
9 The word of the Lord also came to me saying, 10 “Take an offering from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah; and you go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have arrived from Babylon.
11 “And take silver and gold, make an ornate crown, and set it on the head of JOSHUA the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. 12 “Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts,” Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord. 13 “Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.”‘ 14 “Now the crown will become a reminder in the temple of the Lord to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. 15 “And those who are far off will come and build the temple of the Lord.” Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And it will take place, if you completely obey the Lord your God.
FASCINATING, isn’t it??? 😎
PS: Even though I see no evidence that the “Iesous” of Matt 1:21 is anything other than Jesus/Joshua/Yahushua… Rabbi Gorelik’s use of Yeshua meaning ‘salvation’ is interesting.
Remember that Moses changed Joshua’s name from Hosea to Joshua- that is to say the name changed from Hosea-Savior to Joshua- YHWH is salvation. I think the Almighty does want us to know that Salvation comes only from Him (Father and Son are one).
Why do some spell YHWH and some YHVH?
Simple. The Hebrew letter vah is transliterated as waw or vav depending on the convention you use. Nothing more sinister than that.