How Important is a Name?

Luke 1:26-33 NIV: "In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever; his kingdom will never end."

"Jesus" is a transliteration, occurring in a number of languages and based on the Latin Iesus, of the Greek, itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew (Yehosua, Joshua) or Hebrew-Aramaic (Yesua), meaning "Yahweh delivers (or rescues)" "Christ" is a title derived from the Greek Christos, meaning the "Anointed One," a translation of the Hebrew (Messiah).

Jesus lived in Galilee for most of his life and spoke Aramaic and possibly Hebrew and some Greek. The name "Jesus" comes from an alternate spelling of the Latin (Iesus) which in turn comes from the Greek name Iesous. In the Septuagint, it is used as the Greek version of the Hebrew name Yehoshua "God delivers" from Yeho - Yahweh [is] shua- deliverance/rescue in the Biblical book of the same name, usually Romanized as Joshua. Some scholars believe that one of these was likely the name that Jesus was known by during his lifetime by his peers. Thus, the name has been translated into English as "Joshua."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus

In Hebrew Yeshua means Salvation while the name Jesus has no intrinsic meaning in English whatsoever. http://www.thenazareneway.com/yeshua_jesus_real_name.htm

Another error that will be discussed in this article is that "Yahshua's name was not known to most translators at the time. Jewish Masoretic priests, around the 6th century A.D., created the name Jesus by changing the vowel point from the letter "a" to "e" in the Tetragrammaton YHWH. This resulted in changing the pronunciation from Yah to Yeh.

The priests continued the tradition, which was in effect at the time of the Messiah, of teaching the people that the name "Yahweh" was too sacred to pronounce, and to speak this name was blasphemy and punishable by death. Most people and lower level priests were initially taught to say "Adonai" when they saw the name "Yahweh" or the tetragrammaton written.

This name "Jesus" commonly used in Christianity today did not exist and would not be spelled with the letter "J" until about 500 years ago. This article will also discuss the grammatical errors involved in the transliteration of Yahshua into Greek and Latin, which radically changed the form of Yahshua's name.

In the so-called New Testament of the Bible there were two instances where an angel and the spirit form of the Messiah appeared to humans and spoke to them in Hebrew. First, Gabriel spoke to Mary regarding her unborn son. Since Mary was Hebrew of the tribe of Judah (Lk. 1:27), Gabriel had to communicate to her in the Hebrew tongue, her native language, not Chinese or Greek, for she would not have been able to understand him. "And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with Elohim (God). And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS (Luke 1:30-31)." As shown in the Hebrew alphabet, there is no J in Hebrew (see alphabet on p. 8). So the question is what did the angel Gabriel say that the baby would be named? It was impossible for him to say Jesus because Jesus is Greek for Yahshua.

In another instance, the Messiah appeared in spirit form and in a vision, to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-7) and spoke in Hebrew. Paul described what happened. "And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (Acts 26:14)."

Paul asked this spirit, "Who art thou, Lord (Acts 26:15)?" The Messiah replied, "I am Jesus [in the King James Bible and most English Bibles] whom thou persecutest."

One thing is clear. The Messiah knows His name and as was stated and repeated throughout this article it is impossible for him to have said Jesus as it is translated since Yahshua spoke to Paul in the Hebrew tongue.

Now that it is clear that the Messiah's name was not spelled with the letter J, there is another error that must be addressed. Many misspell the Messiah as "yÈshÙa," (which is a contraction for "yehÖshÙa."). The error is that it does not have the "Yah" part of the Father's name in the translation.

http://www.plim.org/JesusOrigin.htm

For a complete explanation of how the name Jesus replaced Jahshua see the site above.

There is a scripture that never made sense to me before is: John 17:10-12 NIV

"All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me."

I saw very little connection between the name Jehovah and the name Jesus except that the started with the same first two letters. The finding that God's name was Yahweh and the name Yahshua was the Hebrew name for Jesus began to explain the meaning of this scripture to me.

This name has been coming up in my research for several months and has put a desire in my heart to respect the name that the Messiah was born with: Yahshua. I know that He has tolerated the mispronunciation of His name over the centuries, but I am sure He cannot be pleased that His real name has been obscured.

As a general rule, we do not translate people's names to fit our language. For example: We do not call Julio Iglesias, Julius Church do we? My name has been mispronounced very much over the years. Usually I do not correct casual acquaintances, but I do like those I consider my friends to call me by my real name.

All names in Hebrew have a specific meaning. Many times names were changed to fit the changed circumstances of the people. For example: Jacob's name was changed to Israel.

Jacob (Yaakov, Ya'akov) The name "Jacob" seems to be derived from the verb la'akov, "follow". The Bible explains that the name Jacob comes from the word akev, "heel". According to the Biblical story, when Jacob was born right after his twin brother, Esau, he was holding his heel in his hand.

Israel (Yisrael, Yisra'el) According to the Biblical explanation, the first part of the name "Israel" is derived of the verb lisrot, "wrestle"; the second half of the name is El, "God". This name was given to Jacob because he wrestled with God's angel.

After the promise was given to Abram that his seed would bless the nations, God changed his name to Abraham.

Abraham (Avraham) According the bible, the name Abraham is constructed of the words av, "father" and hamon, "many", since Abraham was the father of many peoples.

http://www.learn-hebrew-names.com/listnames.aspx?GenderID=Boys

With this mind, the name of our Savior and Lord is Yahshua. A name which means Yah is Salvation, unlike Jesus which has no meaning in our language. So I have resolved to change my habit of using the name Jesus to calling Him by His real name Yahshua.

Here is another website that describes more about His Name:

http://hethathasanear.com/index1.htm Click on "What's In A Name" on the left.