Yahshua, Jesus or Yeshua ?

by Avram Yehoshua

(Endnotes in red. Click on the number to go to the endnote. Click the BACK button on your browser to return to the article)

The name Yeshua is literally a transliteration of the Messiah’s Hebrew name. When one says, ‘Yeshua’ one is speaking Hebrew. This is the name that all the Apostles would have known Him by and what His mother would have called Him when He was late for supper. Literally it would be pronounced ‘Yea-shu-ah’ the ‘Yea’ rhyming with the ‘ay’ in ‘say.’ (Although many shorten it to Yeh-shua.) In the Tanach (the Hebrew ‘Old Testament’) the Hebrew name for Jesus is seen in 29 places, mostly Ezra and Nehemiah (e.g. Ezra 2:2, 6, 36, 40; 3:2, 8, 9; 4:3; Neh. 3:19; 7:7, 11, 39, etc.) and also in 1st Chron. 24:11 and 2nd Chron. 31:15. In these places the name Yeshua is easily seen in English Bibles as Jeshua which is the shortened form for Joshua. The name Yeshua was used at least five hundred years before Messiah was born.

The name ‘Jesus’ comes into English from the Greek New Testament. The Greek Yea-sous is a semi-transliteration of Yeshua. The Greek alphabet didn’t have the ‘sh’ sound to fully transliterate the Hebrew name Yeshua into Greek. Because of this the best that Paul or any of the other writers of the New Testament could do was to write ‘Yeasous.’ (The final ‘s’ sound is the sigma, part of Greek grammar.) So instead of Yea-sue-ah it became Yea-sue-ous (Yea-sous).

It’s the ‘sous’ at the end that trips some people up into thinking that somehow Messiah’s name got transferred or associated with the pagan god Zeus. Some people believe we shouldn’t say ‘Jesus’ as the ‘sus’ in Jesus is very similar to the sound ‘Zeus’ makes. This logic is very flawed though.

First, the name Yeasous was written and given to us by the Holy Spirit through the writers of the New Testament. In the Gospels, Acts, Letters and Revelation the name of Messiah is Yeasous. If the Holy Spirit and the inspired writers didn’t think it was wrong to use Yeasous as the Greek name for Messiah Yeshua there’s no need for us to think that the name Yeasous is wrong.

Second, to demand that we don’t say the name Yeasous (or Jesus) because it sounds like Zeus may seem ‘reasonable’ upon hearing the similarity of the sounds but it’s not rational. It carries the same weight to it of prohibiting the word ‘raisin’ because it has the word ‘sin’ in it.

Luke, and all the Jewish writers of the New Testament who wrote in Greek, wrote the Hebrew name Yeshua as Yeasous. Obviously they didn’t think they were calling upon the chief god of Mt. Olympus when they did it. Those that espouse that we shouldn’t say the name Jesus and that Yeasous in Greek means another god are contending with the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul, John and all the others to refer to Yeshua in Greek as Yeasous.

Dr. Daniel Botkin pinpoints the interchangeableness of the names Joshua and Jesus noting that Neh. 8:17 has Yeshua (Jesus) for Yehoshua (Joshua).¹ Joshua’s name in Greek is (also) Yeasous and is seen in the Septuagint (Josh. 1:12; 2:11; 3:1; 4:4, etc.) which predates the Messiah’s birth by more than 200 years. Botkin also says that this too is proof that ‘Yesous has no connection to Zeus’² for the Jewish Sages who wrote the Septuagint would have been well aware of the pagan god by that name and wouldn’t have used those Greek letters to form Joshua’s name with it if they thought there was a connection to it or to ‘Hail Zeus!’ as some infer.

From the Greek, the name of the Messiah went into Latin and from there to the European languages. That’s why Jesus is pronounced ‘Hay-sous’ in Spanish. The Spanish pronounce the ‘J’ as an ‘H’ sound. And most everyone knows the German J is pronounced as an I as in Yahn for John.

In English the Name has gone through some interesting changes reflecting its origin from the Greek Yeasous. In Middle English (1066–1450 A.D.) the Name was written as IHS ‘an abbreviation of (the) Greek IHSOYS (‘Iesous’).’³ In the 16 th century the Name was Iesu or Iesus and in William Tyndale’s 1526 New Testament we find Mt. 1:1 being written as ‘The boke off the generacion off Ihesus Christ’ with Mt. 8:29 as ‘O Iesu the sonne off God.’⁴

In the 17 th century the J replaced the I to make Jesu. By the 18 th century the ‘s’ was added to make our familiar ‘Jesus’ but obviously it wasn’t always like that.⁵ The point of all this is that the name Jesus has evolved linguistically directly from the ancient Greek New Testament which was a proper way of saying Yeshua in Greek. The name Jesus is OK.

Changing Messiah’s Hebrew name to Yeasous was not unbiblical or a sin as the Greek could not support His full Hebrew name. He still remained the King of the Jews who died for both Jew and Gentile and the One who showed us the depth of the Law’s sacrificial love by taking our place on the Tree.

Another aspect of Messiah’s name is the penchant for Sacred Name organizations to write it as Yahshua or some derivation with the ‘Yah’ in the front. This is a theological statement on their part whose shaky foundation rests on the words of Messiah that He came in His Father’s name (John 5:43). As that name is Yahveh (pronounced Yah-vay) which they mispronounce by saying Yahweh or some form thereof they deem it necessary ‘to correct’ how Yeshua’s name is spelled. Unfortunately their theological reasoning is obtuse. The ambassador from the United States to France comes ‘in the name of the President of the United States’ but the ambassador doesn’t add either the ‘United States’ or the name of the current President to the name that he was born with. When the Lord was born ‘Yeshua’ was a very common name given to Jewish babies.

In 1st Samuel 25:9 David sends some men to seek food from a wealthy sheep owner. It’s written that,

‘When David’s young men came they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David’s name . Then they waited.’

The men came in the authority of David for David had sent them. Are we to assume that all the men changed their names to incorporate ‘David’ or a portion of his name into their names? Placing the Yah of Yahveh into Messiah’s name doesn’t have any biblical or linguistic foundation.

Sanford Howard says the name Yahshua cannot be found in the Scriptures:

‘In our own day, some still assert that there is but one name and one name only by which The Messiah, The Son of God, should be known, and that it is Yashuah’ (or Yahshuah). ‘This is far from the truth and certainly not in harmony with the Holy Scriptures. Nowhere in the Bible, Hebrew or Greek, can one find such a name.’⁶

Dr. Daniel Botkin writes that the name Yahshua didn’t come onto the scene until 1936 and by people that didn’t really know Hebrew. Dr. Ben-Gigi says, ‘there is no such name in Hebrew’ and that people invented ‘the name Yahshua to fit their theology.’⁷

Howard goes on to say that the Son coming in the ‘name’ of the Father meant that as the Father has names that point to His role in saving His people, so the Son would too. This applies to His ability to pardon sins (part of salvation), but is not limited to it.

Howard says the name Yeshua means salvation of Yahveh as Yeshua ‘is a contraction of Yehoshua’.⁸ Richard Weymouth explains that ‘Jesus’ comes from ‘Joshua’ and speaks of Yahveh as Savior:

‘The Greek form of ‘Joshua’, which later (like ‘Joram’ 2nd Kings 9:14 for ‘Jehoram’ 2nd Kings 9:15; ‘Joash’ 2nd Kings 12:20 for ‘Jehoash’ 2nd Kings 12:1; and ‘Jonathan’ most commonly for the ‘Jehonathan’ which we find in the Hebrew in 1st Sam.), is contracted from ‘Jehoshua’ or rather ‘Yehoshua.’⁹ ‘The full significance of the name ‘Jesus’ is seen in the original ‘Yeho-shua,’¹⁰ which means Yahveh is Savior or Yahveh saves.

Howard, in seeing ‘the name’ of the Father ‘in the Son’ as a function of what the Son would do writes that when the Messiah came to Earth and took upon Himself human flesh,

‘the Father sent His angel to declare the Messiah’s name, ‘Yeshua’ (Mt. 1:21). Since Yeshua means ‘Salvation of Yahveh, we can now understand what the Messiah meant when He said, ‘I am come in My Father’s name’; and what the Father meant when He said, My name is in Him.’¹¹

The Son coming in the Father’s name speaks of the authority that the Son had to say and do in displaying salvation to Israel. He had the authority of the One who sent Him (Jn. 14:8-10).

Botkin also sounds a note of warning about some Sacred Name publications that are less than honest in quoting sources ‘to prove’ that Yahshua is the correct name of Messiah. One such writer made it appear that the prestigious Theological Dictionary of the New Testament along with other resources used the names of Yahoshua and Yahshua. But when Botkin searched it out he found no such names were used.¹²

The name of the Messiah is not Yahshua but Yeshua and calling Him Jesus isn’t a sin.

ENDNOTES

1.   From http://www.yashanet.com/library/Yeshua_or_Yahshua.htm.

2.   Ibid.

3.   See Spotlight on…Jesus at http://www.takeourword.com/Issue068.html.

4.   Ibid.

5.   Ibid.

6.   Sanford R. Howard, L’Chayim: Finding The Light of Shalom (Thorsby, AL: Sabbath House, Inc., 1999), p. 254. New International Encyclopedia, second edition, vol. 12, p. 625.

7.   From http://www.yashanet.com/library/Yeshua_or_Yahshua.htm. Ben-Gigi is an Israeli professor, author of First Steps in Hebrew Prayers and designed the Living Israeli Hebrew language learning course.

8.   Howard, L’Chayim: Finding The Light of Shalom , p. 256. New International Encyclopedia, second edition, vol. 12, p. 625.

9.   Ibid., p. 256. The New Testament in Modern Speech, 4th edition, p. 4, The Pilgrim Press.

10.   Ibid.

11.   Ibid., p. 260.

12.   From http://www.yashanet.com/library/Yeshua_or_Yahshua.htm. Botkin writes, ‘In one popular booklet published by a well-known Sacred Name organization, the anonymous author makes this statement: “Most reference works agree with Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the NT statement on page 284, which states that the name Yahoshua was shortened after the exile to the short form Yahshua.” This statement makes it sound like Kittel uses the forms Yahoshua and Yahshua. I went to the library and looked at this page in Kittel’s. The words Yahoshua and Yahshua do not appear even one time on this page. This can be verified by going to a library and looking up this page. (It’s in Volume III.)’ ‘This same Sacred Name organization which misrepresents Kittel’s also misrepresented a Jewish author. In a magazine article written by this organization’s main leader, a lengthy segment is quoted from a book published by KTAV, a Jewish publishing house. When copying this quotation for his magazine article, this Sacred Name author freely used Yahshua, making it appear that the Jewish author used that transliteration in his book. I got the book from the library, though, and discovered that “Yahshua” did not appear in the book. I wrote to this Sacred Name leader asking for an explanation. I told him that unless he had some other explanation, I could conclude one of three things: either he deliberately misrepresented the facts, or he did it accidentally, or the book I got from the library was a different version from his, in which case I would owe him an apology. My letter was sent September 1, 1997, and I am still waiting for a reply.’