Can we use the name Jesus? Sacred names and Hebrew roots

Can we use the name Jesus? Sacred names and Hebrew roots

 

Have you ever come across someone that says we should not use the name Jesus when referring to the Messiah? Have you ever been told you should only call him by his Hebrew name? If you have you are not alone. You have likely been speaking to a sacred namer or someone from the Hebrew roots movement. This assertion is also made by most of the Hebrew Israelite camps as well.

My book the Holy Bible vs The Hebrew Israelites

You can buy my book on Amazon (here is a link to the Amazon.com site) 
Amazon.co.uk 

The claim is pretty similar regardless of who is making it. Jesus was not the name of the Messiah. The Messiah was a Jew and so had a Jewish name. Of course the Hebrew Israelites will say that he was a Hebrew Israelite and had an Israelite name.

One website arguing against the name Jesus states:

It is right that sincere worshippers of the Messiah and our Savior should desire to call upon his name and praise his name and sing to his name.  But, in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “surely our fathers have inherited lies” (16:19).  The true name of the Messiah has not been faithfully delivered to this generation of believers.  In fact, for many centuries, the name of the Messiah of Scripture has been mistakenly rendered Jesus and many have been deceived as to the real name of the One whom we all want to adore and worship.
The True Hebrew Name of the Biblical Messiah (bibletruth.cc)

Furthermore the site states:

 

At the heart of the problem with using the name Jesus as a reference to the Messiah is that the name Jesus wasn’t and isn’t his real name.  The historical Nazarene was a Hebrew.  He was Jewish, born of Jewish parents.  He and his parents and all Israel during those times spoke Hebrew as their primary language.  Therefore, he was given a Hebrew name.

But the name Jesus is not a Hebrew name.  There is no name even close to sounding like Jesus in Hebrew.  Therefore, it is easy to see that the name Jesus is not derived from the Hebrew language.  In fact, it is a name derived from the Greek language.

The True Hebrew Name of the Biblical Messiah (bibletruth.cc)

 

Another argument often made is that the letter J did not exist until the 17th Century…although many actually get this wrong (IUIC……) .

Did you know that there is no “J” in Greek or Hebrew or Latin to date, nor was there a “J” in English for nearly 1700 years? The name “Jesus”…was not used until after the invention of the printing press and the letter “J” in the mid to late 17^th century, a mere 400 years ago. That means the apostles never even heard the name “Jesus”! You need to understand the origins of your beliefs, and why it makes a vital difference to your personal salvation.
Jesus Is A Mistranslated & Wrong Name; Know The Truth | Eternal life gospels

 

It is likely that they will cite Acts 4:12 as further support for there claim regarding the usage of the Hebrew name.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

 

So if there is only one name by which we can be saved and his Hebrew name was not Jesus, then we cannot use the name Jesus.

This may sound like it makes sense on the surface, but once we investigate we will find that this simply just does not hold up to scrutiny.

So let’s do exactly that, lets scrutinise the claims.

 

Firstly, isn’t it a bit strange, that many of those who assert that we can only use the Hebrew name of the Messiah actually can’t agree on what that Hebrew name is.

Let’s take a look at some examples. One website says that the name is Yoshua or Yahushua.

Note that Joshua = Yoshua or Yahushua because there is no “J” sound in Hebrew. The “J” with its “J” sound didn’t come into the English language until about 500 years ago. In fact, the “J” isn’t even found in the original 1611 King James version.

Again, the context reveals that this scripture is referring to Joshua, the son of Nun and not the Messiah. All other translations put “Joshua” here. Why then is it translated ‘Jesus’? The answer lies in the Greek/Latin corruption of the Messiah’s original Hebrew name. Originally, the name of the Messiah was , pronounced Yahushua. This is the Messiah’s original name.

https://eliyah.com/yahushua-is-the-true-name-of-the-messiah/

 

However, another website quotes Dr James Tabor who argued that Yahshua was IMPOSSIBLE, and that the correct name is Yehoshua or Yeshua.

 

Dr. James Tabor —

“The Hebrew name for Jesus is YEHOSHUA, or the shortened form YESHUA, NOT Yahshua, as so many mistakenly think. The form Yahshua is IMPOSSIBLE in Hebrew and ignores completely the second syllable, represented by the letter “vav.” This [YESHUA] is a very common name in Hebrew. I have several Jewish friends with this name, and there is no doubt about how to write or pronounce it whatsoever. It is built from the Divine Name YEHOAH [or YEHOVAH]. The first two syllables, YEHO, are common in many Biblical names (Jehoshaphat, Jehoiakim). These three letters or syllables in Hebrew simply CANNOT be represented by YAH. YAH in Hebrew is Yod He, while the letters of the Sacred Name, reflected in such compounds, are Yod He Vav. The Vav must have its common vowel sound in this form, it cannot be silent or ignored” (Restoring Abrahamic Faith. Genesis 2000, Charlotte, NC 28256, p. 12 ftn.).

https://www.hope-of-israel.org/messiahsname.html

 

Another site claims that Yeshua 

 

Regardless of religious belief, the name “Jesus” is nearly universally recognizable. However, it may come as a surprise that the name millions of Christians all over the world are implored not to take in vain was not actually “Jesus” at all.

Controversial though the claim may sound, at heart it is really more of a translation issue.

The Greek transliteration of Jesus’ real name, “Iēsous”, and the late Biblical Hebrew version “Yeshua.”

Of course, neither English nor Spanish were around in their modern form when the real Jesus was actually alive, or for that matter, when the New Testament was written.

Jesus and his followers were all Jewish and so they had Hebrew names — although they would likely have spoken Aramaic. The “J” sound used to pronounce Jesus’ name in English does not exist in Hebrew or Aramaic, which is strong evidence that Jesus was called something different by his contemporaries.

 

Most scholars, therefore, believe that the Christian Messiah’s name was actually “Yeshua,” a fairly common Jewish name around the time Jesus was alive.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/yeshua-jesus-real-name

 

So, we already have a problem.  When it comes to the ONLY name that we can use that Hebrew name is going to be different depending on which source you utilise. Which one of the many assertions MUST we use?

 

We even see a difference of opinion between Hebrew Israelite camps, who are usually very strongly anti the name Jesus and advocates of the true name of the Messiah.

2 of the largest, IUIC and GOCC disagree on what the Hebrew name of the Messiah is.

IUIC Say that his name is Yahawashi

 

NAME OF THE MESSIAH:

YAHSHUA /YAHAWASHI

English mis-translation: JESUS.

The letter J was created in the 1700’s. Meaning of course that God’s name cannot be Jehovah neither the Messiah/ Christ’s name Jesus.

https://israelunite.org/the-true-name/

 

GOCC on the other hand say that his name is Yashaya

 

What About Christ’s Name?

Christs’s true name according to the Bible is Yashaya which means My Savior.
https://gatheringofchrist.org/faq-items/what-is-the-true-name-of-god/

 

So that’s 5 different names being asserted as the ONE true name of the Messiah. I could give even more examples but I think I have made my point here. There is not only one Hebrew name that is being asserted as being the one Hebrew name. Clearly the Messiah did not have 5 different Hebrew names so if we can only use the Hebrew name of the Messiah and it is only the Hebrew name of the Messiah that can save, which Hebrew name should we use? Which one of the 5 names is correct? Be careful now, your salvation depends on it, you do not want to get this wrong.

 

However, the website cited at the start of this article actually argues that ALL of these are wrong and that the correct rendering is Yahusha.

Sacred Name groups which sprang up out of the Messianic Movement, who were not concerned with the rabbinic traditions and restrictions which still handcuff the Messianic Jews, were more interested in ascertaining the actual name of the Messiah.  His name came to be rendered Yahshua, Yahushua, YaOwHuSHuA, YWHWSHUA, and by others.  Each of these representations by Sacred Name groups have been honest and reverent attempts to accurately pronounce Messiah’s given human name.  We have no criticism for anyone who uses these renderings and pronunciations.  However, none of those renderings accurately vocalize the Hebrew name [vwhy
……
Putting it all together, we take the “Yahu” which is demonstrated to be the common pronunciation of “yud, hay, vav” and the “sha” which is the common pronunciation of “sheen, ayin” and we arrive at Yahusha.  Thus the Messiah’s correctly spelled and pronounced name is not “Yehoshua” nor “Yahushua” nor “Yahshua” but rather, Yahusha, which translated means, “Yahu saves.”
The True Hebrew Name of the Biblical Messiah (bibletruth.cc)

So now this is 6 different names from 6 different groups.

 

When we put Acts 4:12 back into context what we will actually see is that the name that saves is actually JESUS. We find this just 2 verses earlier.

Acts 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

I shall cite verses 10-12 here.

Acts 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

 

Now of course it must be noted that this is the English translation found in the modern KJV and so Jesus is used here not the Hebrew name. Jesus is the English rendering of the Messiahs name.

If we look at some other languages we will see that this name is rendered differently.

 

Spanish = Jesu

Acts 4:10

Hechos 4:10 Spanish: La Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos
sepan todos ustedes, y todo el pueblo de Israel, que en el nombre de Jesucristo el Nazareno, a quien ustedes crucificaron y a quien Dios resucitó de entre los muertos, por El, este hombre se halla aquí sano delante de ustedes.

Czech = Ježíše

Acts 4:10

Skutky apoštolské 4:10 Czech BKR
Známo buď všechněm vám i všemu lidu Izraelskému, že ve jménu Ježíše Krista Nazaretského, kteréhož jste vy ukřižovali, jehož Bůh vzkřísil z mrtvých, skrze toho jméno tento stojí před vámi zdravý.

Indonesian = Yesus

Acts 4:10

KISAH PARA RASUL 4:10 Indonesian – Terjemahan Lama (TL)
maka ketahuilah oleh kamu sekalian dan oleh segenap kaum Israel, bahwa dengan nama Yesus Kristus, orang Nazaret, yang telah kamu salibkan, dan yang dibangkitkan Allah dari antara orang mati itu, bahkan, dengan kuasa-Nyalah orang ini berdiri di hadapan kamu sembuh.

 

Different languages, different renderings.

What is important to note here, is that Acts 4:10, just like the whole of the book of Acts and in fact the complete New Testament, was originally written in Greek.

If we go back to acts 4:10 and look at the name that saves in the ORIGINAL language:

Acts 4:10 γνωστὸν ἔστω πᾶσιν ὑμῖν καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Ναζωραίου ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε ὃν ὁ θεὸς ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐν τούτῳ οὗτος παρέστηκεν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν ὑγιής

 

So the name recorded in scripture is actually Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Ναζωραίου Iēsou Christou tou Nazōraiou (Jesus)  Christ of Nazareth).

The Hebrew name of Jesus / Iēsou, used of the Messiah,  is NEVER, not even once, recorded in the Bible OT or NT. The name of the Messiah is only recorded in Greek.

If we can ONLY use the Hebrew name (whatever that may be) then we have a problem. The NT writers never tell us what this name is. Plus Matthew, Mark, Luke and John who wrote the gospels all used the Greek name for Jesus. As did Paul, Peter and James. Of course, we also know that these English rendered names, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John etc are not the names that they had 2000 years ago. These are English renderings for English readers. 

Why did the writers of the NT, who were moved by the holy spirit, not feel the need to record his Hebrew name, if it truly is the ONLY name by which we can be saved anywhere in the scriptures.

2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

 

It should at least be noted that many other Hebrew names are also recorded in Greek.

We have a problem with other names in the Bible such as Abraham and Moses which are both English transliterations. These names are recorded in BOTH the Hebrew and the Greek and they are not the same.

’Aḇ-rā-hām; אַבְרָהָ֑ם Hebrew, Ἀβραὰμ Abraam Greek , Abraham English

Matthew 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Matthew 1:1 Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, υἱοῦ Δαβίδ, υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ (Stephanus 1550)

 

Mō-šeh מֹשֶׁה֙ Hebrew, Μωϋσῆς Mōusēs Greek, Moses English

Matthew 8:4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Matthew 8:4 καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Ὅρα μηδενὶ εἴπῃς, ἀλλ’ ὕπαγε, σεαυτὸν δεῖξον τῷ ἱερεῖ καὶ προσένεγκε τὸ δῶρον ὃ προσέταξεν Μωσῆς, εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς

Both the Hebrew and the Greek (OT and NT) are the original languages of the Bible clearly showing that the use of the names in their Hebrew and or Greek forms are perfectly acceptable.

 

Names clearly were known in different forms in different languages. Hebrew, Greek and Latin all have different alphabets. It is impossible to render a Hebrew name written in Hebrew into Greek written in Greek as the letters for each alphabet are completely different. This is the same for Latin. Latin uses a different alphabet and letters than both the Hebrew and the Greek, thus making it impossible to directly write out names in either of of these two languages directly into Latin. This is where we get transliteration. 

When Jesus was put on the cross it is recorded that his name was written above his head in 3 languages. Hebrew, Greek and Latin. His name was known in 3 separate languages.

John 19:19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

The Hebrew ישוע Yeshua, Yahshua, Yahushua, Yahawashi or similar, the Greek Ἰησοῦς, Iēsous and the Latin Iesous. Different renderings in different languages

 

A further claim made against the name Jesus is that Jesus is not the way that the Hebrew name of the Messiah should be translated, rather it should be Joshua. We most note here this isn’t going to help with those that claim this AND also argue the point that the letter J was not in existence until the 17th Century. I shall get to this point in a moment. However, we should look at the claim regarding the rendering Joshua first.

We do find the translation Joshua in the English Bibles. There are a number of Israelites with this name in the Bible, none more well known than Joshua who took over from Moses after he died in the wilderness before the Israelites entered into the promised land.

Joshua 1:1 Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,

Here is the verse in Hebrew

Joshua 1:1 וַיְהִ֗י אַחֲרֵ֛י מֹ֥ות מֹשֶׁ֖ה עֶ֣בֶד יְהוָ֑ה וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־יְהֹושֻׁ֣עַ בִּן־נ֔וּן מְשָׁרֵ֥ת מֹשֶׁ֖ה לֵאמֹֽר׃

When we look at the Hebrew name of Joshua we will see that it is יְהוֹשׁוּעַ Yehoshua. If this is the same name by which Jesus would have been called then we now have eliminated 4 of those 5 names already shown.

 

It is worthy of note here there are a number of persons in the Bible called יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua and the translation of basically every main English version for this name is Jeshua not Joshua .

I shall give an example

1 Chronicles 24:11 The ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah, KJV

The Hebrew reads as follows: 

לְיֵשׁ֙וּעַ֙ הַתְּשִׁעִ֔י לִשְׁכַנְיָ֖הוּ הָעֲשִׂרִֽי׃

 

1 Chronicles 24:11 the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shekaniah, NIV

1 Chronicles 24:11 the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah; JPS Tanakh 1917

 

So how do we get the name Jesus?

Lets look at a claim made by the website already cited. 

even the very name of the Messiah was stripped of its Hebraic roots and source (Yahusha) and was paganized and Hellenized into the form which is fashioned after the name of their supreme deity Zeus (Sous) and his son, Dionyzeus (Dionysous).  And in its final form it becameIayzeus(Iaysous).  Then, unwitting English Bible translators transliterated the GreekIayzeus(Iaysous) intoJesus.
The True Hebrew Name of the Biblical Messiah (bibletruth.cc)

This claim is simply false. As we have already seen, the New testament was originally written in Greek and the Greek name is Ἰησοῦς, Iēsous

I would also suggest reading my writing does Jesus mean Hail Zeus? 

 

The Greek name as recorded in the New Testament was the original recorded name as the New Testament was originally written in Greek. The Greek was then translated into Latin for those that spoke Latin, and the name of the Messiah was transliterated as Iesus.

 

In 1382 AD John Wycliffe started the first ever English translation of the Bible. Although it is called the Wycliffe Bible,  many scholars today believe that actually a number of different people worked on the translation between 1382 and 1395. This first major English translation of the Bible was translated not using the Greek but rather the Latin Vulgate. The Latin Vulgate reads Iesus.

We will look at Matthew 1:16 as an example. 

Matthew 1:16 Iacob autem genuit Ioseph virum Mariae de qua natus est Iesus qui vocatur Christus
Latin Vulgate. 

The English reading of the Wycliffe Bible has the Messiahs name as ihesu.

 

Matthew 1:16 iacob bigat ioseph, the hosebonde of Marye, of whom ihesu was borun, that is clepid Christ.
Wycliffe Bible

Matthew 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. KJV 

We have to remember that the Wycliffe Bible was written in middle English, a long time before the English language had been formalised and become the language that we know today. As you can see the English spellings in the Wycliffe Bible and that of the KJV are different and of course we should note that the Wycliffe Bible has no J, instead the words where today we have a J, like Jacob, Joseph and Jesus all have an “i” in its place. This is because, as the sacred name proponents correctly state, there was no J letter at this time.  When writing the letter I, especially at the start of words it would often have a swoop at the end, which would look like our modern letter J.

 

Between 1522 and 1535 William Tyndale produced the first English translation from the Original Hebrew and Greek. However, he also relied upon the Latin Vulgate. The Messiahs name was rendered in this English translation as Iesus. Again with the “I” at the beginning as there was still no J at this point. The I was pronounced with a Y sound so would have been spoken as Yesus. 

Matthew 1:16 And Iacob begate Ioseph the husband of Mary, of whom was borne Iesus, who is called Christ.
Tyndale Bible

The English translations that followed rendered the Messiahs name in the same way as the Tyndale Bible.  (the Geneva Bible has Iesvs) with a v instead of a u. Again we must remember that the English language had still not been formalised. We are dealing with a language in its formulation stages. 

 

1535 Coverdale Bible
Iacob begat Ioseph the hussbande of Mary, of who was borne that Iesus, which is called Christ.

1537 Matthew Bible
Iacob begat Ioseph the husbande of Marie of which was borne that Iesus, that is called Christ.

1539 Great Bible
Iacob begat Ioseph the husbande of Mary, of whom was borne Iesus, euen he that is called Chryst.

1560 Geneva Bible
And Iacob begat Ioseph ye husbad of Mary, of whom was borne Iesvs, that is called Christ.

1568 Bishops’ Bible
Iacob begat Ioseph, the husband of Marie, of who was borne Iesus, that is called Christe.

 

The letter J did not, in fact, come into existence until 1524 when it was first introduced into the Latin language by a man called Gian Giorgio Trissino. It was used as another way of writing I. However, at first it was not commonly utilised.  When the KJV was translated (1604-1611) the letter J was still not in use, and so the original KJV reads Iesus instead of Jesus.

 

Matthew 1:16 Iacob begate Ioseph ye husbande of Mary of which was borne that Iesus that is called Crist. 1611 KJV

The spellings of many words in the original 1611 KJV are not the same as we have today. As we see just from this verse alone Begat has an E at the end, as does hunsand(e) and born(e). We could look deeper at this but the simple fact is that at the time the 1611 KJV was translated English was still not formalised although it was starting to reach this point.

 

One of the rules that the KJV translators were given was to follow the Bishops Bible as much as possible. 

“The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishop’s Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the original will permit.”

The Bishops Bible reads Iesus, the KJV translators utilised this reading.

We must note that this applies to ALL words that now begin with J, including Jerusalem, Jews, Joshua and Joseph. All of which were written with an I in the original 1611 KJV but later were changed to start with the J.

It was not until around 1630 before the letter J would enter into the English language.

Before the letter J, the J sound was formed by putting the letters D and G together such as in words like  … Edge, Knowledge and Hedge. These words are still in existence today and are still spelt with a dg rather than the J

 

Many words that once began with an “I” in the English changed to the letter J when the word started with a consonant. The Messiahs name being one. So the earlier Iesus became the modern Jesus. 

 This is how the Greek name of the Messiah came to be the modern English rendering Jesus. The important part here is MODERN English. Today we speak modern English we do not speak as they did back in 1611. 

The name Jesus is simply the modern English rendering of the old English transliteration of the Latin transliteration of the Greek name of the Messiah which just happens to be the ONLY name for the Messiah recorded in the original languages. If we can only use one name then surely that name MUST be the ONLY one recorded in scripture. This would mean that we can ONLY use the Greek Ἰησοῦ which kind of defeats the whole argument regarding the name of the Messiah anyway. 

 

 

If you liked this study please subscribe here

You can buy my books on Amazon there is a link here 

Help me keep this site free for all. Join our Patreon membershiphere