In the definitive work by James Strong, the following definition and (corrected - see below) rendering is found for this Ibriy (Hebrew) name.
- H3091 Yahushua {yah-hoo-SHOO-ah}- from H3068 and H3467
Note that the name is of two parts. The first part (H3068) is the name of the Creator, Yahuwah, which is abbreviated as YAHU. The second part (H3467) can be rendered as salvation of, saved of, cause to be free, etc. So the name basically means that King James Version translators misrendered His name in their original 1611 KJV as "Iesus" which later was modified to "Jesus."
Mr. Strong fell for the Masorete vowel pointing that placed an "e" as the second vowel and an "o" sound as the second vowel of the name. This is part of the "disguise" they used to keep the "ineffable name," which we are told to use, a secret. This very successful disguise led to many scripture personal names containing the name of the Father to be disguised also, and those personal names lost their true pronunciation as well.
Note also that Mr. Strong used the letter "J" in the "translated" name. This letter first appeared in the English language in writing in the year 1516. This letter, in written form or pronunciation, has never been a part of the Ibriy or the Greek languages. It still is not today. There is absolutely no way that it could have ever been a part of the name under consideration, nor any other name found in the Sacred Scripture of Yahuwah. All names found in the scripture that have this letter anywhere in them really should start with an English "Y" or an "I" as the letter and the sound.
There are some valid uses of the letter "J" in scripture, but that only happens where a word has been correctly translated into English. Words such as judge and all its variations are translations. Judge is an English word whose meaning in English closely approximates the meanings found in some Ibriy and Greek words. When we see the word judge in scripture, we have a pretty good idea of what is meant. Some Ibriy words that have been rendered as judge are diyn (H1777), shaphat (H8199), and so forth, and some Greek words are krino (G2919) and krites (G2923). These words have been correctly TRANSLATED and not TRANSLITERATED.
To translate a word from one language into another means to carry the meaning of the word from the original language into the new language. Almost always this results in a word that has no resemblance in sound or spelling to the original word.
To transliterate a word (or name) means to substitute the letters of the new language for the letters of the old language, thereby keeping the sound along with the meaning of the original word. A good example of this is the Greek word baptizo, which has been transliterated into English as baptize. Had baptizo been translated, it would have been rendered as "whelm with a liquid, immerse," or something of that nature.
Names should always be transliterated. By doing this, the person whose name it is will hear it pronounced in the new language just as it was in the original language. You will note that in the world of today that is done, and so it was in the world of yesterday.
I was recently struck by a story told by a young man on television about watching a basketball game between two American teams that was being broadcast on a German network. He remarked that it sounded strange to hear the broadcaster speaking and relating the events on the court in the German language, which the young man did not understand, until the broadcaster got to a player's name. Then he would interject the English name of the player which the young man did understand. That is exactly as it should be. This young man, even though he did not speak the language of the broadcast, knew exactly which player was being talked about. Just as Ian in Irish English translates as John in American English but we still call him Ian, so we should always call people by the name they know and recognize as their own, no matter what language the name is from.
With this understanding, I will say with as much emphasis as I can muster that all of the names in the Sacred Scripture of Yahuwah should and must be pronounced as they would have been by someone who was walking beside this person whose name is under consideration and having a conversation with them in his native language. If we do anything else, we are being very disrespectful of the person AND their language. Just as Shaquille O'Neal would not want to be called something other than Shaq or Shaquille in Germany, neither would Yahushua Ben Nuwn want to be called anything other than his correct name in America.
This name, Yahushua, is the name that was rendered as Iesous in the Greek scripture. This is really neither translation nor transliteration. Unhappily when the Greek letter iota was substituted for the Ibriy yod, the pronunciation of yod given by later translators was not correct. Also, because there is no "sh" sound in the Greek language, part of the Ibriy name could not be rendered correctly in writing. This can be seen quite clearly in English rendered names such as "Jesse" which in Ibriy would be pronounced as Yishay (yee-shah'-ee). The Greek rendering mangles this name to Iessai (es-es-sah'-ee) for some of the same reasons that the name Yahushua was mangled. The pronunciation of the name Yahushua in Ibriy is yah-hoo-SHOO-ah, whereas in Greek for the reasons cited above it becomes ee-ay-sooce'. (Note that the spelling J-E-S-U-S and the pronunciation ee-ay-sooce' are still common in Spanish speaking countries of today.)
Because the last letter of Yahushua in the Ibriy is ayin, which is basically unpronounceable in languages without gutturals, such as Greek and English, more of that name could not be transliterated correctly. So the Greek writers did what was almost always done to male name in Greece and that was to append the name Zeus to it. So if anyone calls on the name JESUS in fact they are calling on a pagan deity. They did what they thought was the best that could be done under the circumstances, even though the result was nowhere near the true name of Yahushua and paganized the name.
Later on, when this name Iesous (G2424) was rendered from the Greek language into English, the translators of the Greek missed the obvious connection to the Ibriy and further mangled the name.
When the LXX (Septuagint) was used as the base for translating the Ibriy scripture into the common language of the day, or Latin, the name Iesous was Latinized into IESUS. After the year 1500, when the letter "J" replaced the letter "I" in some circumstances, it was used instead of the "I" and so His name began to be spelled in English JESUS but was still pronounced in the Latin and Greek manner. This Latin and Greek pronunciation remained ee-ay-sooce' for awhile because that is how "J" was pronounced at the first. Eventually, the letter "J" took on the hard consonantal sound that we know today and so our Savior's real name, which means salvation of Yahuwah, has been trashed in favor of something that never entered His ears and has no meaning at all.
The name JESUS has no meaning that I can find anywhere, whereas His real name (in the Ibriy language) tells us not only Who He is but also His mission and the authority for that mission. Yahushua IS the Salvation of Yahuwah and that name communicates that fact plainly. This is a very important consideration for personal names in the Ibriy culture communicates much more than a mere sound by which to call a person. In that culture a personal name communicates the personhood, character, reputation, and authority of the person. It can also signify the parents hopes and aspirations for the child to whom it is attached.
Look up G2424 in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and you will see that it was derived from H3091. Even though Mr. Strong erroneously applies the letter "J" in his rendering and therefore invalidates his pronunciation, the track still fits.
Something else to think about. I have been told innumerable times by innumerable preachers and others who were "evangelizing" (without them knowing what that term really meant either) that Acts 4:12 was a literal passage that meant the ONLY name under "heaven" in which salvation could be found was the name translated JESUS. If this is true, then what is the condition of all of those people who lived before 1500 AD when that name was invented and had never heard that name? Are they, even the delegates, those who died in the Coliseum of Rome, in the bonfires of the early Catholic Church, and the other martyrs, including Stephanos, mentioned in scripture all lost? How can we call on a name we do not know? How can we be saved by a name we do not acknowledge? And how can we be saved by a name that does not exist?
In Ibriym (Hebrews) 13:15 we are told that the only appropriate "sacrifice" that we are to offer under the new dispensation of Yahuwah's law is that of the "fruit of our lips," meaning praise. It specifically says that we are to praise His NAME. How can we praise a name we do not know or refuse to use?
The chart on the left shows how the name YAHUSHUA went through the various perverions and garbling to arrive at the name JESUS that is heard so often today.
Remember that Yahushua literally means, "salvation of Yahuwah," and contains the name of the Father. A son’s name MUST contain the family name and in this case does. The Father’s name is on the Son and that validates His connection to the Father.
The name Yahshua literally means, "he will save." While this is true, it does not convey the emphatic salvation guaranteed in the name Yahushua. Also, no name of the Father is in sight and therefore there is no validation of family ties.
All of this shows me that His real name, and therefore the name we MUST be using, is Yahushua (yah-hoo-SHOO-ah). That is the ONLY name under the skies wherein lies salvation.
There are those who spell and pronounce His name as Yashua, Yeshua, or Y’shua, thinking that is the correct name of our Savior. In fact, the name rendered as JESHUA in various English translations is a shortened form of Yahushua, but it is NOT His correct name. Take note in the information below how this has come about.
There are a total of 30 occurrences of the name rendered as JESHUA in scripture. Note that 19 of those the occurrences appear in the books of Ezra’ and NechemYahuw (Nehemiah). These 19 are the only occurrences of interest in this article. In these books he is identified as the son of Yahuwtsadaq. In the books of ZekarYahuw (Zechariah) and Chaggay (Haggai) this same person is identified as Yahushua, the son of Yahuwtsadaq. The same person is being talked about in all these places but in the books of Ezra’ and NechemYahuw (see below) for some reason his name is not spelled correctly, as is also true of other names in those books. There are various explanations given by the "scholars" for this, but I find none of them reasonable and will not go into them due to lack of space.
Ezra’ 3:2 Then Yashuwa' the son of Yahuwtsadaq and his brothers the temple officials and Zerubbabel the son of She'altiy'el and his brothers arose and built the altar of the Eloah of Yisra'el to offer burnt offerings on it as it is written in the Law of Mosheh, the man of the Elohiym.
H3442 [:Wv’yE Yashuwa' -- KJV = Jeshua (30 times)
H3136 qd'c'Ay Yahuwtsadaq -- KJV = Jozadak (5 times)
Below are all the verses in scripture where this name occurs and is rendered as JESHUA in the books of Ezra’ and NechemYahuw (Nehemiah) in the KJV.
Ezr. 2:2, 6, 36, 40; 3:2, 9; 8:33; 10:18;
Neh. 3:19; 7:7, 11, 39, 43; 8:17; 9:4f; 12:7f, 26
And then there's this:
- H3091 [;vuAhy Yahushua’ KJV = Joshua (216 times)
- H3087 qd'c'Ahy> Yahuwtsadaq KJV = Josedech (6 times)
RNV Chaggay (Haggai) 1:1 In the second year of King Dareyawesh, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahuwah came by Chaggay the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of She'altiy'el, governor of Yahudah, and to Yahushua the son of Yahuwtsadaq, the high temple official saying,
RNV ZekarYahuw (Zechariah) 6:11 Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of Yahushua, the son of Yahuwtsadaq, the high temple official.
Below are all the verses in scripture where this name occurs and is rendered as JOSHUA in the KJV. (There are a couple of variants as explained above that are not shown below.)
Exod. 17:9f, 13f; 24:13; 32:17; 33:11;
Num. 11:28; 14:6, 30, 38; 26:65; 27:18, 22; 32:12, 28; 34:17;
Deut. 1:38; 3:21, 28; 31:3, 7, 14, 23; 34:9;
Jos. 1:1, 10, 12, 16; 2:1, 23f; 3:1, 5ff, 9f; 4:1, 4f, 8ff, 14f, 17, 20; 5:2ff, 7, 9, 13ff; 6:2, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 22, 25ff; 7:2f, 6f, 10, 16, 19f, 22ff; 8:1, 3, 9f, 13, 15f, 18, 21, 23, 26ff, 35; 9:2f, 6, 8, 15, 22, 24, 27; 10:1, 4, 6ff, 12, 15, 17f, 20ff, 24ff, 31, 33f, 36, 38, 40ff; 11:6f, 9f, 12f, 15f, 18, 21, 23; 12:7; 13:1; 14:1, 6, 13; 15:13; 17:4, 14f, 17; 18:3, 8ff; 19:49, 51; 20:1; 21:1; 22:1, 6f; 23:1f; 24:1f, 19, 21f, 24ff, 31;
Jdg. 1:1; 2:6ff, 21, 23;
1 Sam. 6:14, 18;
1 Ki. 16:34;
2 Ki. 23:8;
Hag. 1:1, 12, 14; 2:2, 4;
Zech. 3:1, 3, 6, 8f; 6:11
For discussion contact one of the brothers listed in the Contact Us link on the menu bar above.
C.F. Castleberry
http://www.considerthis.net
buck@considerthis.net