Chapter 17

The Messiah's Original Name!

If you were a treasure seeker, how would you go about trying to find those treasures? Would you expect to find them lying on the surface? Not usually! Treasures usually have to be dug for.

If you knew there was oil under the ground, would it not be worth drilling for? Of course it would be!

So often the religious world just surface read the Scriptures, and too often the cheap rocks on the surface mean more to them than the gold nugget.

The name "Jesus" is a name that is on the surface of the Bible. But, when you dig a little deeper into this subject, something very precious and profound comes out.

The Saviour Himself spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus, and Saul said, "Who art thou Master?". The Messiah did not say, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Acts 26:15; though this is on the surface. By digging a little deeper, we understand that He did not say "Jesus", for it is recorded that the Saviour spoke "in the Hebrew tongue" (Acts 26:14). Neither did Messiah stop in the middle of His sentence, speak a Greek-Latin name, and then resume in Hebrew.

So the question arises, "What was the Saviour's name in the Hebrew tongue?" Scripture asks the same question! "What is His name, and what is His son's name if thou canst tell?" (Prov. 30:4). The next verse gives the clue, taking all of Scripture into account upon the subject, the honest in heart will find it.

The name Jesus is translated from Greek manuscripts from "Iesous", the same word that describes "Joshua" in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8; but Joshua is usually found in the margin of the KJV. The New Age bible version restores "Joshua" to these texts, but did not restore the Saviour's name, because they did not want to confuse everyone with the facts! [Does that make sense to you?]

What does this mean? It means that Joshua and the Messiah had the same name! Which was? Well we have a list. In the Septuagint the name of Joshua is transliterated in a variety of forms, the same with the Saviour in the New Testament, such as, , , , , and (Ezra 2:6). Why do we arbitrarily choose "Iesous" as the one to transliterate from? Even the Greek New Testament shows (Iesoun) in Matthew 1:21, yet, you never hear the Saviour called Jesun.

The question still remains. Which name is the only one under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved? The Greeks gave us quite a list!

In the KJV, Joshua is spelled Jeshua (Nehemiah 8:17), Joshua (Exodus 17:9), and Jehoshua (Numbers 13:16). Was it Jeshua? Well, let's dig a little deeper! Though the "J" is on the surface, we know that it should have a "Y" sound, as in the Hebrew. Example, Hallelujah, where the "J" has a "Y" sound. OK Yeshua. Was Yeshua the original which Gabriel delivered to Yoseph and Miriam? Let's dig a little deeper and find out! The Messiah said, "I am come in My Father's name" (John 5:43). The Torah also prophesied that "My name is in Him." Ex. 23:21. In other words, part of the set-apart name must be a part of the Messiah's name. David also said, concerning the Messiah, of which Solomon was a type, "He shall be as a son to continue His Father's name forever." Psalm 72:17 margin

In the name Jehoshua, we at least see the concept of the Father's name being involved, which most know as Jehovah. But we have already learned that the original set-apart name was, and is YAHUWAH; therefore the Saviour's name, which was delivered by Gabriel, was YAHUSHUA.

Originally, Joshua's name was spelled (Deut. 3:21 & Judges 2:7); but after the children of Israel came out of Babylonian captivity (536 BCE) Joshua's name was shortened (at least in the manuscripts of Ezra) to . The Israelites might have changed, but our Creator said, "I change not." Malachi 3:6

The angel Gabriel was not subject to Babylonian corruption through culture and time. No, Gabriel's job was to deliver a message from the Father Himself. Woe unto Gabriel if he should alter it! Gabriel was a faithful messenger and delivered the original "Yahu" in Messiah's name. The Messiah seemed as one who would restore Israel back to its former splendour when many used the element "yahu" in their names, before the Babylonian captivity. It is true that Yeshua was a common name in Israel in the time of Messiah, but YAHUSHUA was not.

If you were to have a son, and you being the parent, name your son Brent, and your neighbor comes along and says his name is Bert, you first try to be nice and cordial and reply to your neighbor, "we named him Brent". But the neighbor says, "well, I named him Bert!" Then, you draw a breath and think for a moment. Then you try to explain kindly as possible to your neighbor, helping him to understand. "I am the parent, this is my son! I have named him Brent." But the neighbor is quite insistent that his name is Bert. How would you begin to feel toward your neighbor? You know that he or she is out of line; this is your son and you named him. What to do?

This is the same situation our heavenly Father finds Himself in! He sent His angel Gabriel to Yoseph and Miriam; no human gave the name, not even Yoseph or Miriam, and woe to Gabriel if He should alter it!

The Saviour's original name has been under serious attack, for Satan hates it.

Aquila was "celebrated for a very literal and accurate translation of the Old Testament into Greek." Encyclopedia Britannica

He recorded the name Joshua in Greek as (Iesoua), a perfect transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua. This can be seen in Origen's Hexapla in Deut. 1:38. This shows that it was at least possible for Greeks to transliterate correctly, it's just that they wouldn't. This form from Aquila is never noticed or mentioned by modern scholarship. Why?

If the Greeks were true to transliteration to begin with, we would never have had so much controversy concerning the Saviour's name. But that's just the way it is in this life, that truth must be controversial; for Satan, working through humans, has made error popular, and very credible and sometimes prestigious. Nevertheless, the long continuation of time cannot make error into truth.

Paul "spake boldly in the name of the Sovereign YAHUSHUA, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him." Acts 9:29

YAHUSHUA told Paul; "rise, stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto Elohim, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are set-apart by faith that is in Me." Acts 26:16-18

Paul further stated, "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." Acts 26:19

Scripture shows a bit of the controversy between truth and the Grecian name game, which existed in Paul's day (see Acts 18:15).

Greek may have been the international language of the world, but it was not the national language used in Israel. Josephus, the Jewish historian, shows how learning the Greek language was discouraged in Israel. (Antiquities of the Jews Book XX chapter 11 par. 2)

Even the Bible shows how Greeks were despised by the Jews (Acts 21:28).

While our Saviour was upon this earth, He was called by the Hebrew name YAHUSHUA. Can you imagine the kind of look that would have come across the face of the priest in the temple if Mirium had told the priest His name is "Jesus"? It surely would have startled him, and would have thought that they were rebellious Jews trying to bring in the Greek culture. But when the priest heard YAHUSHUA, he must have pondered the greatness of the child to be named after the heavenly Father (meaning YAHUWAH's Salvation).

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

The Germans, the Greeks, the Romans, the Spanish, the Britons, the Africans etc, are all under heaven.

If folks only knew how Satan hates the Saviour's name and deliberately destroyed all the early manuscripts. The manuscripts had to either conform to Satan's Grecian name game, or be destroyed. But the Truth can be discovered by taking the Bible as a whole; not surface reading, but digging as for hidden treasure. As veins of precious ore are hidden under the surface of the earth, so also are spiritual riches concealed in passages of Scripture, and it requires mental effort and prayerful attention to discover the hidden meaning of the Word of Elohim. Let every student who values the heavenly treasures, put to the stretch his mental and spiritual powers, and sink the shaft deep into the mine of truth, that he or she may obtain the celestial gold . . . that wisdom which will make us wise unto salvation.

Paul stated the reason people find themselves in a strong delusion, is "because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." II Thes 2:10

Chawah (Eve) was not condemned for believing the lie of the serpent, rather she was condemned for not believing the truth. That is, not believing what Elohim had said.

Our hearts should naturally love the Saviour's original name, simply because it is His name. How can we say we love Him, and have a bad attitude toward His original name! We ought to love Him for what He has done for us, and for who He is: YAHUWAH's Salvation.

Paul spoke expressly that in the latter times men would be "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." II Tim. 3:7

The truth is the original; and what is not the original is a counterfeit.

"Acknowledging the truth which is after righteousness." Titus 1:1

Paul told Timothy: "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if Elohim possibly will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." II Tim. 2:25.

In other words, if we wish to show ourselves repentant toward our Creator, this can only be done by our acknowledging of the truth.

Chapter 18 / Index