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The
Mistaken J
Often heard in the churches of our land is the
refrain sung about the Savior, “There’s something about that name…” In our
English-speaking world we have been taught that the saving name of the
Redeemer of Israel is “Jesus.” So accepted is this name that few stop
to consider its authenticity. But the truth is, there is indeed “something about that
Name.” That “something” is the inescapable fact that the Savior’s name
is not Jesus, and never was. What’s more, the Name of the Heavenly
Father is not Jehovah, a designation that is only five centuries old. Churchianity has so thoroughly immersed the world in the
error of this tradition for the past 500 years that few even think to
research the matter or to consider the consequences of calling on the wrong
name. As a result, most continue believing that the Hebrew
Savior is called by a Latinized Greek name that could not possibly
have existed at the time He walked the earth. It’s a name that would
have been completely foreign to Him. Eminent French historian, scholar, and archaeologist
Ernest Renan acknowledges that the Savior was never in His lifetime called
“Jesus.” In his book, The Life of Jesus, Renan doubts that the
Savior even spoke Greek (p.90). Greek was mostly the language of
business and commerce in cosmopolitan circles. As for the Father’s Name, the hybrid “Jehovah” came into
existence through the ignorance of Christian writers who did not understand
the Old Testament Hebrew. Credit for the error is given to Petrus
Galatinus, confessor to Pope Leo X in the 16th century. Modern scholarship recognizes “Yahshua” as the best
rendition for the Name of the Savior, while “Yahweh” is the closest
transliteration for the Name of the Creator as found in ancient Scriptural
manuscripts. In returning as nearly as we can to the Bibles’ original
language and meaning, we come to a deeper and more accurate understanding of
the truths contained within it. As we will learn, the Father and Son’s revealed,
personal Names are the foundation on which other vital, salvation truths
rest. It was not without reason that Yahweh established the foundation
of the Ten Commandments with the clear declaration of His sacred Name: “I,
Yahweh, am your Elohim…” Exodus 20:2. Our Savior, as well, opened
His Model Prayer with the words, “hallowed be Thy Name.” Yahweh devoted the Third Commandment to warn of the sin
of taking His Name in vain (a meaning that includes bringing His Name to
uselessness, as has been done for centuries), Exodus 20:2, 7. Our
Redeemer’s Name is critically important as well, or else our Creator would
not have inspired the writer of Acts to proclaim, “Neither is there
salvation in any other. For there is none other name under
heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts Back to the Basic Truths of the Bible
It should be evident to anyone that through time and
tradition, observances change, are added to, and also lose some of what they
first had. This is especially true of the worship originally practiced
in the Bible. Our primary goal as True Worshipers should be to return
to fundamental truths, like His true Name, once known and taught by the early
Assembly but that have been neglected or ignored through the centuries.
Shouldn’t this be the desire of every sincere Bible believer—to worship in
ALL truth? Why go only halfway, or put another way, why continue
worshiping partly in error? Jude 3 speaks directly to us: “Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to
write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” This original faith as
practiced in the early New Testament Assembly is being restored now, just
before the Savior Yahshua returns to earth. Acts Foundational to this original truth being restored by
Yahweh’s New Covenant Assembly is the identity of the One we worship.
Nothing in existence is more holy than the Father and His personal, revealed
Name Yahweh. Paul wrote that Yahweh has given His Son a Name that is
above every name, Philippians 2:9. The prophet Malachi tells us that if
we will not give glory unto Yahweh’s Name that He would send a curse upon us
(2:2). With a sense of gravity of the sacred Name, let’s
examine why any substitute name employing the letter J is erroneous on its
face. We will look at the facts and the overwhelming evidence and
carefully evaluate our findings, using numerous sources revealing the
truth. Much of the information we cite here is readily available in
your public library, or found in references you may even have at home.
We urge you to look into this important issue and prove it for yourself. The ‘J’: A Letter Come Lately
Among the many reasons that both “Jesus” and “Jehovah”
are erroneous is the simple fact that they begin with the letter J,
the most recent letter added to our English alphabet. The Savior’s name
could not begin with the letter J because it did not exist when He was
born –not even a thousand years later! All good dictionaries and
encyclopedias show that the letter J and its sound are of late origin. A chart on both the Hebrew and Greek alphabet is found
on page 48 in this booklet. Take special note that there is no letter
equivalent to J in either Hebrew or Greek even today. Here are
what major references tell us about the J and its development: The Encyclopedia Americana contains the following
on the J: “The form of J was
unknown in any alphabet until the 14th century. Either
symbol (J, I) used initially generally had the consonantal sound of Y
as in year. Gradually, the two symbols (J, I) were
differentiated, the J usually acquiring consonantal force and thus
becoming regarded as a consonant, and the I becoming a vowel. It
was not until 1630 that the differentiation became general in The New Book of Knowledge reads: “J, the tenth letter of
the English alphabet, is the youngest of the 26 letters. It is a
descendant of the letter I and was not generally considered a separate
letter until the 17th century. The early history of the
letter J is the same as the history of the letter I. I
is a descendant of the ancient Phoenician and Hebrew letter yod and
the Greek letter iota” (Vol. 10, 1992 ed.). The Random House Dictionary of the English Language
says about the J: “The tenth letter of the
English alphabet developed as a variant form of I in Medieval Latin,
and except for the preference for the J as an initial letter, the two
were used interchangeably, both serving to represent the vowel (i) and
the consonant (y). Later, through specialization, it came to be
distinguished as a separate sign, acquiring its present phonetic value under
the influence of the French.” The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th
Edition, under “J,” offers additional information: “J, a letter of the
alphabet which, as far as form is concerned, is only a modification of the
Latin I and dates back with a separate value only to the 15th
century. It was first used as a special form of initial I, the
ordinary form being kept for use in other positions. As, however, in
many cases initial i had the consonantal value of the English y
in iugum (yoke), &c., the symbol came to be used for the value of y, a
value which it still retains in German: Ja! Jung, & c. Initially it
is pronounced in English as an affricate dzh. The great majority of
English words beginning with j are of foreign (mostly French) origin,
as ‘jaundice,’ ‘judge’”…(p.103). Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia (1979 edition),
volume 14, page 94 under “J,” states: “J, the tenth letter and
seventh consonant in the English alphabet. It is the latest addition to
the English script and has been inserted in the alphabet after I, from
which it was developed, just as V and W follow U, the
letter from which they arose. In form, J was originally merely a
variation of I; J appeared first in Roman times, when it was
used sometimes to indicate the long i vowel sound, but was often used
interchangeably with I. The Romans pronounced I as a
vowel in some words, such as iter, and as a semi-vowel in others, for
example, iuvenis, spelled presently juvenis. The only
difference in spelling, however, was the occasional use of double i
for the y sound for example, in maiior, spelled presently major.
In the Middle Ages the elongated form (j) was used as an ornamental
device, most often initially and in numeral series; many old French
manuscripts indicate the numeral 4 by the letter sequence iiij.
The use of j as an initial led ultimately to its specialized use to
indicate both the old semi-vowel sound y, found in German, and the new
palatal consonant sounds (z) and (dz), found in French, Spanish and
English. Not until the middle of the 17th century did this
usage become universal in English books; in the King James Bible of 1611, for
example, the words Jesus and judge are invariably Iesus and iudge. Long
after the invention of printing, j thus became more than a mere
calligraphic variation of i (which in Latin could be either vowel or
semi-vowel), and, j became restricted to a consonantal function. “In English, j has the composite sound of d + zh,
as in journal. In French, on the other hand, the zh sound alone is
given the letter, as in jour; German has retained the original y sound of the
Latin i consonant, as in jahr; and Spanish has introduced a new sound
resembling a guttural ch, as in Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
confirms how the J developed from the I and became a consonant
only a few centuries ago: “J, j (ja), n. 1.
The tenth letter of the English alphabet: formerly a variant of I, i,
in the seventeenth century it became established as a consonant only, as in
Julius, originally spelled Iulius.” The letter J was often
used instead of the letter I, especially at the beginning of a
word. This became common in the 1600s (World Book Encyclopedia,
Vol. 2, 1995 ed). Medieval scribes added a tail to the second I when
two I’s appeared together. Because a beginning I almost
always has a consonant sound, the long form, J, came to be used
generally for the consonant sound of the letter (New Book of Knowledge). It became necessary to
distinguish between the J and the I when the dictionary came
into being. In the seventeenth century, the dictionary’s appearance
forced a consistent spelling. Using either I or J became
mandatory to ensure proper alphabetical positioning. Owing to this
close kinship with I, J was inserted immediately following I in
our English alphabet. Note the substantiating comments on the J
from the Encyclopedia Americana: “It is one of the few permanent additions to those
alphabets, made in medieval or modern times. More exactly, it was not
an addition, but a differentiation from an existing letter, I, which
in Latin, besides being a vowel (as in index), had also the consonantal value
of ‘Y’ (as in maior, pronounced ‘mayor’). “At a later state, the symbol
‘J’ was used for the distinctive purposes, particularly when the ‘I’
had to be written initially (or in conjunction with another ‘I’).
Either symbol used initially generally had the consonantal sound of ‘Y’
(as in Year) so that the Latin pronunciation of either Ianuarius or Januarius
was as though the spelling was ‘Yanuarius.’ While in some words of
Hebrew and other origin (such as Hallelujah or Junker), ‘J’ has the
phonetic value of ‘Y.’” We discover, then, that the
letter J derived from the vowel letter I and originally had the
same sound as the vowel I. That is why the lower case j
still has a dot over it. The letter I represents the Greek iota
(I), which usually corresponds to the Hebrew yothe (Y as in
yes). The letter J has a Y sound (as in “hallelujah”) in
Latin, German, and Scandinavian languages. In Spanish, J is an
aspirate, having the sound of H. The J was first
pronounced as the I at the time of the introduction of the printing
press. Dutch printers fostered utilizing the J, especially at the
beginning of a word. The letter J eventually acquired its own
sound. It was the French who gave the letter J the present sound
of the soft letter g as in “large” or “purge.” In Latin, German,
and other languages the J is pronounced more like Y with an
“ee” sound. The Spanish J is more like an aspirant as in Webster’s Universal Dictionary (1936) reinforces
the fact of the early relationship of the letter J to I: “As a character it was formerly
used interchangeably with ‘I,’ both letters having originally the same
sound and after the ‘J’ sound came to be common in English, it was
often written where this sound must have been pronounced. The
separation of these two letters is of comparatively recent date, being
brought about through the influence of the Dutch printers.” First Letter of the Sacred Name is Y
As we have shown, the J
came from the letter I. The New Book of Knowledge shows
the letter I (hence the J as well) derived from the Hebrew
yothe (y), which is the first letter
of Yahweh’s Name (hwhy, YHWH, known
as the Tetragrammaton or “four letters”; Hebrew is read from right to
left). It is also the first letter of Yahshua’s Name. The letter
I (yothe or yod) in Hebrew carries the sound of “ee” as in
“police.” The King James Version and
other Bibles employ the Latinized-Greek “Jesus.” But the facts of
etymology prove that this cannot be His true name. If the King James
and other Bibles are in error in calling the Savior “Jesus,” how did the
error come about? And how can we determine exactly what that precious
Name is? The fact is, the first copies
of the 1611 King James Bible did not use the letter J (see production
at top). And no evidence is found to show that the letter I had
the consonantal sound of J. This has been shown in the New
Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia: “Not until the middle of the 17th
century did this usage become universal in English books; in the King James
Bible of 1611 for example, the words Jesus and judge are invariably Iesus
and iudge.” Oscar Ogg’s books, The 26
Letters, which gives a history of each letter of the English alphabet,
explains how the J, along with the U and W, were the
last to be added to the alphabet: “The three missing letters, J,
U and W, were not used by the Romans at all. U and
W developed from V about a thousand years ago, and J
developed from the letter I about five hundred years ago,” p. 106. As already confirmed, most of
our American vocabulary employing the letter J stems from the
French. Nearly all words containing the letter J in English are
pronounced as in French, such as journal or major, although French has a
considerably softer pronunciation of J than English. In Spanish
the J is more of an h aspirate as in “ After development of the letter
J, the Savior’s Name was changed by the translators to Jesus, but
continued to be pronounced much like the letter Y. However, the
pronunciation of the J soon changed completely from its former “yee”
sound to our present “juh” through French influence. In Latin the J was
pronounced as a Y. Even today, the German tongue, among others,
pronounces the J like a Y (July – Yulee; Ja = Ya; Major in
German is pronounced as “mayor;” June is “Yunee”). Note the comments of
author F.F. Bruce in his The Books and the Parchments: “In the
English Bible, Hebrew proper names with yod are represented with j,
which in modern English has quite a different sound from y. Thus
‘Jehovah-jireh’ would have been pronounced in Hebrew something like Yahweh
yeereh” (footnote, p. 40). In his book, Story of the
Letters and Figures, Hubert M. Skinner provides an excellent summation of
the discordant transformation inflicted on the Savior’s Name: “In some way, various modern
peoples who received the J from the Romans have lost the original
sound, and have substituted something very different. We retain the
former sound in our word ‘hallelujah,’ but we generally give the letter the
disagreeable soft sound of G. Yod is the initial of the
name Jesus. It is unfortunate that a name so dear and so sacred is
pronounced in a manner so different from that of the original word. The
latter sounded very much as if it were Yashoo-ah, and was agreeable to the
ear. Our sounds of J and hard S are the most disagreeable
in our language, and they are both found in our pronunciation of this short
name, although they did not exist in its original,” pp. 122-123. ‘Jesus’: A Word Out of Place and Time
The Bible clearly reveals that salvation is available in
only one name: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none
other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts This original Name has been made a hybrid by translators
and changed to the Latinized, Grecianized name Jesus – a name that came into
our language about the time of Christopher Columbus. (For a detailed
explanation, request the revealing ministudy, How the Savior’s Name Was
Changed.) The following Biblical study references clearly explain
that “Jesus,” used in place of the Savior’s true Name Yahshua, is
erroneous. (Some of these references correctly show the Y or I
superior to the Mistaken J.) Þ Cyclopedia
of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature: “Import of the
Name. –There can be no doubt that Jesus is the Greek form of a Hebrew
name…Its original and full form is Jehoshua (Num. Þ The Anchor
Bible Dictionary: “Jesus [Gk. Iesous]. Several persons mentioned
in the Bible bear this name, which is a Greek form of Joshua (Heb. Yehosua;
cf. the Gk of Luke 3:29; Acts 7:45; Heb. 4:8)…’Jesus Christ’ is a composite
name made up of the personal name ‘Jesus’ (from the Gk Iesous, which
transliterates Heb/Aram yesu(a), a late form of Hebrew yehosua, the meaning
of which is ‘YHWH is salvation’ or ‘YHWH saves/has saved’)…” (III, p. 773). Þ The Anchor
Bible (note on Matthew 1:1): “Jesus. The word is the Greek
rendering of a well-known Hebrew name. It was Yahoshu first,
then by inner Hebrew phonetic change it became Yoshua, and by a still
northern dialectal shift, Yeshua. The first element, Yahu
(=Yahweh) means ‘the Lord,’ while the second comes from shua ‘To help,
save.’ The most probable meaning is ‘O Lord, save.’” (Vol. 26, p.2) Þ The New
International Dictionary of The Christian Church: “Jesus Christ, The
Founder of Christianity bore ‘Jesus’ (the Greek form of Joshua or Jeshua) as
His personal name; ‘Christ’ (Gk. Christos, ‘anointed’) is the title
given Him by His followers…” (p.531). Þ Mercer
Dictionary of the Bible: “Jeshua: An Aramaic form of the name Joshua,
meaning ‘Yahweh is salvation.’ It occurs only in postexilic biblical
literature, which supports the later origin of the name. Joshua, the
son of Nun, is referred to in one passage as Jeshua (Neh. Þ Newberry
Reference Bible (on Matt. Þ The
International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia: “Jesus (Iesous) is the
Greek equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Joshua’ (ucwhy,
Yehoshua) meaning ‘Jehovah is salvation.’ It stands therefore in the
LXX and Apoc for ‘Joshua,’ and in Acts 7:45 and Heb. 4:8 likewise represents
the OT ‘Joshua.’ In Mt. Þ The
Eerdmans Bible Dictionary: “The given name Jesus means ‘savior,’ it is
the Greek equivalent of Jeshua (Heb. Yesua, from yehosua
‘Yahweh saves’ [=Joshua]. Christ is the title, indicating that he is
the ‘anointed one,’ the Messiah from Hebrew masiah).” …”Jeshua (Heb. Yesua
‘Yahweh is salvation’)” (p.573). Þ The Bible
Almanac: “The name Jesus (which is identical with Joshua and means ‘God
is Savior’) emphasizes His role as the Savior of His people (Mat. Þ Holman
Bible Dictionary: “Jesus Christ: Greek form of Joshua and of title
meaning ‘Yahweh is salvation’ and ‘the anointed one’ or ‘Messiah.’” (p.775). Þ New
International Dictionary of the New Testament Theology, “OT Iesous
is the Gk. Form of the OT Jewish name Yesua, arrived at by
transcribing the Heb. And adding an –s to the nominative to facilitate
declension. Yesua (Joshua) seems to have come into general use
about the time of the Babylonian exile in place of the older Yehosua.
The LXX rendered both the ancient and more recent forms of the name
uniformly as Iesous. Joshua the son of Nun, who according to the
tradition was Moses’ successor and completed his work in the occupation of
the promised land by the tribes of Israel, appears under this name…It is the
oldest name containing the divine name Yahweh, and means ‘Yahweh is help’ or
‘Yahweh is salvation’ (cf. the verb yasa, help save). Joshua
also appears in one post-exilic passage in the Heb. OT (Neh. Þ The Classic
Bible Dictionary (Jay P. Green), page 633, under Jesus: “Jesus is the
Greek equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Joshua,’ meaning ‘Jehovah is
salvation.’ It stands therefore in the LXX and Apocrypha for ‘Joshua,’
and in Acts 7:45 and Heb. 4:8 likewise represents the OT Joshua.” Author Green also comments on the Greek word
“Christ:” “Christ (Christos) is the Greek equivalent of the
Hebrew Messiah, meaning anointed.” Thus we see that the Savior’s name as well as the descriptive
title “Messiah” have been undermined and appear in Greek in changed
form. Our Savior has been stripped of His Israelite roots. Þ The SDA
Bible Dictionary, page 565: “Jesus Christ [Gr. Iesous] (a
transliteration of the Aramaic Yeshua, from the Heb. Yehoshua,
‘Joshua,’ meaning ‘Yahweh is Salvation’), Christos (a translation of
the Heb. Mashiach, ‘Messiah,’ meaning anointed or anointed
One).] The English form ‘Jesus’ comes from the Latin.” Þ In Strange
Facts About the Bible, author Garrison notes on page 81: “In its English
form, ‘Jesus’ goes back to church Latin Iesus which is a
transliteration of the Greek Iesous. But in its original Hebrew
form it was Y’hoshua (‘Yahweh saves’), frequently abbreviated to Joshua…” Þ Ian Wilson’s Jesus:
The Evidence, says on page 66; “’Yeshua’, as Jesus would actually have
been addressed, means ‘God saves’, and is merely a shortened form of the more
old fashioned ‘Yehoshua (‘Joshua’ of the Old Testament).” Þ New Bible
Dictionary (edited by J.D. Douglas) reads under Jesus: “The name Jesus
is not strictly a title for the person who bore it. It is, however, a
name with a meaning, being a Greek form of ‘Joshua’, i.e. ‘Yahweh is
salvation’. The NT writers were well aware of this meaning (Mt. Þ Alford’s
Greek Testament, An Exegetical and Critical Commentary: “Jesus –The same
name as Joshua, the former deliverer of Þ Encyclopedic
Dictionary of Religion: “Jesus (The Name) –Matthew’s Gospel explains it
as symbolic of His mission, ‘For He will save His people from their
sins.’ This agrees with its popular meaning as ‘Yahweh saves…’” p.
1886. Þ A
Dictionary of the Bible, by James Hastings: “Jesus –the Greek form (Ihsous) of the name Joshua (ucwhy) or Jeshua. Jeshua – Yahweh is
salvation or Yahweh is opulence” (pp.603-602). Þ New
International Dictionary of the Christian Church: “Jesus Christ, The
Founder of Christianity bore ‘Jesus’ (the Greek form of Joshua or Jeshua) as
His personal name; ‘Christ’ (Gk. christos, ‘anointed’) is the title
given Him by His followers…” (p. 531). All of these authorities and
scholars agree. His name is not the Latinized Grecianized name “Jesus,”
but reflects His Hebrew heritage and the mission He was given to save His
people through the Name of the Heavenly Father Yahweh. So how did He end up with the name so many
erroneously call on today? Greek Not the Original New Testament
Language The koine or common Greek dialect prevailed,
becoming dominant in the wake of Alexander’s exploits. Greek survived
the ravages of Roman persecution, as well as the crusades, and continued to
be spoken up to the time of the Muslim conquest of the Mediterranean area. Following the destruction of Thus, between the suppression carried out by the Romans
and the later Crusades, any Hebrew copies of both Old and New Testament
writings were lost. Only Greek copies survived. Neither are there
any original Hebrew Old Testaments manuscripts, only copies of copies of
copies. An increasing number of competent Bible scholars now
agree with scholar Charles Cutler Torrey (Documents of the Primitive
Church) that the New Testament in whole or part was first written in
Hebrew and only later translated into Greek. (Write us for a list of
renowned Bible scholars who uphold an original Hebrew New Testament, as well
as the ministudy, Was the New Testament Originally Greek?) In the Even Martin Luther recognized the Hebrew roots of the
New Testament. He wrote in Tischreden, “Although the New
Testament was written in Greek, it is full of Hebraisms and Hebrew expressions.
It has therefore been aptly said that the Hebrews drink from the spring, the
Greeks from the stream that flows from it, and the Latins from the downstream
pool” (translated by Pinchas E. Lapide in Hebrew in the Church, p.10). Where is the justification for changing the Savior’s
Name? Even in a Greek context, there is no J or J sound
in the Koine or in any Greek dialect known. The Greek New
Testament of the Bible provides the basis for our present Latin and English
translations. Obviously the J came from another source, as Greek
has no phonetic equivalent of the letter J in its 24 characters of the
alphabet. Neither does Hebrew. The words judge, journal, jack,
jam, jet, jog, etc., likely would all be spelled beginning with the Greek iota
(English I) and would be pronounced as “ee.” In English the
letter j would be replaced by the letter i. We would read
iudge, iournal, iack, iam, iet, iog, etc. Some orthographers would
prefer that these examples begin with today’s letter y instead of i. We cannot ignore the fact that there was no letter J
in ANY language until around the 15th century, and therefore must
conclude that the name “Jesus” never existed before 500 years ago. Let
us not forget that we read from a Hebrew Bible. It is the account of
Yahweh’s dealing with His people The seeker of truth must not shy from the Hebrew roots
of true Biblical faith, for we are children of Abraham, a Hebrew (Gen.
14:13). Hebrew means to “cross over,” and we are to “cross over” the
falsity and error of this world and join in pure worship of Yahweh and His
Son Yahshua. Savior’s Name Explained in Bible Versions
Inspired Scripture calls attention to a singular Name
wherein rests our eternal salvation. The following Bible versions have these footnote
explanations on Matthew · “’Jesus’ (Hebr. Jehoshua) means ‘Yahweh saves’”—The
·
“’Jesus’ is the Greek form of Joshua, which means ‘the Lord saves’” –New
International Version. ·
“’Jesus,’ from the Greek form of a common Hebrew name (Joshua) derived from
yasha, ‘he saves’” –Harper Collins Study Bible ·
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means
‘Adonai saves’], because he will save his people from their sins” –Jewish
New Testament, David Stern, translator. ·
“Heb. Yoshia, reflected in the name Yeshua (Gr. Jesus)” –The
Original New Testament, Hugh J. Schonfield. ·
“Jesus: The Greek form of ‘Jeshua’….The full significance of the name ‘Jesus’
is seen in the original ‘Yehoshua,’ which means ‘Jehovah the Savior,’ and not
merely ‘Savior,’ as the word in often explained” –Weymouth’s New Testament
in Modern Speech. ·
“Jesus Christ. The name ‘Jesus’ is from the Greek (and Latin) for the
Hebrew ‘Jeshua’ (Joshua), which means ‘the Lord is salvation.’ ‘Christ’
is from the Greek for the Hebrew ‘Meshiah’ (Messiah), meaning ‘anointed
one’”—Ryrie Study Bible ·
“Jesus, Yeshua, meaning ‘Jehovah Is Salvation’” –The Kingdom
Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. The following commentaries add their observations
on the Savior’s Name: ¨ Matthew Henry’s Commentary (on Matthew ¨ Interpreter’s Bible (Note on Matthew ¨ Barnes’ Notes (Note on Matthew The prefix Yah is the short or poetic form of
YAH-weh the Heavenly Father’s Name as found in HalleluYAH and in names of
many Biblical personalities, as we will see. Thus, the Savior’s Name
begins with the prefix “Yah” that begins Yahweh’s Name, as revealed in Psalm
68:4: “Sing unto Elohim, sing praises to his name: extol him that rides
upon the heavens by his name JAH [YAH], and rejoice before him.”
“Shua,” the last part of the Savior’s Name, carries the primary meaning of
“salvation.” Thus, Yahshua means “the salvation of Yah.” When The following reasons clearly
show why the name Jesus could never have been the Savior’s Name: Þ There is no
letter J or equivalent in Hebrew. Þ
There is no letter J or equivalent in Greek. Þ
There was no letter J in English until about 500 years ago. Þ
“Jesus,” an etymological hybrid from Greek and Latin, has no inherent,
etymological meaning in Greek or Latin, not to mention Hebrew or English. Þ
Joseph (“Yowceph” in Hebrew), a Hebrew and a Jew, was told by the angel
Gabriel that Mary (Miriam), a Jewess, would give birth to One Who would “save
His people Israel from their sins,” Matthew 1:21. Only the Hebrew name
“Yahshua” means “Salvation of Yah” (“Yah”shua). He Himself said that He
is come in His Father’s Name (“Yah”weh/”Yah”shua) and “you receive me not,”
John Þ Mary, a Hebrew, was told the same thing that Joseph was,
Luke 1:31. Þ
Would a celestial being announce the coming Savior to Jews who spoke Hebrew
(or Aramaic), proclaiming a Romanized, Grecian name beginning with a letter J
that did not exist, but would originate in a European tongue 1500 years
later? Remember it was to Þ
Would HEBREW parents give their baby a hybridized GREEK name devoid of any
meaning – especially such an important name that would identify the very
Savior of the world? How Did ‘Yahshua’ Become ‘Jesus’?
It is necessary that we understand the prefix “YAH” has
come to us in the form “YEH” (a type of which is found in “Yeshua” commonly
used for Yahshua). It is also manifest in the names JEHovah and Jesus. Almost any scholarly reference work will acknowledge
that Rabbinic tradition has suppressed the true Name Yahweh centuries before
the Messiah came at This is practiced even today by such groups as the Jews
for Jesus, who contend that “Y’shua’ is the Jewish way to say “Jesus.”
This may have been done to avoid offending the Jews and their proscription
against even the short form YAH. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary clearly shows the
erroneous vowel pointing of YAH to YEH in the first column of page 48 where
the resulting “YEH” is obvious. In every name in this column, a shewa
(:) appears under the Hebrew letter yod (y:),
and the pronunciation given following the Hebrew spelling begins with the
prefix “YEH.” Using the “e” instead of the proper “a” is another ploy
of the Adversary to do away with the family Name YAH, the first syllable of
both Yahweh’s and Yahshua’s Name. This explains how the “e” came about in the name
Jesus. The next letter in Jesus, s, results from the fact that Greek
has no “sh” sound, only “s” (sigma) sound. This was incorporated
into the Latin text. The “u” in Jesus comes from the u in Yahshua. The
New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology explains, “Iesous
is the Greek form of the Old Testament Jewish name Yesua [Yahshua], arrived
at by transcribing the Hebrew and adding an s to the nom. to facilitate declension.” The final “s” in “Jesus” is the Greek nominative
masculine singular ending. Matthew 1:8-11 contains the genealogy of
Joseph’s line, where we can find similar examples of “s” added to produce
Greek-inflected Hebrew names: Uzziah becomes Ozias; Hezekiah becomes Ezekias;
Jonah becomes Jonas, etc. The errors that we find among names in most
versions can be traced to translators. The early Christian translators
relied upon the Greek translation called the Septuagint as their source of the
Hebrew Scriptures. Is it not significant that even though these Hebrew
names were Grecianized, that they still are recognizable? Why then in
English versions does Yahweh’s Name become changed to a completely foreign
“God,” while “Yahshua” mutates into “Jesus,” a substitute that is not even
close to the original? Why the change, when even the name of the Adversary –
Satan – retains its original Hebrew form and close pronunciation? (Saw-tawn, Strong’s
Hebrew Dictionary No. 7854). Adam Clarke’s respected comments on the inferior early
translations are informative: “Through the ignorance and carelessness of
transcribers innumerable mistakes have been made in ancient names.
These also have suffered very greatly in their transfusion from one language
to another, till at last the original name is almost totally lost…Besides,
neither the Greeks nor Romans could pronounce either the Hebrew or Persian
names; and when engaged in the task of transcribing, they did it according to
their own manner of pronunciation,” Clarke’s Commentary, vol. 3, pp.
393-394. Clearly, some over-zealous scribe tampered with the text of
the King James Bible and what we have is a New Testament in which the Name of
Yahshua has been adulterated and almost obscured. For an example of this, look at Acts 7:45 in the King
James Version. The sentence reads, “Which also our fathers that came
after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles whom [Elohim]
drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David.”
But the account is actually speaking of the Old Testament Joshua, the son of
Nun! Another example is found in Hebrews 4:8, “For if
Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another
day.” Many study Bibles will have notes on these two verses
pointing out that the more correct name is JOSHUA the son of Nun. Certain translations other than the King James have
corrected this error and inserted “Joshua” in the text. Thus, we can
see that this name is the same as that given by Moses to his successor in
Numbers 13:16. It is also the name of the Savior (corrected with the
“Yah”). This shows how the translators overzealously changed all the
“Yahshua’s” to “Jesus”—even when it referred to someone in the Old Testament
not the Savior. Go to Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary and peruse page
47, taking special note of the second name from the top of the right column,
No. 3050, YAHH. Notice this is the correct spelling and pronunciation
of the short form YAH and includes the qametes under the yod: (3050.
Yahh, yaw). Although author James Strong is noted for his classic
concordance, his understanding of the Name was lacking and he used the
erroneous Jehovah. However, his is correct in listing No. 3050 YAHH,
spelling it with the vowel a instead of e and the double hh to bring out the
“ahh” sound. The importance of the short form YAHH takes on
additional significance when we read John 5:43, “I am come in my Father’s
name….” We understand this to mean that He came in the authority
and power of the Heavenly Father. Yet, we must understand that His Name
Yahshua also included His Father’s Name, YAH. It is the short form, the
prefix of the Name Yahshua! (Followers of Yahshua will be carrying that
Name in the Kingdom, Eph. 3:14-15; Dan. 9:19). The custom of reading a substitute name when the
Tetragrammaton was encountered in the Hebrew Scriptures was carried over into
the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the LXX (Septuagint).
The translation was said to have been made by seventy Hebrew translators for
the King of Egypt who wanted a copy of this great book of the Hebrews for the
grand library of In making the Greek translation, the copyists inserted
the four characters of the Tetragrammaton in gold letters of the Hebrew,
namely hwhy, wherever the name Yahweh
was to appear. However, the pronunciation was pointed with the vowels
of Adonai. After the death and resurrection of the Messiah, there arose
a demand for a Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament by the expanding
church. These early translators were not skilled in the Hebrew
language, and actually detested the Jews and refused to learn the Aramaic or
Hebrew tongue. They were ignorant of Hebrew and were often ridiculed by
the Jews for their ludicrous pronunciation of Hebrew. (See this
booklet’s section, “Why the Terms ‘God’ and ‘Lord’?” on page 26). And What About ‘Jehovah’? Biblical Names Reveal the Person
Our culture today looks on names as little more than
labels, although we still talk about having a “good name” and speak of being
“true to one’s name.” These expressions are carryovers from a time when
a name expressed and conveyed a person’s attributes and character. Yahweh: The Most Sacred of All Names
Yahweh’s Name is high on a level all its own. No
name is more important than the personal Name of the One we worship.
Not only is this true because names have great significance in Hebrew, but
also because Yahweh Himself tells us to revere His Name and not to bring it
to obscurity through substitution and disuse, Exodus 20:7. The word
“vain” in the Third Commandment –“Thou shalt not take the Name of Yahweh
thy Elohim in vain” –is the Hebrew shoaw, meaning to rush over,
bring to devastation, uselessness, ruin, and by implication, neglect. The one attribute describing Yahweh’s Name more than any
other is its holiness. His Name is not to be blasphemed (Lev. 24:16) or
desecrated. It is to be treated with reverential awe, because it
expresses the essence of Yahweh Himself. We can bring His Name to ruin by falsifying it. If
you remove an author’s name from the books he wrote and reprint them with
another name in them you falsify his works. The same is true when
translators take His Name from the Scriptures and insert generic titles in
its place. How can we presume to call upon Yahweh and His Son
Yahshua with titles like “god” and “lord” that are used in the worship of
other deities? Elijah (EliYah, “my El is Yah”) was calling the people’s
attention to the same issue in 1Kings 18 –demonstrating that the True
Heavenly Father has a personal Name and that they in their ignorance were
calling on titles of Baal (“Baal Gad” = Lord God) in their worship (see Harper
Collins Study Bible note on Hosea 2:16). Baal was the chief
“deity” of the Canaanites. Yahweh charged that they had forgotten His Name for
Baal, Jeremiah 23:26-27. If Yahweh was displeased with the substitution
“Baal,” why would He not be just as provoked with today’s substitution of an
equivalent word, “Lord”? Yahweh’s Name is so central to salvation that the
Savior’s Name bears it as well. He is the Son, and the salvation Yahweh
sent. You could say “Yah” is the family Name of the Heavenly Majesty. Author Wilson notes, “The fact that Jesus was a Jew by birth is crucial for
understanding the nature and person of Jesus as presented in the
Gospels. Jesus was given the Hebrew name Yeshua. (‘Jesus’ is the
Latin form of ‘Iesous,’ the Greek transliteration of Yeshua.) The name
Yeshua, derived from the Hebrew verb yashua, revealed the destiny he was to
fulfill in his life and ministry on this earth” (Our Father Abraham,
Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith). All religions generally are known by the one they
worship or give homage to. Anciently the god of the Akkadians was
Marduk; the god of the Ammonites was Moloch; the god of the Greeks was Zeus;
the god of the Romans was Jupiter; the god of the Moabites was Baal-peor; the
god of the Hebrews was…God?! Using an all-inclusive, indefinite,
impersonal title simply does not identify the One you worship!
Capitalizing that title doesn’t help, either, no more than the title “mr.”
suddenly becomes a name if we make it “Mr.” Strange, isn’t it, that all the pagan “deities” have
their own special names, yet we are expected to believe that the TRUE Mighty
One of the Bible goes by general terms that can apply to any “deity”? In fact, the Name Yahweh appears 6,823 times in the Old
Testament Hebrew Scriptures, from which we ultimately derive all versions of
the Old Testament. It should have appeared 100 times in the New
Testament. But rarely does one hear the Name used or even mentioned in
churches that supposedly honor those same Scriptures. The majority of Bible versions have changed the holy
Name to the titles God and Lord. You can restore it when you read the
Scripture, however. In many King James Bibles, whenever you see the
words LORD or LORD GOD in capital letters in the Old Testament, the Masoretic
Hebrew Script has the Hebrew characters for Yahweh, hwhy. (To help when you read your Bible, request the
bookmark, Correcting the Name in Your Bible.) Yahshua: A Name Given in Hebrew to a Hebrew
Because there is no J sound in the Hebrew, the prefix
“Je” does not exist in Hebrew. The combination word “Jesus” is not
Greek, it’s not Hebrew. In fact, it is completely without philological
meaning in any language. Yet, Gabriel told Mary and Joseph that the
Messiah’s Name, being given from the very highest Authority in the heavens,
was special. It had a specific connotation, a precise and very
important MEANING. The angel said He would be given this Name because
“He shall save His people from their sins.” Scholars acknowledge that
the name given through Gabriel was the Hebrew Yahshua. (See any good
study Bible with marginal notes on Matt. 1:21 and Luke 1:31, as well as the
Biblical sources listed here.) “Yahshua” means “Yahweh is salvation.” It must be noted that whenever a message was given from
on high, it was to those who understood Hebrew, which is called by some the
“heavenly language.” Thus, when the angel told Joseph, a Jew, that the
Savior would be born of Mary, a Jewess, that he was to call the baby a
specific name, this name would hardly have been a Latin-Greek name such as
Jesus! How His name came to us as Jesus in our English Bible such as
the King James instead of Yahshua is interesting. The Savior’s true Name in Hebrew letters look like
this: ucwhy. Read from
right to left, as in all Semitic languages, His Name begins with a (y) (known in English Bibles as “jot,” Mat.
5:18, but in the Hebrew is the yothe or yod). Yothe carries the sound of i as in machine.
This “ee” sound is then followed by an a, which is much like an “ah”
sound. This diphthong is pronounced “ee-ah” or “Yah,” which is the
short form of the Heavenly Father’s name “Yah-weh.” We see it in the
suffix “halleluYah” and in the names of many people of Scripture (IsaYah,
JeremiYah, ObadiYah, ZechariYah, ZephaniYah, etc.). Add the suffix “shua” (meaning “salvation”) and we have
Yahshua, the “Salvation of Yah.” That the language spoken was Hebrew is clear from
Matthew 1:23, where the Savior is referred to as Emmanuel, a purely
Hebrew word meaning “El with us,” and is so transliterated for us in
that passage. You can see for yourself that the name of your Savior
was Yahshua by referring to Strong’s Concordance Greek Dictionary.
Look up the name “Jesus” in Strong’s, which shows that it first
appears in Matthew 1:1, with the reference No. 2424. Turn to the
Greek Dictionary in the back of Strong’s (Greek, because it is in the
New Testament) and note the following entry: ‘IhsouS Iesous, ee-ay-sooce’;
of Hebrew origin [No.3091]; Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name
of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites:-Jesus. We learn the Savior’s name is of Hebrew origin from No.
3091. In the Hebrew section of Strong’s, No. 3091 has the Hebrew
characters that are transliterated into English as follows: uwcwhy Yehowshuwa’, yeh-ho-shoo’-ah:
or
ucwhy Yehowshu’a,
ye-ho-shoo’-ah from No. 3068 and No. 3467; Jehovah-saved; Jehoshua
(i.e. Joshua), the Jewish leader: -Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Joshua. Compare
Nos. 1954, 3442. By the time of Yahshua’s birth, the accepted form among
the Jews was not Yahoshua, but the shortened form Yahshua. In the Old
Testament this name is spelled Joshua and is found in Numbers 13:16 of the
King James text where Moses changed the name of the Israelite general from
Oshea (or Hosea) to Yahshua. That is, from salvation or savior to
“Salvation of Yah.” Most reference works agree with Kittle’s Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament statement on page 284, which states that
the name Yahoshua was shortened after the exile to the short form Yahshua. The fact that the Greek Dictionary (No. 2424) refers the
reader back to the Hebrew section of Strong’s Concordance clearly
shows that the name Jesus stems from the Hebrew Yahshua. It is rather doubtful the derivation of Jesus is
from the pagan deity “Zeus” of the Greeks. However, some draw a
relationship to the “salvation” or “healing” of Ea-Zeus.
According to the Dictionary of Comparative Religion (p.622), “The
Greeks generally identified the chief god of other peoples with Zeus (e.g.
Amun, Hadad, Yahweh).” From Bux and Schone, Worterbuch der Antika,
under “Jesus,” we find: “Jesus: really adapted from the Greek, possibly from
the name of the Greek healing goddess Ieso (Iaso).” Although some evidence could support a conclusion for a
Greek deity connection, it is more likely that “Jesus” resulted from a crude
attempt to transliterate (bring over the sound) from Hebrew to Greek to Latin
and then to English, losing the true vocalization with each step. Young’s Analytical Concordance has one line
for Jesus which reads: JE’-SUS, Ihsous, from Heb. uwcy savior. As already noted, the early Christians were ignorant of
Hebrew and cared less for the language of “those detestable Jews.”
Therefore, they relied upon the Greek Septuagint (LXX) Old Testament
as their source instead of going directly to the Hebrew texts. ‘Adonai’ Replaces Sacred Name
The early translators who gave us the English version of
the Bible were not Hebrew scholars. They based their understanding
mostly on the Greek texts, the Septuagint for the Old Testament and the
extant Greek texts for the New Testament. Generally they were ignorant
of Hebrew and sometimes lacked in their knowledge of Hebrew grammar, syntax,
and vocabulary. Because of the animosity between the Jews and their
Roman rulers, it was a common practice for Roman soldiers to search for and
destroy any religious Hebrew texts of the Jews and Messianic believers
alike. Initially, the Romans made no distinction between Jews and
converts of the early Assembly, for their worship appeared basically the
same. Both worshiped on the weekly Saturday Sabbath and observed the
annual festivals, both read from the same Old Testament Hebrew scrolls in
their study and worship. It was not until the third century that a
distinction was made between traditional Jewish worship and those who had
gone on to accept Yahshua as the Messiah. The admitted ignorance of the early Christian scholars
of the Hebrew language lies at the root of the misspelling and variations of
the sacred Name. The Jews often ridiculed and derided these Christians
who claimed to be scholars, but stumbled in their efforts to pronounce Hebrew
words. By the time of the Messiah the custom of not pronouncing
the sacred Name in public by the Jews became mandatory. This practice
had apparently developed from the warning in Leviticus 24:16, “And he that
blasphemes the name of Yahweh shall surely be put to death, and all the
congregation shall certainly stone him: as well as the stranger, as he that
is born in the land, when he blasphemes the name of Yahweh shall be put to
death.” By not using the Sacred Name, one could not blaspheme it,
and so it was not invoked except by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. Thus came about the custom in the synagogue of reading
“adonai” instead of the Sacred Name when the Tetragrammaton (hwhy) appeared in the texts. The
logic being, by calling upon a substitute instead of invoking the Name, the
Name could not be blasphemed. In Jeremiah 44:26 we read another verse that stifled any
public utterance of the Sacred Name, especially during the captivity. “Therefore
hear you the word of Yahweh, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt;
behold, I have sworn by My great name says Yahweh, that My name shall no more
be names in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying,
‘Yahweh Elohim lives.’” This became especially critical when the Jews were taken
captive to Babylon. Psalm 137 relates that they refused to sing the
songs of Zion (using Yahweh’s Name) in a strange land lest the Name and
worship be subject to ridicule by the gentiles. Thus the ban on
uttering the sacred Name became firmly entrenched and was the general
practice by the time the Savior came to earth. While the Jewish zealots would not invoke (vocalize) the
sacred Name, it was their custom to write it in the sacred texts, carefully
placing the vowels of Adonai over the Tetragrammaton to warn the reader not
to utter the sacred Name, but to use “adonai.” The scribes did,
however, place the Hebrew Tetragrammaton in the Greek Septuagint
translation. Christian scholars did not understand these sacred four
Hebrew letters (hwhy) and translated
them into the Greek as pipi, thinking it was the doubling of two Greek
letters – pi (pipi) --- read left to
right rather than from right to left as in Hebrew. When the proper
pronunciation was pointed out to them they inserted the Greek letters Iao, which closely corresponded to YHWH. Kurios, Theos: Greek Substitutes for Name Recent discoveries of Greek manuscripts of the Old
Testaments reveal that the sacred Name was preserved in Hebrew or Aramaic
letters in the first and second centuries B.C.E. Writings
in the Journal of Biblical Literature, professor George Howard
observes, “From these findings we can now say with almost absolute certainty
that the divine name hwhy was not
rendered by Kurios [Kurios]
in the pre-Christian Greek Bible, as so often has been thought. Usually
the Tetragram was written out in Aramaic or in paleo-Hebrew letters or was
transliterated into Greek letters” (Vol. 96, 1977, p. 65).
Thus, the sacred Name not only was obscured by zealous
Jews, but also the Greek substitutes soon found their way into both the Old
and New Testament translations. Why the Terms ‘God’ and ‘Lord’?
It can readily be seen that if the Greek text was considered
as sacred as the Hebrew, then the Greek replacements for the Tetragrammaton
were thought to be on an equal footing with the Hebrew Name. When the
Bible was translated into other languages, the Greek texts were used because
translators had a better understanding of the Greek than they did the Hebrew. Being that Kurios and Theos are Greek
terms, a more familiar substitute was customarily used in each language in
which the Scriptures were translated. Thus, “Kurios” was rendered
“Lord” in English texts and “Theos” was replaced with “God.” These
designations, however, should never have been used as surrogates for the
sacred Name. Their connotations tell why. Lord comes from the Old English hlaford, meaning
“keeper of the loaf.” It refers to a person who feeds dependents, as in
the head of a feudal estate (Webster’s New World Dictionary).
The meaning of Lord corresponds almost precisely with the heathen deity
Baal. “God” derives from the Old Teutonic root gheu, meaning to
invoke and to pour, as in a molten image (“God,” Oxford English Dictionary).
(See further explanations below.) This base root for god, gheu, has another
derivative – giddy—from the Old English gydig, and gidig,
meaning “possessed, insane, from the Germanic gud-igaz, “possessed by a
god” (American Heritage Dictionary under gheu). This
source makes the remarkable statement, “Giddy can be traced back to the same
Germanic root gud-that has given us the word God.” Ancient Roots of ‘God’ and ‘Lord’
Many Bible references reveal that the Hebrew word “Baal”
has the same meanings as our English word “Lord.” See the footnotes and
center column references on Hosea 2:16 in various Bibles (for example: “Baali
= My Lord” – Companion Bible note). Throughout the Book of
Judges we find that Israel continually fell back into the worship of the
Baalim (Lords). In 1Kings 16:29-17:1, Ahab became a king and plunged
Israel into full-scale Baal worship. An interlinear version will show
that in 1Kings 18:19 and 21 the word is “ha Baal,” meaning “the Lord.”
For an apostate Israel, Yahweh had become the “ha Baal” (the Lord) of
Israel. (See top of page 37, “Baal – Lord”.) Rather than having a special, close relationship with
Israel through His Name, Yahweh now found Israel worshiping in a common title
used for the idols of the nations around them. The prophet Isaiah excoriated Israel for their
abominations in serving pagan idols. One of the most prominent was the
Syrian god of fate or luck, otherwise known as Gad: “But you are they that
forsake Yahweh, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that
troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number” (Isa.
65:11). “Troop” is translated from the Hebrew Gad, pronounced “God”
(see Strong’s Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary, No. 1409, and note the
phonetic Gawd in this reference.). Our word “God” and its Germanic roots “Gott” and “Gut”
are connected to the ancient Syrian idol “Baal Gad,” which Yahweh judged
Israel for worshiping. The New Bible Dictionary says of Gad, “A
pagan deity worshiped by the Canaanites as the God of Fortune for whom they
‘prepare a table’” (Isa. 65:11) Read what The Anchor Bible Dictionary says about
“Gad”: “A Deity (or spirit) of fortune mentioned in Isa. 65:11 as being
worshiped, along with Meni (a god of fate or destiny), by apostate Jews,
probably in postexilic Judah,” Vol. II, p. 863. Further, this resource
tells us, “The place name Baal-gad (Josh. 11:17) could be interpreted as
‘Lord Gad’ or as involving an epithet (gad) joined to the divine name Baal”
(Ibid.) Do you grasp the significance of what you just
read? The heathen nations that Joshua was directed to destroy had a
place called Baal-gad, which is none other than “Lord-God,” a reference to
Isaiah 65:11 and the worship of this “deity” by those who forsake Yahweh!
As the Anchor Bible Dictionary affirms: “The apostates of Isa. 65:11 were
looking to Gad [God], not Yahweh, as the source of well-being and prosperity”
(Vol. II, p. 864). In Hastings’ A Dictionary of the Bible, we find
that the word Gad or God was “originally an appellative” and used as a divine
name in pagan worship (see Gad, p. 76). Lips Speaking Guile
A few who would contest the truth of the sacred Name
will counter with an argument like, “You are saying that I need the exact
Hebrew pronunciation of the Savior’s Name or I have no salvation. So
anyone with a lisp and unable to form the exact Name as in Hebrew is lost.” With this argument they summarily reject the ONLY NAME
under heaven given to mankind for salvation by Yahweh Himself. Acts
4:12 says there is only ONE Name by which we are saved. “Neither is
there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.” Rest assured that He Who has created man’s tongue would
not give us a Name we cannot pronounce! If a physical disability makes
the Name difficult to pronounce, Yahweh would surely look with favor on one’s
willingness to do so regardless of the success. Yahweh seeks a ready
and compliant heart (2Cor. 9:7); that is what matters. We are to walk
joyfully in all truth as Yahweh reveals it to us, growing in grace and
knowledge, Ephesians 4:13. Some may also ask whether those who never knew or called
on His saving Name in their lifetimes would be relegated to the lake of
fire. The teaching of Scripture is that we are judged by what we know,
not by what we don’t know. If we don’t know something is wrong, we must
first be taught that it is wrong before we can be held accountable.
This is clear from Acts 17:30, in what Paul told the ignorant Athenians who
were worshiping idols on Mars Hill: “And the times of this ignorance Yahweh winked at;
but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
“Winked at” means overlooked. What constitutes sin for which we are
held accountable is when we know the truth but reject it (James 4:17).
(See Yahshua’s comment in Matt. 11:21-23.) His People Will Revere His Name
Posing arguments to circumvent the Name is nothing but a
futile attempt to spurn deeper truth. It amounts to sheer rebellion –a
stubborn effort to absolve oneself of any responsibility to call upon the one
and only revealed, saving Name. The real test is whether one seeks to follow ALL truth
without argument or polemics, and to do so as closely as one is able.
As we demonstrate our complete desire to rid our worship of every error,
Yahweh sees our dedication and adds His blessings to our obedience. Yahshua said that the mark of His true Assembly is that
it would not reject His true Name. He tells the true Philadelphia
Assembly, “I know your works: behold, I have set before you an open door,
and no man can shut it: for you have a little strength, and have kept my
word, and HAVE NOT DENIED MY NAME” (Rev. 3:8). We must revere and call upon His rightful Name with the
deepest respect and reverence, because it belongs to our soon-coming
King. We may choose to deny His Name now, but we will not DARE deny it
as we prostrate ourselves before the King of the universe when He comes in
His full, majestic glory and in His royal Name Yahshua! For those who reject the Name and scorn those who hallow
it, Yahweh issues some stern warnings. “Hear the word of Yahweh, you
that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for
MY NAME’S SAKE, said, Let Yahweh be glorified: but he shall appear to your
joy, and they shall be ashamed” (Isa. 66:5). Do YOU Break the Third Commandment?
To those who consider themselves sincere Bible students
striving to please our Heavenly Father by keeping His Commandments, the
following should prove most interesting. Many verses in the Bible teach
that the truly converted who love Yahweh will keep His Commandments dealing
with proper worship of the Heavenly Father (Deut. 6:5-6; John 14:15, 21;
1John 2:5; Rev. 22:14). “For this is the love of Yahweh, that we keep His
Commandments: and His Commandments are not grievous” (1John
5:3). Sabbath-keeping groups, especially, strive to keep the
Commandments, contending that they properly keep every one of the Ten.
But the Third Commandment is the most overlooked or ignored of all the
Ten! It is broken virtually every day. The Third Commandment expressly deals with the holiness
of Yahweh’s Name. “You shall not make wrong use of the name of
Yahweh your Elohim: for Yahweh will not leave unpunished the man that misuses
His name,” TSS. Ridiculing, disregarding, ignoring or denying His
Name and using a substitute is certainly the wrong use of His Name, and is
breaking the Third Commandment. Many Called By His Name – Yesterday and
Today
The short form “Yah” in the Name “Yahweh” is found in
the King James Version in Psalm 68:4, where modern translators mistakenly
rendered it “Jah.” As we know by now, the J should by a Y. The poetic form “YAH” is found as the suffix in many
Hebrew names such as IsaYAH, JeremiYAH, ZachariYAH, ZephaniYAH, HezekiYAH,
and NehemiYAH. His Name is also found in the prefix of a number of
Hebrew names such as YAHchobed (Jochobed, mother of Moses), YAHed (Joed),
YAHel (Joel), YAHezer (Joezer), YAHha (Joha), and YAHnadab, (Jonadab).
Most of these have also been disguised with the mistaken letter J. Many of the Psalms command and encourage all to call
upon Yahweh’s Name. Notice these examples, taken from The Sacred
Scriptures, which instead of the title “L-rd,” has the proper names
restored: “I will give thanks to Yahweh according to His
righteousness: and I will sing praise to the NAME of Yahweh most high.”
(Psalm 7:17) “O, Yahweh, our Sovereign, how excellent is your NAME in all the
earth. Who have set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1) “O Yahweh, our Sovereign, how excellent is your NAME
in all the earth.” (Psalm 8:9) “I will sing praise to your NAME, O you Most
High,” (Psalm 9:2) “And they that know your NAME will put their trust in
you: For you, Yahweh, have not forsaken them that seek you,” (Psalm 9:10) “Therefore I will give thanks to you, O Yahweh, among
the nations and will sing praises to your Name.” (Psalm 18:49) “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we
will make mention of the NAME of Yahweh our Elohim.” (Psalm 20:7) “I will declare your NAME to my brethren; in the
middle of the assembly I will praise you.” (Psalm 22:22) “Save me, O Elohim,
by your NAME, and judge me in your might.” (Psalm 54:1) “Sing unto Elohim, sing praises to His NAME: cast a
highway for Him that rides through the deserts; His NAME is Yah; and exult
before Him.” (Psalm 68:4) The Psalms are for everyone to read, as both the Savior
and the New Testament writers frequently quoted from them. The Psalms
are filled with admonitions calling our attention to the importance of
Yahweh’s awesome and powerful name. They cannot be ignored. The title of the Bible book following Deuteronomy
properly should be “Yahshua,” not Joshua. It is the same Hebrew name as
our Savior Yahshua. The question naturally arises, why do we not find
Yahweh’s and Yahshua’s name in our Bibles? Certainly if the sacred
Names are that important, then we should find the name of the Heavenly Father
and His Son on almost every page. The Bible lays the blame at the feet
o the scribes and translators: “How do you say, we are wise, and the law of Yahweh
is with us? But behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely,”
Jeremiah 8:8, TSS. “Which think to cause My people to forget My NAME by
their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have
forgotten My NAME for Baal.” (Jeremiah 23:27) Through ignorance or by design the translators of the
Bible were negligent in rendering the Mighty One of the Hebrews as Yahweh
(His true Name) and that of His Son Yahshua and not Jesus. The true
Name Yahweh was replaced by the common substitutes. (Write for the
eye-opening ministudy, Discovering the Name Yahshua in the King James
Bible.) Common Questions Asked About the Name
Following are the questions and objections most often
rise in regard to the personal Name of the Father and Son. Attempting
to answer every objection the human mind may devise could prove an almost
endless exercise with those who are just trying to avoid honoring their
Creator as He commands us to. But for those with a genuine inquiry, we
respond to the following. Q. “There are no vowels in the Hebrew letters of the
sacred Name YHWH, so how can we know how to pronounce it correctly?” A. If the Hebrew cannot be properly deciphered
because of lack of vowels, then our entire Old Testament translation –
originally written in a Hebrew script without vowels – is unreliable! Remarkably,
of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Yahweh preserved His Name with
three of the four letters that in the Hebrew ARE used as vowels as well as
consonants: yothe (y), hay (h), and waw (w).
(The aleph, a, is also used as a
vowel.) This fact can be verified in nearly any Hebrew grammar,
including: A Beginner’s Handbook to Biblical Hebrew (Horowitz),
p. 7 under “Vowel Letters”; The Berlitz Self-Teacher, p. 73 under “The
Vanishing Dots”; Hebrew Primer and Grammar (Fagnani and Davidson) p.
10 under “The Quiescents and Mappiq,” and How the Hebrew Language Grew
(Horowitz), p. 28. In addition, about the seventh century, Jewish
scribes known as Masoretes preserved the pronunciation of the Hebrew with
diacritical marks or vowel points added to Hebrew words (Eerdman’s Bible
Dictionary, p. 699). Three
of these vowel-letters form the Tetragrammaton or Yahweh’s Name, why (the hay is
repeated). But we need not rely solely on modern scholarship for this
information. We can take the word of an eyewitness! The first
century Jewish general, priest, and historian Flavius Josephus (37-100?)
writes about the sacred Name engraved on the headpiece of the high priest: “A
mitre also of fine linen encompassed his head, which was tied by a blue
riband, about which there was another golden crown, in which was engraven the
sacred name [of Yahweh:] it consists of FOUR VOWELS” (Wars of the Jews,
Book 5, chapter 5, p. 556). Q. “Hasn’t the pronunciation of the Name
been lost?”
A. It is not unusual for some who reject the Name
Yahweh to argue that because of the aversion of the Jews to using the Name or
even to uttering it, that the correct pronunciation became lost. This
is the same ineffectual argument put forth by those who reject the Sabbath,
saying that the Sabbath has been lost so no one knows which day it is. Would Yahweh command that all men call on His revealed, personal
Name – an eternal Name that is His very memorial to all generations (Ex.
3:15), a name that is the only Name giving salvation – and then allow it to
vanish in the midst of time? Just as the Jews were given the sacred trust of
preserving Yahweh’s Word and statues (Rom. 3:1-2), keeping and sustaining the
Sabbath in its proper weekly sequence down through history, they also have
preserved the proper pronunciation of the Name through the Hebrew
language. Jewish history says that the priest spoke the sacred Name 10
times annually on the Day of Atonement down through the centuries. A
Name so revered would never be lost on the priesthood. Ask most any Jew
in Israel today whether “Yahweh” is the true pronunciation and he or she will
acknowledge that it is. Scholarship also reveals the proper
pronunciation. One does not even need to go beyond a standard
encyclopedia for the facts. The Encyclopedia Biblica tells us, “The
controversy as to the correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, whether as
Yahwe, or Yahawe, Yahwa, or Yahawa…has been gradually brought to an end by
the general adoption of the view, first propounded by Ewald, that the true
form is Yahwe” (Divine Names, p. 3311). The eminent Encyclopaedia Judaica confirms this,
“The true pronunciation of the name YHWH [Yahweh] was never lost.
Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was
pronounced ‘Yahweh,’” Vol. 7, p.680. This is validated in the Encyclopedia Britannica,
15th Edition: “Early Christian writers, such as Clement of
Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used the form Yahweh, thus this
pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was never really lost. Greek
transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh.” Vol. X,
p. 786. Other references substantiate proper pronunciation as
“Yahweh.” The 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica,
volume 12, p. 995, makes the following comment under the heading “Jehovah”: “The pronunciation ‘Jehovah’ is an error resulting among
Christians from combining the consonants Yhwh (Jhvh) with the vowels of
‘adhonay, ‘Lord,’ which the Jews in reading the Scriptures substituted for
the sacred name, commonly called the tetragrammaton as containing four
consonants…The Rabbinic tradition that after the death of Simeon the Just
(fl.290 B.C.) It was no longer pronounced even on these occasions, is
contradicted by the well-attested statement that in the last generation
before the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) it was uttered so low that the sounds
were lost in the chant of the priest. After that event the liturgical
use of the name ceased, but the tradition was perpetuated in the Rabbinic
schools; it continued also to be employed by healers, exorcists and
magicians, and is found on many magical papyri. It is asserted by Philo
that only priests might pronounce it and by Josephus that those who knew it
were forbidden to divulge it. Finally the Samaritans shared the
scruples of the Jews, except that they used it in judicial oaths….The early
Christian scholars therefore easily learnt the true pronunciation.” Another reference tells us, “The early Christian
scholars therefore easily learnt the true pronunciation. Clement of
Alexandria (d. 212) gives Iaove or Iaovai (or in one manuscript Iaov), Origen
(d. 253-54) ‘Ian, and Epiphanius (d. 404) IaBe (or Iave in one manuscript);
Theodoret (d. 457) says that the Samaritans pronounced it IaBe…” (Vol.
12). Samaritan poetry employs the Tetragrammaton and then rhymes it
with words having the same sound as Yah-oo-ay (Journal of Biblical
Literature, 25, p.50 and Jewish Encyclopedia, vol.9, p.161). The following authorities also leave no doubt as to the
proper and correct pronunciation of Yahweh’s Name: ¨
“The pronunciation Yahweh is indicated by transliteration of the name into
Greek in early Christian literature, in the form iaoue (Clement of
Alexandria) or iabe (Theodoret; by this time Gk. b had the
pronunciation of v)…Strictly speaking, Yahweh is the only ‘name’ of
God. In Genesis wherever the word sem (‘name’) is associated with the
divine being that name is Yahweh,” Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary, 1979
page 478. The Latin v spoken of
here had the same sound as the English w, sharing a close affinity
with the u (Harper’s Latin Dictionary). That is why the w
(“double u”) is made up of two v’s. The v was used as a
vowel, only later becoming a consonant. It came from the u,
which it follows in the alphabet. ¨
“It is now held that the original name was IaHUe(H), i.e. Jahve(h, or
with the English values of the letters, Yahweh(h, and one or other of
these forms is now generally used by writers upon the religion of the
Hebrews” (Oxford English Dictionary under “Jehovah”). ¨
“The saying of God, ‘I am who I am,’ is surely connected with His name that
is written in the Hebrew consonantal text as Yhwh, the original pronunciation
of which is well attested as Yahweh” (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967,
Vol. 5, page 743). ¨
“Such a conclusion, giving ‘Yahweh’ as the pronunciation of the name, is
confirmed by the testimony of the Fathers and gentile writers, where the
forms IAO, Yaho, Yaou, Yahouai, and Yahoue appear. Especially important
is the statement of Theodoret in relation to Ex. lvi., when he says: ‘the
Samaritans call it [the tetragrammaton] ‘Yabe,’ the Jews call it ‘Aia’…” The
New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, “Yahweh,” page 471. ¨
Writings in Biblical Archaeology Review, Professor Anson F. Rainey,
professor of Semitic Linguistics at Tel Aviv University, confirms that
“Yahweh” is the correct pronunciation: “I mentioned the evidence from Greek
papyri found in Egypt. The best of these is Iaouee (London
Papyri, xlvi, 446-483). Clement of Alexandria said, “The mystic name
which is called the tetragrammaton…is pronounced Iaoue, which means,
“Who is, and who shall be.”’ “The internal evidence from the
Hebrew language is equally strong and confirms the accuracy of the Greek
transcriptions. Yahweh is from a verbal root developed from the
third person pronoun, *huwal *hiya. In Jewish tradition, it is
forbidden to pronounce the Sacred Name and its true pronunciation is supposed
to remain secret. The fact is that Jewish tridents (who put the vowel
points in the Hebrew text) borrowed the vowels from another word, either adonai
‘my lord(s),’ or elohim ‘God.’ They avoided the very short a vowel
in this borrowing because it might have led the synagogue reader to make a
mistake and pronounce the correct first syllable of the Sacred Name, namely –ya.
The vocalized form one finds in the Hebrew Bible is usually Yehowah,
from which we get in English the form Jehovah. Yehowa/Jehovah
is nothing but an artificial ghost word; it was never used in
antiquity. The synagogue reader saw Yehowah in his text and read
it adonai” (BAR, Sept.-Oct. 1994). ¨
Seventh-day Adventist and Hebrew scholar. Raymond F. Cottrell, writes, “The
English spelling of Yahweh is now almost universally believed to reflect
accurately the ancient, original pronunciation of YHWH. In keeping with
the common practice today of pronouncing proper names translated from a
foreign language with as nearly the original vocalization as possible, it
would be altogether correct and proper for us to use the name Yahweh wherever
the word YHWH (“Lord”) occurs in the Old Testament, and also whenever we are
speaking of the true God in Old Testament times. This practice is
becoming more and more common among Bible scholars and informed Christians,” Review
and Herald, Feb. 9, 1967. Q. “’Yahweh’ is Hebrew but I speak
English. Why shouldn’t I use the English ‘God’?” A. To this we ask, IS “God” English?
Hardly. “God” traces back to the Dutch god, to the Germanic gott
and back to the Teutonic guth. Names are transliterated, which
means the sounds are carried across unchanged into another language.
They are not translated into other languages. “But what about similar
forms like John, Juan, and Johann? Or Peter and Pedro?” Some may
ask. True, different languages have analogous version of certain names,
but that does not change the fact that your given name remains the same no
matter which country you travel to. (Notice, too, how closely these
name versions RESEMBLE reach other, unlike “Yahweh” and the completely
dissonant and unrelated “God.”) Names simply don’t change from language to
language. If a foreign head of state visits America, we don’t attempt
to come up with an English version or translation for his or her name.
For example, in English new reports Boris Yeltsin is still called “Boris
Yeltsin.” Hosni Mubarak remains “Hosni Mubarak.” Trying to come
up with an English equivalent of names would be an exercise in futility,
because there would be none. Furthermore, doing so would change the
person’s name and render the new name useless as a means of
identification. The same is true of Yahweh’s Name – only one Name,
Yahweh, expresses Him and defines who He is. Yahweh and ONLY Yahweh
Himself can change His Name, if He so desires. Yet throughout Scripture
we find that “Yahweh” is what He Himself demands to be called. “This is
my Name forever,” He told Moses in explaining who He was, “and this is my
memorial to all generations,” Exodus 3:15. Israel also thought that any name commonly used in
worship was suitable in the worship of Yahweh. What a grievous
error! Because “Baal” was so popular with their pagan neighbors, they
began to use it in calling on Yahweh. So Yahweh said in His wrath
against Israel, “I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days,
her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts…And I will visit
her upon her days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she
decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her
lovers, and forgat me, says Yahweh…And it shall be that day, says Yahweh,
that you shall call me Ishi; and shall call me no more Baali. For I
will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more
be remembered by their name” (Hos. 2:11, 13, 16-17). Q. “He has many names. Wouldn’t all worship go
to Him anyway, no matter what name we use?” A. This is the same logic the pagans used,
which went something like this: “He is Bel-Merodach in Babylon, Baalzebub in
Philistia, Zeus in Greece, and we Romans will just call Him Jupiter.”
Never mind that each name meant a different way of worship. The prophet
Micah brings this out in 4:5, revealing the false “walk” expressed by each
different name. “For all people will walk every one in the name of
his god, and we will walk in the name of Yahweh our Elohim for ever and ever.”
His name is more than a label. It connotes a well-defined, specifically
commanded way of worship that belongs only to Him who bears the Name Yahweh. Saying Yahweh has many names is a misconception stemming
from the practice of classifying Yahweh’s personal, revealed Name with
generic titles, as if there were no difference. This false belief that
He has “many names” traces to the Jews of the Middle Ages. In
attempting to conceal the sacred Name, these Jews elevated generic terms and
titles to the rank of His personal Name, then used them as substitutes for
the Name. His titles include: El, Eloah (singular, meaning mighty
one) and Elohim (plural); These titles are sometimes combined with the other
descriptive words: El Elyon (the most high Mighty One); El Shaddai (the
all-powerful Mighty One); El Olam (“Mighty One of eternity”); El Dauth
(“Mighty One of knowledge”); El Roi (“Mighty One of seeing”). The New Bible Dictionary maintains, “Strictly
speaking, Yahweh is the only ‘name’ of God. In Genesis wherever the
word sem (‘name’) is associated with the divine being that name is
Yahweh…Yahweh, therefore, in contrast with Elohim, is a proper noun, the name
of a Person, though that Person is divine,” p. 478. Another reference
says of “Yahweh,”: “This is a personal proper name par excellence of Israel’s
God…” and “It is the personal name of God, as distinguished from such generic
or essential names as ‘El, ‘Elohim, Shadday, etc.” (The
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, pp. 1254, 1266). Certain attributes are at times connected with His Name:
Yahweh-Yireh (“Yahweh provides”); Yahweh-Nissi (“Yahweh is my banner”);
Yahweh-Shalom (“Yahweh Send Peace”); Yahweh-Zidkenu (“Yahweh our
Righteousness” – the name by which Yahshua shall be known, Jer. 23:6);
Yahweh-Shammah (“Yahweh Is There”); Yahweh-Rapha (“Yahweh Our Healer”);
Yahweh-Mekaddishkem (“Yahweh-Elyon (“Yahweh Most High”); Yahweh-Roi (“Yahweh
my Shepherd”); Yahweh-Shua (“Yahweh is salvation”). These adjuncts used with the sacred Name are descriptive
designates and must not be confused with His personal Name. Even less,
the title “god” cannot possibly contain the meaning that these special titles
connote, let alone be used as a personal name for the Majesty of the
heavens. “Mr.” is a title, not a name, as is “Sir,” “Dr.”, and “President.”
Each defines a person’s standing, position or rank, but does not identify him
or her apart from any others within the same title. “There are gods many and
lords many,” Paul writes in 1Corinthians 8:5. So which “deity” do we
mean when we use “God” and “Lord”? Capitalizing them does not make
names of these common terms. Yahweh inspired the prophet to write, “I am Yahweh: that
is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to
graven images” (Isa. 42:8). Yahweh names Himself. This is what He
expects to be called. In Exodus 23:13 He warns: “And in all things that
I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other
gods, neither let it be heard out of your mouth.” Psalm 83:18 tells us He has only one Name: “That men may
know that you, whose name ALONE is Yahweh, are the most high over all the
earth.” In the New Testament, Acts 4:12 reads, “Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is NONE OTHER NAME under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved.” Q. “But doesn’t He know who I mean
no matter what I call Him?”
A.
Suppose your name were Michael. Would you know I meant you if I called
out, “Hey, Sam”? Habitually calling you by another name would deeply
offend you and cause you to wonder why I stubbornly refused to use your
name. Besides, the name Sam signifies someone else entirely.
Yahweh also is offended when we refuse to get serious about His Name.
He warns in Malachi 2:2, “If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it
to heart, to give glory unto my name, says Yahweh of hosts, I will even send
a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them
already, because you do not lay it to heart.” John 4:24 tells us, “Yahweh is Spirit: and they that
worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth.” His Name is part
of that necessary truth. It’s clear and simple. Yahweh tells us what His
Name is. He commands us to call Him by that Name. We don’t have
the option of calling the Mighty One of the entire universe whatever we wish. We cannot rename Yahweh. Nowhere in the Bible is
man given the authority to change His Creator’s Name. Never does the
worshiper tell the one he worships how He will be worshiped! Yahweh
tells us…we don’t tell Him. To bestow a name is the prerogative of a
superior, as when Adam exercised his dominion over the animals by giving them
names, or as when a parent names his or her children. It is always the
prerogative of the superior to name the inferior, never vice versa. Mankind was given dominion or stewardship over the earth
(Gen. 1:28), and to show his responsibilities, Adam was allowed by Yahweh to
name all the creatures (Gen. 2:19-20). Yahweh has control of the earth,
heaven and the seas, and man has stewardship only over the creation on
earth. We have no authority in heavenly things, such as calling our
Creator what we wish. Yahweh says I am “jealous for my holy Name,” Ezekiel
39:25. We must take those words to heart. If we do, He promises,
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of
Yahweh shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be
deliverance, as Yahweh has said, and in the remnant whom the Yahweh shall
call” (Joel 2:32; see Rom. 10:13). Knowing “who you mean” makes no difference to Him if you
refuse to give him the honor and glory He demands. Even IF He knew who
you meant, the point is, He COMMANDS His people to call on His revealed,
personal, Covenant Name (Ex. 23:13). His Name represents Him and His
truths. No other name, title or designation does that. No other
title or substitute name reveals Him as the One who will be whatever His
people want or need Him to be. That is the essence and meaning of the
Name “Yahweh.” We cannot say we know who He is and claim to worship Him
according to that knowledge if we are using titles that miss the mark
completely when it comes to identifying, describing, and defining the One we
honor. Through the prophet Isaiah He said, “Therefore my people
shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that
does speak: behold it is I” (Isaiah 52:6). Writing in a Seventh-day Adventist publication,
Associate Editor Don F. Neufeld provides this insight: “’Yahweh’ is the name
that identifies the God of the Hebrews. Where the Philistines worshiped
Dagon, the Egyptians, Amon and the Ammonites, Milcom, the Hebrews worshiped
Yahweh…When the voice said, ‘I am Yahweh,’ there was no doubt in any
listener’s mind as to the identity of the speaker. He was the god of
the Hebrews. So far as it is known, no other peoples called their god
by this name” (The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 1971). If you would honor another human being’s wishes by using
his or her personal name, how much more should you revere your Creator’s
request by calling on Him by His Name? He’s the only One who can give
salvation! Consider: If names don’t really matter, does it matter
to you whether Yahweh has YOURS right when it comes to His Book of
Life? Consider what Yahshua says: “He that overcomes, the same shall
be clothes in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book
of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his
angels…And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into
the lake of fire” (Rev. 3:5, 20:15). Q. “The sacred Name was not known before Moses, and therefore it |