Beit Or ~ The House Of Light

Rabbi Isaac Levy has taught that in the Hebrew culture, names are important. Names carry meaning and convey the character of a person. Particularly in Hebrew, the names provide a link to the Creator. The importance of names and their meanings came to the Hebrews from the God of Israel. From the very beginning in Genesis to the very end of the bible in Revelations, names are integral to the people of God and to God Himself.

In Hebrew, the names themselves carry divine providence. Find the meaning of any Hebrew name found in the bible and most likely you will immediately see a connection between its meaning, the person, their character, their life, and God. Israel for instance is “prince with God” in Hebrew. Israel is the holder of God’s covenant and His oracles, they are the chosen people. David is “beloved”.

We know that the bible is Jewish in its entirety. It is written by the Jews, for the Jews, about the Jews. We know that the very Son of God is Jewish. And that the character of God is Jewish if we had to describe it. So if we can agree on these things, then for those of you who call the Son of God by the name of “Jesus”, let me ask you a question.

How many Jews do you know have the name Jesus?

I don’t know a single a Jew named Jesus; I suspect neither do any of you reading this. And if you do know a Jew named Jesus, either his parent’s hated him or he was raised in Mexico.

The point of my comments thus far is to get those people who blindly and automatically use the name Jesus to think carefully what they are saying and to whom. There is a name above all names that should be on our lips and afforded intense respect. The name is Yeshua. Yeshua in the Hebrew is “salvation”.

Yeshua who was the son of God in the flesh. He was born from the lineages of Levi and Yehudah (Judah). This gives him the bloodlines of the Jews and the high priests known as Levites. So our Savior is one hundred percent Hebrew/Jewish blood. He was raised as a Jew like any other Jew.

The scriptures are clear that as a young boy he was at the temple. Rabbinical references point out that Rabbi Hillel was Yeshua’s teacher. So Yeshua had the birth and raising of a Jew. So it stands to reason the Son of God would have a Hebrew name- not Greek and not Aramaic, but a Hebrew name. In this case "Yeshua" is the fit, not "Jesus". There is nothing Hebrew about the name Jesus.

Outside of the small background and Hebrew context of Yeshua’s birth and upbringing; let’s further examine why Jesus just cannot be the name given to the Son of God. Starting with the letter “J”; the letter “J” is not a Hebrew letter and there is no letter in the Hebrew alphabet that has the “J” sound as it does in the English language. The letter “J” has its roots in the Roman letter “i” and was formally introduced to the English alphabet in the early to mid 1600’s. This is at least 1400 years after the birth and death of Yeshua on earth. The etymology references I used show that the letter “J” and the name "Jesus" did not exist in the days of Yeshua and not for a long time there after. The letter “J” is at best 500 years old, but Yeshua lived 2 centuries ago.

“Jesus” is derived from the Greek word “Iesous” pronounced “Yesous”. Some experts have said the transliteration of Yeshua into “Iesous” occured because the Greek language does not have the “sh” sound in it- hence the use of “s”. Therefore the transliteration of “Iesous” into English that brought us “Jesus”.

Rabbi Isaac Levy and others believe that “Iesous” was derived from “Zeus”, the name for a mighty god of Greek mythology which is what I personally believe. I believe this because the pattern of changing and twisting the names already exists when you study the difference between the names used in your everyday bible verses the Hebrew names that should have been used. For example Jerusalem should be Yerushalim, Bethlehem should be Beit Lechem, Moses should be Moshe, Sabbath should be Shabbat, and the list goes on. Clearly the translators have done a great disservice changing the names.

Rabbi Isaac Levy of Beit Or likes to point out that all around the world the names of other gods and prophets are the same no matter where you go. For example, the Islamic prophet Muhammed is known as ‘Muhammed’ no matter where you go in the world. The same goes for Buddha, his name is not changed. So why has the proper name of our Savior continued to be obscured? After all, when any of us travel around the world, our name doesn’t change because of language or transliteration issues.

For the really hardcore among you who will not accept etymological evidence, simple reasoning, or Hebrew understanding of names, but there is another source worth quotinq for the sake of completeness. That source is the “Catholic Encyclopedia”. From the church that started churches, the Catholics freely admit the Greek origins of the name Jesus. Nut I have found that the cited reference has some inaccuracies, one of which is that it states that the name Jesus was common during the time of Christ. This is completely false as the letter "J" and the name "Jesus" did not exists during the days of Yeshua's presence on earth as a man.

Now there are some who would argue that the New Testament was written in Greek and therefore explain that is why we use the name "Jesus". My question to anyone using that line of reasoning is what does one have to do with the other? We know now what the Hebrew name of the Messiah is, Greek or no Greek.

In closing, there are those that say the New Testament was originally written in Greek, and perhaps the translators of the Messiah’s name had trouble going from Hebrew to Greek and then Greek to English. Those things may very well be, but today we are an informed society. We have books and the Internet at our disposal- we have the knowledge, but some among us are going to continue to justify and adhere to “Jesus” because the New Testament was supposedly written in Greek? Logically this makes ZERO sense.

Whatever the reasons are for calling the Son of God “Jesus” instead of Yeshua; the fact is we know His name was Yeshua. So think for a moment how good you feel when someone calls you by your name. Each of our names is music to our ears when spoken by someone else. This is human nature. Most of us, if not all of us, attach great importance to our names and the names of others.

How much more so should we do the same for the Son of God in calling Him by His God given name?

By Chris Harris