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                      [Yahweh's New Covenant Assembly]

                    P.O. Box 50, Kingdom City, MO 65262
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[Fundamentals of Faith]

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                     How The Savior's Name Was Changed

THE SAVIOR WAS BORN in Bethlehem of Judea of a Jewish virgin who spoke
Hebrew (or perhaps Aramaic), a Semitic dialect. He was born into a society
where Hebrew was the common language. The angel Gabriel had announced to
Miriam (Mary) the mother that the Child about to be born would save His
people Israel from their sins. His Name, therefore, would literally reflect
this meaning and mission.

The Bible shows that whenever people were spoken to from On High, it was
always to those who were familiar with or spoke the Hebrew language. Hebrew
no doubt was spoken in the Garden of Eden. The Bible is a Hebrew book,
given to spirit-filled Hebrew writers. The only language spoken for the
first 1757 years until the Tower of Babel incident was Hebrew. We must
conclude, therefore, that Hebrew is the heavenly language.

Genesis 10:30 reveals that the tribes of Shem did not join the project at
the plains of Shinar (Genesis 11:2) where the tower of Babel was built.
According to Genesis 10, they dwelled at Mesha, in the foothills of Mount
Sephar. Their Hebrew language was not changed.

With all those facts before us, we must ask, why do our Bibles call the
Savior by the name Jesus which is neither Jewish nor Hebrew? Jesus has no
translation in any language.

Why would a Jewish maiden, whose native tongue was Hebrew, living in a
Jewish community of Hebrews, who had been addressed by the celestial
messenger Gabriel, give her newborn a hybrid Latin-Greek name that carries
no such meaning as Savior in either language? The Greek word for savior is
"soter," while the Latin is "salvare." No part of this word is found in
"Jesus," a name with no etymological meaning. Recall that the angel said
His Name would be related to His purpose as Savior.

Jesus Is Not the Name

The fact is, Jesus is not His name, and never was. The renowned Bible
scholar and archaeologist Ernest Renan writes that the Savior was never
called Jesus in His life!

Furthermore, there is not now nor was there ever an equivalent letter "j"
in the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Nor is there any Hebrew letter
that carries even an approximate sound of the consonant letter "j." Neither
is there a letter "j" in the Greek alphabet.

Even our English "j" is of recent origin, appearing in English only 500
years ago, when it often replaced the letter "i," usually at the beginning
of a word. The question before us is, what was the Savior's name before
there was a letter "j"? For some 1500 years He obviously was called by
another name that could not have contained the letter "j."

Would His Jewish disciples call Him by a hybrid Greek-Latin name when the
Bible says they were unlearned and ignorant men? (Acts4:13). They were
common fishermen who spoke Hebrew or perhaps the closely related Aramaic
dialect. Their Hebrew speech was then translated into Greek by linguists
who gave us the record in our Bibles. (Write for our ministudy, Was the New
Testament Written in Greek?)

In this study we will pursue the origin of the English Jesus, and present
evidence from both the Bible and secular sources revealing that the name
given from On High was the Hebrew name "Yahshua, "the same name as the Old
Testament son of Nun whom we know as Joshua.

A Son Carries His Father's Name

The Savior clearly avowed, "I am come in my Father's Name, "John 5:43. This
passage means that He carried His Father's Name. Its meaning is not limited
solely to His coming by authority or command of the Heavenly Father.

Just as today the family name is passed on from father to son, we would
expect Yahshua to bear the name of the Heavenly Father, AND come with his
authority. In the Middle East a name carries far more significance and
encompasses deeper implications than names in today's Western society.
There is a reason the Savior was born in a Middle East society that even
today holds one's name in high regard.

The Savior went on to say that although the people did not receive Him, if
another would come in his own name, him they would receive. He added that
Moses had written of Him, likely a reference to Exodus 15:2, "Yah...has
become my salvation," [Hebrew =shua, i.e., Yah-shua]. (Seealso Deut.
18:15-19.)

As already stated, the Savior's Name essentially is the same as that of
Joshua (pronounced "Yoshua"), the son of Nun, Numbers13:16. Joshua's name
originally was Hoshea, or Hoshua, but Moses had prefixed the short or
poetic form of the sacred Name, Yah, calling Him Yahoshua, meaning
Salvation of Yah.

From the Babylonian captivity onward, the "o" sound was dropped, according
to linguistic authorities, and by the time of the Savior's birth the name
was no longer "YahOshua," but became Yahshua. This custom of shortening
names is commonplace. For example, "bedlam" comes from Bethlehem, Jon from
Jonathan, and Liz or Beth from Elizabeth.

The Savior Yahshua indeed came in the name of His Father, for His very name
means "the Salvation of YAH." His name contains the sacred, poetic,
heavenly family name Yah: YAHshua.

One has but to look at Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8 in the King James Bible
where the hybrid "Jesus" erroneously appears. It is obvious that scribes
went through the King James Bible and everywhere changed the true name of
Yahshua to Jesus. With overzealous intent, the name Joshua (Yahshua)the son
of Nun had been mistakenly replaced with the hybrid "Jesus" as well! Later
KJV revisions and newer Bible versions have replaced the more proper
Joshua.

No Other Name Has Salvation

Salvation comes through Yahshua the Messiah. Salvation is through Him
alone. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

None other name! That is the same name given by the angel Gabriel to the
mother of Yahshua before He was born.

Please note that your Bible specifically says there is no other Name! It
does not say there no other "person," which might allow you to call Him by
whatever name you wish. Yahshua is the only Name by which we have
salvation. There is no other name than Yahshua, which literally means the
salvation that Yahweh has sent.

In talking with the penitent Jews at Pentecost, Peter was inspired to give
this special Name through which we are to receive salvation. He did not say
to be baptized in the person of the Messiah. Peter gave us a very specific
command to call on the personal name given by the Father, Acts 2:38,
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Yahshua Messiah
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit."

To be sure, the person of Yahshua is important. But the Name He was given
by the angel came from On High and carries a very special meaning for the
Savior, embodying the Name of Yah-weh the Father Himself. The Name Yah-shua
acknowledges both the Father and the salvation that is in His Son Yahshua.

Upon learning truth, we are to walk obediently in it. Most of us have
learned deeper truth in small increments, then put into practice what we
have learned. Yahweh will continue to reveal more truth only if we accept
and follow those things He has shown us. Why should He give more insight to
those who reject and rebel at what He has already revealed?

Once we know the truth, past ignorance does not justify our continuing in
ignorance. "The times of this ignorance Yahweh winked at, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent," Acts 17:30. He reveals His truth to those
who willingly seek and follow it.

Disguising the Name Yahweh

How did the sacred Name get changed in our Bibles?

The concealing of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH)
representing the Name of the Father first began with the Israelite priests.
It was carried further by the ignorance of the early Christian translators.

The superstitious Jewish scribes, aware of Leviticus 24:16 and other verses
that demanded reverence for Yahweh's Name, decided the best way to keep
from blaspheming His Name would be to invoke substitute titles instead of
calling on the proper Name Yahweh. By never allowing anyone to utter the
sacred Name was, in their thinking, eliminating the potential of
blaspheming it.

To forestall anyone's reading the Tetragrammaton and vocalizing the name
Yahweh, the scribes had placed diacritical marks of the vowels for Adonai
over the Hebrew letters for His Name. In fact, the first vowel carried the
sound of "e" as in met so the reader would read Yeh, and not blurt out even
the short or poetic form, Yah. Theirs was a misguided zeal.

Early Translators Also Hide His Name

The early Christian translators were poor Hebrew scholars. In fact, most
were ignorant of Hebrew knowing only Greek and Latin. Having the attitude
of "not wanting anything to do with those detestable Jews," they refused
even to learn Hebrew and were thus unable to read the Old Testament in the
original language. The main source of their information came from the Greek
Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and not from original Hebrew
texts.

The Greek has three declensions of nouns, three genders and five cases. The
noun suffix (ending) indicates its use in the sentence, which also is true
of most European languages.

For example, in Greek the masculine, nominative singular of our Savior's
name ends in "s." This explains why we also have so many propernouns in the
King James Bible whose Hebrew has been changed to end in the Greek form
"s," such as Judas, Elias, Jonas, Esaias, Zacharias, Jermias, Annas, and
Silas.

These names were lifted directly out of the Greek Septuagint with no
consideration that they were Hebrew names (often having the ending "Yah,").

As stated, neither Hebrew nor Greek has a letter "j." Both the Latin and
the English letter "i" (with a sound as in police)is regarded as an
equivalent to the Hebrew "yothe" (also "yod").

Never should the Savior's Name begin with the sound of "j" as in "jeers"
but should begin with the vowel sound "ee."

In the Septuagint, the equivalent Greek letter for Yahshua began with a
capital I (or iota), and in the Latin was properly translated with a
capital I. Later this became the letter "j" in Latin and was used for a
capital "I" in early English, known as the "cursive J."

Where Did 'Yeshua' Come From?

Following the example in the Septuagint, Christian scholars did attempt to
transliterate (bring across the sound of) the Savior's Name as it was
written in the Greek.

Writing Yahweh's name in the Hebrew texts, Jewish Scribes instead of the
qamets ( ), had inserted a shewa (:), changing the vowel sound "ah" to "eh"
to forestall blurting out the short form "Yah" of the Sacred Name. This
practice is still found in the erroneous "JEHovah." Jehovah is a better but
incorrect rendition.

Thus, we have the Savior's Name beginning with "JE" when it should be "YAH"
as in "halleluYAH." We don't say "halleluYEH."

Using the Greek capital "I" (iota), they did not insert the vowel letter
"a" (alpha) but had ignorantly accepted the Hebrew diacritical vowel points
and used the letter "e" (eta). Thus they began the Savior's name as "Ie..."

The Greek has no "h" in its alphabet, only a rough breathing mark at a
word's beginning that appears as a reverse apostrophe. No "h" appears in
Greek of the poetic form "Yah." In fact from the above, we can see the
first part of the Tetragrammaton in Greek would be written" Ie" (with no
"h" as they had none) to be consistent with the Jew's rule of "Yeh" to
avoid vocalizing the "Yah" sound. Nor did the Jews want in any way to
associate Yahweh's Name with that of the Savior's, which might be seen as
acknowledging His position as the very Son of Yahweh Who came in His
Father's Name.

The Greek has no "sh" sound, so only the "s" (sigma= s) appears. Thus far,
we have the first three letters of the Savior's name, "IES." In the Greek
this is followed by "o" (o= omicron), the sound being short, as in lot.
This is followed by the "u"(upsilon = u), sounded as "oo."

The transliteration in Greek, then, is something like "Ee-ess-oo-uh."Say it
rapidly and we get a fairly close rendition, "Yesuah," remembering no "sh"
sound was available. In Greek the Savior's name appears as "IESOUS" (with
the suffix "s" for the Greek ending). The Latin translation was then made
primarily from the Greek text, bypassing the original Hebrew.

Yahshua = Iesous in Greek

As the Savior's Name was then transliterated into the Latin directly from
the Greek translation, we have the masculine, nominative singular ending in
"s," which was erroneously brought into the Latin as Iesous, and later
became Iesus.

When the capital "I" was given a cursive tail about 500 years ago to become
the "J," it also took up the sound of the French" J" as in journal. His
name soon was corrupted to "Jesus" in English.

However, in Latin the "j" is sounded as "i" in police, or "ee." The Balkan
country Yugoslavia was once spelled Jugoslavia, but was pronounced as it is
today, Yugoslavia.

Maps at the turn of the century often identified the U.S.S.R. as "Sowjet
Russiah." The "j" had the "ee" sound and the "w" had the Germanic "v"
sound. The word "major" is pronounced as "mayor" in both Latin and German.
June and July are pronounced" Yune" and "Yuly."

All of this may be burdensome and technical, but necessary to show the
evidence that the name of the Hebrew Savior is Yahshua. He came in His
Father's name, "YAH." Had the Christian translators gone back to the
original Hebrew His Name could have been faithfully preserved in the
correct form "Yahshua." Instead, His Name was taken from the Greek into
Latin, and then English, losing the Hebrew and we end up with a
Latinized-Greek hybrid instead of the holy, saving Name Yahshua. It is like
taking loose change repeatedly from one pocket to place in another and
losing a little of it each time.

Necessity of His Name

His name means "the salvation of Yah." Nothing like this can be gleaned
from the man-made, erroneous name "Jesus," which developed from first the
superstitious Jewish scribes, and then perpetuated through the ignorance of
Christian scholars who were ridiculed by the Jews for their lack of
linguistic knowledge of Hebrew.

Paul reveals, "Yahweh also has exalted [Yahshua] and given Him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Yahshua every knee should bow..."
(Phil. 23:9-10). The Name Yahweh gave to Mary by which His Son was to be
called was Yahshua! This can be proved from margin notes in Matthew 1:21
and Luke 1:31 in most Bibles. The translators substituted and disguised the
holy Name, giving us the erroneous hybrid Jesus. It simply is not His Name!

Furthermore, Paul says that the entire family of Yahweh will be called by
the precious name of "Yah," Eph. 3:15. Some of the prophets carried His
name, such as IsaYah, ObadYah, ZephanYah, ZecharYah, and JeremYah.

We are to be given a specific name by the Father, and by which we will be
known. How can anyone despise, ridicule and reject the Name Yahweh now, and
then love and reverence it-and be called by it-in the Kingdom?

Names in the Bible have deep significance and have definite meanings. They
give us deeper understanding. He has thus set before us an open door for
more truth. His salvation is in the Name of His Son, Yahshua, "and we are
to keep His word and not deny His Name," Revelation 3:8. Under heaven there
is none other name than Yahshua and through Him we have salvation.

  �1990, 1993 Yahweh's New Covenant Assembly, P.O.Box 50, Kingdom City, MO
                                   65262
                        Voice or Fax (573) 642-6566

[Home Page][mail@ynca.com][List of Booklets][Full Booklets][YNCA Light]
[Fundamentals of Faith]

COPYRIGHT� 1996 YAHWEH'S NEW COVENANT ASSEMBLY
398 since 8/22/96