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This, at last, is the article we’ve been working toward; four letters, four articles – see what I did there?
In all seriousness, even if all we cared about as New Covenant believers were the “New Testament” and those matters pertaining to the life and ministry of Yeshua (Jesus), the issue of the Name of God would still be fundamental to understanding his life and ministry.
As a quick aside, I want to state that the “New Testament” is not all we should care about, nor is the “Old Testament” simply reference material for the “New”. The truth is, until we come to grips with and enter into a true understanding of the front of the book, we can never fully understand the back of it.
In the second article of this series, I touched briefly on some of the deep meaning found within the name, יהוה. There’s certainly more meaning to be gleaned, but I’m only going to touch on one more, specifically because it’s extremely relevant to New Covenant believers and disciples of the Messiah…
The Hebrew language has changed over time – as indicated previously – but this is not limited to the pronunciation of letters and words. The written form, or scripts have changed over time as well and the oldest known form of Semitic script was pictographic in nature:
Utilizing this information, we can see that the characters used differ from that of modern script. Moreover, we see that aside from indicating the vocalization of the character, there exists also, an underlying meaning to each character in and of itself.
Analyzing the name יהוה, we arrive at the following:
- Yud indicates an arm and hand, conferring a meaning of “hand”, “work”, etc.
- Hey indicates a man with arms raised, conferring a meaning of “look” or “behold”.
- Vav indicates a tent peg or nail.
With this in mind, these pictographs could be read as; “behold the nail, behold the hand”.
There are those who dispute this, but that isn’t even the point of this article – I just think it’s really, really cool. I also realize that there are those who would dispute the fact that the sky is blue if they thought it would somehow invalidate the Judeo-Christian world-view… My point in bringing any of this up is to highlight the relationship of the name to the Messiah.
I don’t mean the relationship of God to the Messiah, I literally mean the relationship of the name יהוה to the Messiah.
These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.
Numbers 13:16
Unsurprisingly, Joshua is a translation of the name Moses (Moshe – םשה [Mo-shay]) actually gave him. The name he was actually given was Yehoshua (יהשוע [Yeh-ho-shoo-ah]). The shorter form of this name, used once in reference to Joshua son of Nun but extensively throughout the New Testament writings, is Yeshua (ישוע). It is the name of the Messiah, Jesus.
You didn’t think the Messiah and His disciples wandered around Judea speaking 17th Century Elizabethan English did you?
All kidding aside, let’s take a quick look at how we got from Yeshua, to “Jesus” in the modern age:
The name Yeshua corresponds to the Greek that would render Iesous (Yay-soos). This, in Latin renders as Iesus, then in turn, renders in English as Jesus. The net effect is that “Jesus” is the product of translation through 3 languages; directly translated from Hebrew to English it’s Joshua.
I want to be clear; all of the above point to the same individual and I take no issue with the use of any of them being used in reference to the Messiah. I am bringing this to the forefront simply because the meaning of his name gets lost in the translation.
When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:20 – 21
In the above verse, due to the translation of the name of the Messiah, we actually lose the connection to the meaning of the name… a meaning and connection which is obvious in Hebrew.
The name Yeshua (ישוע) is comprised of two other words: The first is the Name of God, יהוה (YHVH – YeHoVaH) and the second is ישע (Yasha) which means delivers, or saves. This would render the meaning of his name as “YeHoVaH is salvation” or “YeHoVaH saves”.
The name Yeshua is furthermore a word-play, alliterating the reason given for the name. The Angel essentially tells Joseph, “… you will name him Yeshua, for he yoshia”. Yoshia means “he will save”, so his name literally means salvation. Moreover, putting everything together, we could likewise render his name as “YeHoVaH Yoshia”; “YeHoVaH will save”, “YeHoVaH is saving”, or “YeHoVaH saves”.
So I ask, once for all; what’s in a name?
Everything.
For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Malachi 1:11
“The Lord” is not a name…
שלום עליכם – Shalom Aleichem – Peace Be Upon You