The most thorough report I found on what Yeshua’s family called him is from Wikipedia[1] (for which I seek second source. So far, I perceive affirmation and plan to continue my $30 annual Wiki contribution.)
I like “Yeshua”, because it seems the name the
family used and offers me direct connection. First, Mom taught to respect the
name a person uses within their family. Second, I appreciate the story of Yeshua
at age 12 meeting with adults and the conclusion: Luke 2:52, CJB, “And
Yeshua grew both in wisdom and in stature, gaining favor both with other people
and with God.” Third, I perceive
withdrawal on changing “Yeshua” to “Jesus” or adding the title “Christ”, as
Christianity attempts. Confusion dilutes the actually-real-person’s civic
influence, much as babel prevents expression. I do not know the ineluctable
truth, but appreciate that at age 81 I embrace what I think.
I favor neither Israel nor Christianity. I want to
promote Yeshua’s civic influence. It starts with his excellent scholarship,
which empowered him to improve the Torah during the 3 decades before he started
teaching and afterwards. I want to pronounce[2] well
the soft sound: ye shoo ah. Think of
“Joshua” but with short “ye” and soft accent on “shu” rather than on “Jo”.
Considering usage trends
The Google ngram for three words -- Jesus, Christ, and Yeshua,[3] instructs me to advocate Jeshua’s civic influence, as I have been doing, until now, as “Jesus’ civic influence”. I like two factors from the Google statistics: in 1994, “Jesus” usage exceeded “Christ” usage and the advantage is increasing as of 2019. I want to and may exponentially increase “Yeshua” usage.
Jerusalem souvenir
Quoting a sales pitch, “The Hebrew name of [the actual
person] - Yeshua - as it was written on an ossuary dating from the time [he
lived], found in a rock cut tomb in the vicinity of Jerusalem. The Hebrew and
Aramaic name "Yeshua", Jesus [transliterated from the Greek
translation], is a late form of the Hebrew "Yehoshua", and was a very
common name during the first century. The meaning of the name Yeshua is "Yahweh
is salvation", or "Yahweh saves", and is alluded to in Matthew
1:21 and Luke 2:21. Yeshua therefore refers to the Savior and was one of the
Christian ways of naming and identifying Jesus.”[4] Before “Christian” Yeshua
was Aramaic and Hebrew translated into ancient Greek and on to the
“J” sound.
Matthew 1:20-21, CJB: “But
while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him
in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home
with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from
the Ruach HaKodesh. 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.”[5]
It is important to notice that Adonai is not the Trinity.
Luke 2:21-24, CJB: “On the
eighth day, when it was time for his b’rit-milah, he was given the
name Yeshua, which is what the angel had called him before his conception. When
the time came for their purification according to the Torah of
Moshe, they took him up to Yerushalayim to present him to Adonai (as it is written in the Torah of Adonai, “Every firstborn male is to be
consecrated to Adonai”) and also to offer a sacrifice of a
pair of doves or two young pigeons, as required by the Torah of Adonai.” It is important to notice
that such bird sacrifices stopped
when the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, only 40 years after
Yeshua was executed.
We read,
”. . . [since] 70 AD. As there was no longer a Temple
at which to offer animal sacrifices, Judaism pivoted towards prayer and the
study of the Torah.”[6]
Luke’s writer may not have been aware that blood sacrifice required by Adonai was obsolete. Simultaneously, the Luke 2 reference to Adonai seems obsoleted.
A reporter’s controversy
Tuvia Pollack[7], among
a 4th generation of Jews who believe in Yeshua, lends credulity to
the souvenir, writing,
In the Hebrew Bible there is a name which could be rendered as Yehoshua
if we want to be true to the Hebrew pronounciation. Due to tradition most
English Bibles nowadays call him Joshua. It means “God saves,” or “salvation of
God.
I assume in “call him
Joshua” Pollack references Hebrew publishers of English-language Bibles.
Pollack concludes with “I personally prefer to say Jesus when I speak English
and Yeshua when I speak Hebrew, but I leave it up to each and every one to
decide for himself. If I find myself in the right context, I might say Yeshua
when I speak English.”
I reached the same conclusion on considering the Google ngram view for
“Jesus” and “Yeshua”. However, I advocate Yeshua and encouraged Pollack to do
so, too. Yeshua’s process for forgiveness, Matthew 18:15-20, does not suggest “agree
to disagree”.
A rabbi’s sensational conclusion
A Christian group wonderfully analyses[8] Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri‘s
posthumous announcement that Jesus is the Messiah. Notice the statement, “The
first coming of the Messiah was not to save his people from the Romans, but
"from their sins". The salvation of Israel and the world is yet to
come.” It seems to overlook that the world is steeped in intentional wrong,
which, in the doctrine, must be lessened to prepare for the second coming.
Many theological issues are
raised, not the least of which is that the transliteration of “Yahoshua” to
“Jesus” was accomplished 200 years before Mary and Joseph reared Jesus. Once
again, the world can entertain a political prophecy. Meanwhile, an ancient
person’s political influence to the good suffers the bad. I think his mom and
dad called him Yeshua, but am willing to talk about Jesus’s civic influence
rather than be stonewalled. On the other hand, I do not want to aid Paul’s
church to compete with Yeshua’s church.[9] Neither do I want to aid
Saul’s competition with Ya’akov, somehow Anglicized to “James”.[10] Discovering “Yeshua” and
“Ya’akov” in my early 9th decade is shocking yet hopeful! I need to
learn Kefa’s opinion (1 Peter, CJB).
Posted on 3/27/24, updated 4/2/24.
Copyright©2024 by Phillip R. Beaver. All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted for the publication of all or portions of this
paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshua#:~:text=Yeshua%20in%20Hebrew%20is%20a,using%20their%20full%20name%20Joshua
[2]
Online https://www.google.com/search?q=How+do+you+pronounce+Yeshua. Ewerton
Belchior, on March 24, 2024 at University Baptist Church, taught me the softly accented
“shu”; it makes the name like a whisper.
[3]
Online at https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Jesus%2CChrist%2CYeshua&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3
[4]
Online at https://www.jerusalempottery.biz/yeshua/
[5]
The Epistle of Ya’akov (“James” somehow) informs that “sin” means intentional
wrong. Saul argues that Yeshua grants elected people favorable afterdeath,
regardless of wrongs in life.
[7]
Online at https://news.kehila.org/jesus-yeshua-or-yahshua/
[8]
Online at https://bible-menorah.jimdofree.com/english/rabbi-kaduri-note/,
“We are Christians and not Messianic Jews.”
[9]
For example, see online https://doctrine.org/jesus-vs-paul.
[10]
Online at https://gospelproject.lifeway.com/who-was-right-james-paul-or-both/.
Also, see James 1:1 in the Complete Jewish Bible, “From:
Ya‘akov, a slave of God and of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah”; why
isn’t the book titled “Ya’akov”?
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