A name that appears over 6,800 times in scripture, is the name of the Heavenly Father. While He is commonly called “The LORD” or “God”, the reason we see “LORD” and “God” in our bibles is because of an ancient Jewish tradition. This tradition stated that the name Yahweh was not be spoken for fear that the name be blasphemed. This tradition was carried over into 2nd century Christianity. However, this tradition does not agree with the scriptures which declare that His name be exalted! (Ps 68:4 is a good Example). The Preface of some bibles will declare why they change His name. Nearly all will cite tradition and familiarity as the reason. Because of these things, I restore the name “Yahweh” into my studies.
This is the name of the Messiah, commonly called “Jesus”. It has also been changed by translators into a Greek/Latin form. When the Messiah walked the earth, He was known as “Yahushua”. Click here for more information.
This is the Hebrew word commonly translated “God,” but I’ve discovered that “God” is a very poor translation and the word actually means “Mighty One.” “God” actually is the name of an idol mentioned in scripture.
Why the Heavenly Father’s
name is pronounced, “Yahweh”
To see why His name is pronounced “Yahweh” I would point you to the following resource which I have checked out thoroughly and have found to be adequate and in agreement with what I have found on the pronunciation.
Click here to download the in depth study that demonstrates “Yahweh” to be the correct pronunciation. Note that the u and w are often interchangeable (e.g. persuade and perswade sound the same). Thus if one spelled it Yahweh or Yahueh we could get the same pronunciation, but most people who see the word “Yahueh” would tend to pronounce the H as a hard consonant. Thus, Yahweh seems to be the best spelling to convey the sounds in Hebrew.
This download is a chapter from the book entitled “The Sacred name” by R.Clover. I don’t necessarily endorse the views of the author in other chapters of this book or other topics.
IMPORTANT NOTE AND UPDATE – 9/4/2011:
Some have written me asking for an explanation of why I use the form “Yahushua” in reference to the Messiah while others use “Yahshua”, “Yeshua” or “Yehoshua”. The purpose of this study is to go through each of these pronunciations and determine which is the most correct.
I’m not one that believes that you need to pronounce the Messiah’s name exactly like I do in order to be saved. However, the issue of the Messiah’s name is a very important one. If you don’t believe me, read the below scriptures:
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Yahushua Messiah of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Acts 3:16 “And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which [comes] through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Acts 4:7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”
Acts 4:10 “let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Yahushua Messiah of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom Elohim raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:17 “But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.” 18 And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Yahushua.
Acts 4:30 “by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Yahushua.”
Acts 5:28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”
Acts 5:40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten [them], they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Yahushua, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of Elohim and the name of Yahushua Messiah, both men and women were baptized.
Acts 8:16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.
Acts 9:14 “And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” 15 But the Master said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 “For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Acts 9:21 Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?”
Acts 9:27 But Barnabas took him and brought [him] to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Master on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Yahushua.
Acts 9:29 And he spoke boldly in the name of the Master Yahushua and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him.
Acts 10:43 “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
Acts 15:14 “Simon has declared how Elohim at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.
Acts 15:26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Master Yahushua Messiah.
Acts 16:18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Yahushua Messiah to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.
Acts 18:15 “But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look [to] [it] yourselves; for I do not want to be a judge of such [matters].”
Acts 19:5 When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.
Acts 19:13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Master Yahushua over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Yahushua whom Paul preaches.”
Acts 19:17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Master Yahushua was magnified.
Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Master Yahushua.”
And this is just in the book of Acts! The name of Yahushua is intricately linked with the person of Yahushua. So in light of the numerous scriptures which show us the importance of His name, we should at least seek to understand how it is pronounced. It is obviously important according to scripture.
Origin of the name “Jesus”
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the etymological origin of “Jesus” is:
Jesus ..Middle English, from Late Latin Isus, from Greek Isous, from Hebrew yû‘, from yhôûa‘, Joshua…
Notice that it says that the origin of His name is from Latin, then Greek, then Hebrew. So the name “Jesus” is the result of 3 different languages placing their influence on the original name the disciples were proclaiming, baptizing in and praying in. Some of the influence is quite recent. In the 1611 King James Version, it originally had “Iesus” rather than “Jesus” (photo). Later revisions of the KJV changed it to “Jesus”. This leads me to ask some important questions: “Who is the one who gets to decide what it is changed to? Man or Yahweh? And if Yahushua is supposed to be the same yesterday, today and forever, why do they keep changing His name?”
If you look up the name “Jesus” in a Strong’s lexicon it has “Iesous”:
“2424 Iesous ee-ay-sooce’ of Hebrew origin (3091); Jesus (i.e. Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites:–Jesus.”
Notice that it traces the name of Messiah to Hebrew word #3091 in the Strong’s lexicon. This name is the same name as “Joshua, Son of Nun”. In the Hebrew, this name is spelled .
While there are some out there claiming that “Jesus” is somehow derived from “Zeus”, I have yet to find anyone who is willing to present hard evidence of this claim. One person wrote a book which claimed that “Iesous” means “Hail Zeus”. When I contacted him by phone and asked him for evidence of this claim, he said “Iesous” means “Hail Zeus” in the sense that when you say the “Ie” it sounds like “Yaayy” and “Yaayy” is what people do in modern sports games when they hail their team. Thus, the statement that “Iesous” meant “Hail Zeus” had nothing to do with its meaning in the Greek language.
In fact, the Greek language spells Zeus (#2203 in the Strong’s Lexicon) as ZeuV and doesn’t even have the same letters or sound as the second syllable in IhsouV(Iesous). First of all, the Z in ZeuV produces a “dz” sound, not an “s” sound. Also the eu combination in ZeuV sounds like “eu as in feud“, a letter combination not found in any form of IhsouV/Iesous. So is ZeuV is actually pronounced “Dzyooce” and not “Sooce”. These things alone make it appear quite impossible that Iesous comes from “Zeus”. Look at the first page of the Greek Lexicon in your Strong’s concordance if you want confirmation of the sounds of these Greek letters.
Another important point is that the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that was completed many years before Yahushua came to earth, also rendered the Hebrew name “Yahushua” as IhsouV (Iesous). This fact alone clearly demonstrates that “Iesous” is a Greek form of and wasn’t a form invented by apostate Christians who wanted to honor Zeus in some way.
Interestingly, there is evidence that although the name of Yahushua was written in Greek as IhsouV, it may have actually been pronounced the way a Hebrew speaking person would pronounce it. Around 178 CE, a pagan by the name of Celsus engaged in written debates with Christians. In one of them, Celsus (speaking of Christians) said:
“But of course they think otherwise: they assume that by pronouncing the name of their teacher they are armored against the powers of the earth and air. And they are quite insistent on the efficacy of the name as a means of protection: pronounce it improperly, they say, and it is ineffective. Greek and Latin will not do; it must be said in a barbarian tongue to work. Silly as they are, one finds them standing next to a a statue of Zeus or Apollo or some other god, and shouting, “see here: I blaspheme it and strike it, but it is powerless against me for I am a Christian.” Celsus on the True Doctrine, A Discourse Against the Christians, R. Joseph Hoffman (page118)
Notice that Celsus was quoting Christians as saying that the name of “their teacher” (Yahushua no doubt) must not be spoken “improperly” and that it must not be spoken in a “Greek” way or “Latin” way, but in a “Barbarian tongue” for it to be effective.
Of course, to the pagans the Hebrew language was nothing more than a barbarian language. This lends evidence that even though the name of Yahushua was written as IhsouV, there were at least some people speaking it in the Hebrew way. The Greek alphabet simply lacks the letters necessary to correctly convey how the name is pronounced in Hebrew.
So how is the name pronounced? This will take some study. After all, we are English speakers so it is going to take a certain amount of concentration and diligence to try and understand how a Hebrew word is pronounced. But if you are willing to diligently search this out with me, I think you’ll better understand Hebrew and conclude with me that His name should be pronounced “Yahushua.” Click here to listen to how “Yahushua” is pronounced.
For more information go here: http://www.eliyah.com/yahushua.html