Most people today have heard of God and Jesus, but not as many have heard of Yahweh, and even less have heard of Yahshua. Many Christians are surprised to learn that God is actually a title and not a name. Therefore, if God is a title, what is His name? The most commonly accepted name for The Most High God is Yahweh, taken from the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, YHWH. Although it is impossible to know with 100% certainty the exact pronunciation of the Father’s name, there is compelling evidence that this is likely correct.
Christ, which means anointed one, also known as the Messiah, is widely known as Jesus. But where does the name Jesus come from? English is not a language that our savior spoke while he was on Earth, and therefore, his name had to be transliterated into the new language. Transliteration is when a name from one language is transferred over to another language, and using the letters and sounds from the new language, it is written how the name should sound in the original language. The problem is that, in this case, the new name did not transliterate accurately due to the Greek language not having the correct sounds, different grammar, and their desire to make the name sound more “masculine.” The name Jesus, then, comes from an error in transliterating Yehoshua from Hebrew to Greek and then to English. As far as English is concerned, his true name has been lost in translation. The commonly accepted name in Hebrew for the Messiah, however, is Yeshua (short for Yehoshua). The problem with this nickname is that it is currently pronounced as Yeshu in some dialects of Hebrew and was likely pronounced this way when it was first put into use. When it is pronounced this way, it is an acronym in Hebrew that means “may his name be obliterated/forgotten.” Seeing as the Jews of the time did not believe that the Messiah was who he said he was, and he caused them a lot of trouble, it is possible that there may have been some malicious intent behind this name. Because of this, I would like to humbly propose another name, if you will hear me out.
It may come as a surprise, but our savior’s name, written in Greek, is exactly the same name that is given to Joshua the prophet and others named Joshua in the same Greek Bible (called The Septuagint). It is unclear why the Greek name is transliterated as Joshua when referring to the prophet (and others throughout Scripture with the same name), and Jesus when referring to the Messiah. What is clear, however, is that the Greek Scriptures and the Hebrew Scriptures agree. The Hebrew Scriptures use the name Yehoshua (which transliterates to Joshua in English) for both the prophet and the Messiah, thereby confirming that they should be the same name.
To fully understand why I believe the name that I do is the most accurate name of our savior, I need to explain a little bit about the old English language, as well as the names of the Father and the Son written in Hebrew. First, the Septuagint, or Greek Scriptures, were translated into Old English, not the English we have today, and in Old English, the “J” actually made a “Y” sound. This is understood even today in the spelling of Hallelujah, where the “j” makes a “y” sound. Hallelujah actually means “Praise Yahweh”, hence the “Yah” at the end. Moreover, because “Yah” is used in the Bible in many places to refer to Yahweh, including but not limited to “Hallelujah”, we do know with certainty that His name starts with that particular sound. This leads us to our final bit of evidence: to compare the names of the Father and the Son as they are written in Hebrew. As you can see below, the beginning characters (or letters) are the same. This is important to note when determining the correct names of our God and our Lord.
The Father’s name
The Son’s name
Putting it all together, we have now proven that Jesus’s name in the Bible is actually supposed to be Joshua, and since the old English “J” made a “Y” sound, we know that Joshua would have actually been pronounced “Yoshua.” This is the way our savior’s name was transliterated into English originally, meaning that this is how the translators believed it should be spelled in English based on how it was originally pronounced. Lastly, we compare the Hebrew names of the Father and the Son and we see that they begin with the same characters (or letters), suggesting that their names have the same beginning sound. Since we know that the beginning sound in the Father’s name is “Yah”, we can apply that to “Yoshua”, bringing us to the name “Yahshua,” which I believe to be the most accurate name of our Lord.
Yahshua is pronounced exactly the same as the original English transliteration of Yoshua. The difference is that it has a much more significant meaning. Whereas Yoshua only means “salvation,” Yahshua means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh’s salvation,” which is exactly what Yahshua was. This is especially important to note because names have so much meaning throughout Scripture. Similarly, it is important to recognize that the name Jesus has no meaning at all.
You may ask why any of this matters. If everyone calls him Jesus, then obviously he responds to that name. I would actually agree with that statement on some level, but I would ask if your significant other would like you to call them by the wrong name? If you did, it would be disrespectful. It is rude to call someone you love, who you are in a relationship with, by the wrong name. More so, our Father in Heaven gave his son a specific name (Matthew 1:21). Mary didn’t pick the name. If she had, it might be easier to argue that the name didn’t matter. Wouldn’t it upset you if the special name that you picked for your child was ignored by the masses and they called your child by a name that they all agreed on instead, that didn’t even resemble your child’s real name, and that maybe you didn’t even like, or maybe resembled the name of a false god (there is a false god dating back to the first century named Esus, or Hesus (hay-soos)).
I pray that you will consider what you have read in this article with an open heart. Speaking from my own experience, I noticed a night and day difference when I started using the names of Yahweh and Yahshua when I prayed. My relationship with God shot to a new level and His presence and blessings in my life were entirely amplified. I changed from being a “good” Christian to a servant of Yahweh. He opened my eyes to so many things and I began truly walking with Him, even though I considered myself to be an experienced and obedient Christian prior to that. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was shown a whole new way of living, and I haven’t looked back.
