etymology – Messianic Moment

According to Shakespeare, nothing. He asked that question, and justified the answer by having Juliet tell herself that a rose would still smell as sweet even if it was called something else.

That’s all good for Juliet, but we should be a little more careful with the names we use in worship, and we should be more aware that, based on what we read in the Bible, names do have meaning to God.

For instance, didn’t God tell Hosea what to name his children? There was meaning in their names. And in Revelations 2, 3 and 22 we are told about new names, and the “name of my God” (3:12): what is God’s name? The Tetragrammaton is made of the 4 Hebrew letters, yud, heh, vav, heh ( YHVH) but no one knows the real pronunciation. Supposedly, Moses was told what God’s true name is when he was sent by God to Pharaoh, so that he could prove he was sent by God to the Hebrew slaves. Knowing God’s true name is something that no one today knows.

Don’t think Jehovah or Yahweh is God’s name, absolutely, because we really don’t know. Jehovah most likely isn’t because it is a name composed of the letters of the Tetragrammaton with the vowels from the word Adonai, which in Hebrew means Lord (when used for God’s name, it is always spelled with a capital ‘A’.) The Masorites took the letters Y-H-V-H and placed the vowel points for the word Adonai under the letters, and Voila! You have Jehovah!

Jesus Christ is a name with no meaning. The etymology is that the Greek’s had no cultural, religious or (even) social identification with an “anointed one.” The name given to the son of Miryam and Yosef when he was born was (and it still is) ‘Yeshua’, which means ‘God’s salvation’; the Greeks didn’t have this name in any of their naming books, so they used a transliteration, a word that sounds like Yeshua. For them, that word/name was Jesu. When the Romans took over the writing of the scriptures, they latinized ‘Jesu’ to ‘Jesus.’ Christ came from Cristos, and I have seen a number of different histories of this word. Anything from the Greek word Chrestos, for ‘good’ to Cristo, a method of rubbing oil on the leather shields to keep them supple. That meaning was used to identify the anointing by placing oil on the head of the Messiah.

Jesus Christ is not His name. His name is Yeshua ben Yosef, but we know that He is really Yeshua ben Adonai. The Talmud says the Messiah will first come as Yeshua ben Yosef (the suffering servant Isaiah talked about, where Yosef is the son of Yacov/Jacob) and then also as Yeshua ben David. That will be when He comes as the mighty king.

There is definitely substance and importance in the names we give and the names we are given, so far as God is concerned. That is pretty obvious in the Bible, especially in the writings of the Prophets. Every tribe of Israel was given a name (Genesis 29:31 and afterwards) based on how their mother (whether Leah or Rachel) felt about their relation at that time to God or Jacob, and even each other (since they were jealous of each other), and it ended with Benjamin, whom Rachel named before she died, Ben-oni (son of my sorrow) but Yacov changed to Ben-yamin, or son of my right hand, indicating a favored position.

I am not saying that everyone should stop using the name Jesus Christ and instead must use Yeshua ha Maschiach. That would be fine with me, but I think God and Yeshua are big enough to handle this centuries-old misnomer. Whether you call upon the name of Jesus, or Yeshua, you are calling out to the right guy and He will answer. However, I would ask that you be careful about calling on the name of the Lord if you happen to be around during the tribulation. Revelations also tells us about a few new names being given out, and one or two of them refer to someone you certainly do not want to be calling out to.

I am Jewish and feel much more comfortable with ‘Yeshua” than I ever will with ‘Jesus’, and that’s OK. It’s also perfectly acceptable if you use ‘Jesus’. We all know it’s the same guy, and I don’t think He minds too much which name we use (then again, who am I to talk for Him?) What is important is that you realize names do have meaning, and import, and I would ask that you make sure exactly what the name means for the person you call out to in your trouble and need.

The names we give our children used to serve a two-fold purpose: first to identify them as a member of a family, and their name was also a reminder of what they meant to their parents at the time of their birth; it could also be an indicator of who they may grow up to be. Today we name our children not based on our relationship to God but after people who have influenced our lives in one way or another. Nothing wrong with naming someone as a memorial or to honor a parent or ancestor, but some of the names we have today for kids? Really? And the names these movie stars use? Oy! Didn’t they ever hear Johnny Cash sing, “A Boy Named Sue?”

What’s in a name? It could be a lot, or nothing, depending on what you are trying to do when naming someone. Names are important, and there will be a couple of new names floating around during the End Days, so make sure you know which names are the ones to call out to when you call for help.

A rose. by any other name, would smell as sweet. So said Juliet in the play “Romeo and Juliet.” She was making a point: just because Romeo’s last name was that of the family’s enemy, Romeo, himself, was okay. His name was irrelevant.

Is that the same with Yeshua, mostly known by the world as Jesus? Is there really a difference?

The etymology of Jesus is that Yeshua, the Hebrew name that means ‘God’s salvation’, could not be translated into Greek because culturally, religiously and in every other way the Greek’s had no such identity to refer to: think of trying to interpret the word “snow” into the language of the people living on Easter Island, who have never seen or had snow, ever, in their history. So what happened with Yeshua is that when translating into Greek they used a transliteration: a word that sounds like the name, which was “Jesu.” When Latinized, Jesu became Jesus.

Christ comes from a similar evolution of words: Mashiach (Anointed One) also had no Greek counterpart so, using the bastardized Hebrew-Greek of the Septuagint, Maschiach got to be Cristos (the act of spreading oil on a shield, representing the anointment by oil) and that became Christ. So Yeshua ha Maschiach became Jesu Cristos, then (finally) Jesus Christ.

That brings us back to the original question: what’s in a name? For Juliet, Romeo’s name meant nothing, but is that true for God and for His Messiah?

We are told that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, so that begs the question: does it matter to God which name we use? If ‘Jesus’ is a non-name, but ‘Yeshua’ is known to people as ‘Jesus’, when we call on the name ‘Jesus’, or pray in the name of ‘Jesus’, does it have the same level of authority that His real name, ‘Yeshua’, has? Now that I think about it, is ‘Yeshua’ OK? Didn’t the angel tell Yosef to name the child ‘Immanuel’? That means “God with us”. To me, ‘God with Us’ and ‘God’s Salvation’ are much more powerful and authoritative than some translated transliteration. Right?

Aren’t we also told in Revelations , a well as in the writings of different prophets, that the Messiah will be given a new name? A name that only He knows? That seems to impart a lot of importance to which name we use.

Yitzhak (Isaac) was named that because Sarah laughed when the angel told Abraham he would have a son. And Yakov (usurper) was named that by means of his birth (grabbing Esau’s heel) and he lived up to that name, right? And didn’t God tell Nathan the Prophet to change the name of Solomon to Jedidiah (beloved of God) because God loved the child? And didn’t God tell Hosea what names to give his children so that they represented what God wanted the people to know? It seems that names are very important to God.

Jewish folklore (I just learned this) also puts great importance on the name. It is referred to as kishmo ken hu–“Like his name, so is he” (1 Samuel 25:25). Traditionally, at birth the Hebrew name given is something that the child will (hopefully) grow into and represent later in life; then, an English (or whatever language is appropriate) name with a similar meaning is also given. My English name is Steven Robert (my mother liked Steven and Robert is after one of my fathers best friends) but the Hebrew is Shaul Baer. I doubt very much that my parents gave me a Hebrew name then the English, since they were not religious or knew the Lord, so my Hebrew name came from the translation of the English. Actually, there is some truth to my names: the Hebrew should have been first, then the English, but in my case it is backward, and I was a breech birth, so maybe….?

Where does all this bring us? It brings us here: if names are so important, does that mean all who have called on ‘Jesus’ are not saved? Does the name ‘Jesus” has no value to God? When we pray in the name of ‘Jesus” are those prayers ignored?

Of course, I can’t speak for God or Yeshua; personally, I think that using the name ‘Yeshua’ is important and shows the proper respect for the one who bears it.

We are told, over and over, that God knows the heart. I think, knowing God’s compassionate and understanding nature, if we are truly repentant and come before God with a broken spirit and a contrite heart, as David did (Psalm 51), then the names or words we use are secondary to what our heart is “saying”, as far as God is concerned. Therefore, my answer to , “What’s in a name?” is that the name is important and deserves to be honored, but so long as our heart is in the right place and our T’Shuvah before the Lord is genuine, names and even words are unimportant. Those that are mute from life, who can’t even speak in their minds, can communicate with God, can’t they? If there is someone who recognizes God as the only true God and knows, spiritually, that He exists but just has never heard the name or read the Bible, is God going to ignore that person just because he doesn’t know with which name to call upon Him?

Each of us has to choose for ourselves. Being Jewish I am much more comfortable with the Hebrew name ‘Yeshua’ than with ‘Jesus’, which represents many bad things to Jewish people. And for that same reason I understand the vast majority of Gentiles are more comfortable with Jesus. I don’t think God cares that much which name we use, but I do think Yeshua appreciates being called upon with His real name. Just my opinion.

As for me and my house, we will call upon the name of Yeshua, because well, …that’s His name.

Tag: etymology

What’s in a Name?

What’s in a Name?