The Name

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20&21)

o you get the feeling you missed something? I sure did for a while. Nowhere in the Scriptures is the name “Jesus” explained, or why He was named this “because” He would save people from sin. The truth is, the Messiah was never called by this name in His life, but those who read the above passage in its correct pronunciation would have understood clearly what the words of the announcing angel meant.

Of equal importance is the name of the Father, and in fact, if the name of both Father and Son are understood, we see revealed a beautiful and literal interpretation of Christ’s words when He said, “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in Him.”(John 10:37&38) To understand the names, then, we can go back to the first time the Father gave mortal man a title by which He should be called.

Exodus 3, verses 13 and 14 read: And Moses said unto God, “Behold, I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, ‘The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;’ and they shall say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say unto them?” And God said unto Moses, “I AM THAT I AM:” and He said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ‘I AM hath sent me unto you.’”

If you are at all familiar with the record of the Decalogue being given to Moses, you will remember that even as he was atop Mount Sinai receiving the stone tablets, the Israelites were at the base worshipping a golden calf, which they had cast from their jewelry. After their lengthy captivity in Egypt, it seems the people of God were so spiritually ill that they could fall into idolatry at the slightest provocation. For this reason, when presenting Himself to them through Moses (and thereby to us centuries later), God did not even give them a definitive name. “Call me I AM,” He said to them.

Anyone who has studied Biblical literature for any length of time knows what the Tetragrammaton is. Early translators of the Sacred Texts were so hesitant to write the name given to Moses that they replaced every occurrence of it with “Lord” or “LORD.” Additionally, “God” was used in place of “El” or “Elohim”, which meant “Lord” also. Originally, the Scriptures read IHVH where His name was given: four (tetra) letters. However, in Hebrew the letters “I” and “Y” are equivalent, so we sometimes see these written YHVH. Also, the letter “V” was pronounced as “W” or “OO” and therefore if we are going to be phonetically accurate, the name transliterates to YHWH.

Of course, if we plan to pronounce this, we will need some vowels too, and so the name becomes YxHWxH – any soft vowel will do, try pronouncing it with “a”s or “e”s or “o”s; you’ll find the result is practically identical – and is usually written as YAHWEH. Putting this back into Exodus 3:14, we get: And El said unto Moses, “YAHWEH:” and He said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ‘YAH hath sent me unto you.’” “YAH,” the shorter form, means simply, “I am,” or “I exist.” Interestingly enough, it also has the connotation, “I create,” in Hebrew; yet another reminder of how this all began.

Now in regards to His Son’s name, it will at once become obvious that “Jesus” is the incorrect pronunciation as soon as we realize that the letter “J” was not even developed until much later, and to this day Hebrew has no equivalent sound. This is also the reason the name “Jehovah” is inaccurate when applied to the Father. In life, the Redeemer was called “Iahushua” or, following the transliteration methods above, “Yahshua.” The literal translation of this is, “YAH saves,” or “YAH is salvation.” If we read the angel’s message to Joseph with this in mind, it’s meaning becomes very clear.

Also, even more significant now are Christ’s words in John 10:38, “The Father is in me, and I in Him,” and we can indeed see that “Yah” is in “Yahshua,” and “Yah saves,” is an integral part of the concept of YAHWEH. For this reason, I tend to use the more correct forms Yah and Yahshua for Father and Son, although at times I will use the names God and Jesus, especially when quoting from an existing Bible version, simply for the sake of clarity. Besides, it is not necessarily WRONG to refer to the Messiah as Yahsus or a similar pronunciation, for in the New Testament, the prophet Elijah (Eli-Yah) was called Elias at times, Jonah was called Jonas and so on.

I decided to post this article first, since it deals with a theme, which runs all the way through my other writings, and I am sure readers will wonder why I use the terminology I do. I believe using the true identification for the Father and Son is important, especially if we are to pray and speak and live “In His name” :) May Yah bless you thoroughly in the name of Yahshua His Son.

David.