WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Some believers who are new to the concept that the Messiah has a Hebrew Name and some who look to the Jewish believers for truth wind up calling the Messiah – ‘Yeshua‘.

This article is not written to attack those who do so. Most of us have come from one denomination of christianity or another and have inherited many wrong doctrines… This article is written to clear up confusion for those who don’t understand why there is a difference, or indeed that there is a difference.
As it turns out there is very much indeed a difference and a very important difference at that!

The root of the difference lies in the problem with Jewish tradition… According to the pharisees and Talmudic teachers of law, the Name of the Almighty Creator – Yahweh is too ‘holy’ to pronounce. This ‘tradition’ goes against all Scripture commanding us to: Praise His Name (Psa 113:1)… Call on His Name (Psa 105:1)… Sing praises to His Name (Psa 61:8)… Bless in His Name (Deu 21:5)… Not to bring His Name to naught (Exo 20:7)… His Name is a remembrance (Exo 3:15) etc. see article below:

The Jewish tradition of not pronouncing the Name of Yahweh extends to the Name of the Messiah…

The Name of Yahweh is known as the ‘tetragrammaton’ (YHWH), meaning ‘four’ (tetra) ‘letters’ (gramma) amongst scholars and in Hebrew is spelled:
    ה      ו      ה     י         
yod,  hay,  waw,  hay
The Name of the Messiah in Hebrew is spelled:                                                (read left to right for simplicity) 
ע     ש       ו      ה     י
yod,  hay,  waw,  shin,  ayin

You will notice that the Messiah’s Name (like many in Scripture – Eliyahu – (My El is Yahweh), Yeshayahu– (Salvation of Yahweh) Nethanyahu – (given of Yahweh), Obadyahu – (servant of Yahweh),  Mattithyahu -(Gift of Yahweh), etc… there are nearly 100) contains the first three letters of the Name of the Almighty –
 ו      ה     י
yod,  hay,  waw
This is known as the ‘trigrammaton’ (YHW).
Because this trigrammaton is contained in the Name of the Messiah and the pharisaical tradition to not pronounce the Name, the Name of the Messiah is abbreviated to – Y’shua (pronounced Yeshua).

HE CAME IN HIS FATHER’S NAME
It will be quite obvious to you by now that by using the abbreviated form of the Name of the Messiah is in effect taking the Name of Yahweh out of the Name of the Son. Why would the prophets of Yahweh have His name in theirs and not the One and Only Son?
The Name of Yahushua means – ‘Yahweh‘- (Yahu) ‘is salvation‘ (shua)
Matthew 1:21 “And she shall give birth to a Son, and you shall call His Name יהושע for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Yahweh proclaimed that He would have His Name:
Exo 23:21 “Be on guard before Him and obey His voice. Do not rebel against Him, for He is not going to pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him.”

Yahushua also proclaimed that He came in His Father’s Name:
John 5:43 “I have come in My Father’s Name and you do not receive Me, if another comes in his own name, him you would receive.”
Joh 17:12  “When I was with them in the world, I was guarding them in Your Name which You have given Me…”

In it’s basic Hebrew sense, ‘Yeshua‘ simply means – ‘salvation‘, but if our Messiah said He came in His Father’s Name; who are we to remove it by tradition, or any other well meaning reason?

There are approximately 90 names in Scripture that contain the ‘tri-grammaton’ – YAHU and a further 85 containing the Name YAH.
Here are some of the names of others with YAHU in them… 

Adoniyahu   (Adonijah)    – “my Master is Yahweh” 
Azaryahu     (Azariah)      – “ Yahweh is help” 
Bereḵyahu   (Berekiah)    – “blessed of Yahweh” 
Gedalyahu   (Gedaliah)     – “Yahweh is great” 
Kenanyahu  (Chenaniah)  – “Yahweh has planted”
Hananyahu   (Hananiah)   – “favoured of Yahweh” 
Mattanyahu  (Mattaniah)  – “gift of Yahweh” 
Pelatyahu     (Petaliah)     – “Yahweh has delivered” 
Semaḵyahu   (Semakiah)  – “Sustained of Yahweh” 
Shephatyahu (Shephatiah) – “Yahweh has judged”

With all these men of Yahweh so favoured to have the Father insert His Name in theirs, He definitely placed His Name in His own Son’s Name, Yahushua (Yahweh is salvation).
We will not be seeing HIM again unless we say He comes in
His Father’s Name and call upon that Name (John 5:43)…

“For I say to you, from now on you shall by no means see Me, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who is coming in the Name of YHWH!”
(Mattithayahu 23:39) 

WHAT ABOUT YAHUSHA?

A relatively new way that has been proposed to pronounce the Name of the Messiah which they pronounce Yahusha. It is commendable that people are at least trying to call the Messiah anything close rather than Jeezeus, but it only requires a little study to shoe that Yahushua is the FULL Name of the Messiah.

Many who are unfamiliar with the Biblical Hebrew language get confused over is the construct of words and root words…

Root words as mentioned in Hebrew lexicons etc. are seldom used in that root form. They are typically constructed into compound words which take on various meanings depending on the particular construct…

eg. Yasha is the root word meaning ‘save’ which is used to make structured sentences. Many fall into the trap of simply clicking on their Strong’s number in e-sword or the like and assume they instantly know Hebrew, yet when you read the Hebrew it is not so simple: Deut 20:4

…”for YHWH your Elohim is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

כי יהוה אלהיכם ההלך עמכם להלחם לכם עם־איביכם להושׁיע אתכם׃

You will notice the construct is: ‘lehoshia’, the ‘save’ becoming ‘shia’

On the other hand ‘salvation’ or deliverance takes on a recognizable form:

“I have waited for your deliverance, O YHWH!”

לישׁועתך קויתי יהוה׃

The construct is ‘lishuatekha’, the salvation written as ‘shua’

So when the Meshiach’s Name is written in full: יהושׁוע it means ‘YHWH is salvation’ rather than ‘ YHWH saves’.

As we have written previously, many names in Scripture utilize the exact spelling and construct for ‘salvation’, eg:

Elishua (the full form of Elisha), Malkishua, Abishua, Bathshua, Yeshua and of course Yahoshua all take on the same form: shua – שׁוע

We simply cannot ignore all these other usages and so many names of other individuals in Scriptures just to entertain a relatively new concept of the pronunciation of a Name in Scripture.

Look into the term ‘defective spelling’ then examine the DSS and you will find at least another 8. This is what scholars know of as there are yet many hundreds of thousands of fragments from Qumran that are still yet to be revealed…

Dawid’s name is missing the yod nearly half the appearances in scripture and nearly all of the individuals in Scripture whose names end with the Trigrammaton drop the waw on many appearances.

Strong’s only shows the root word for a given word or name eg the word ‘yasha’ which many Yahusha proponents use as an example but this never appears in Scripture… What needs to be focussed on is the root word ‘y’shua’ (Strong’s 3444) which means ‘salvation’ or ‘deliverance’ and in construct always appears with the waw.

We have the witness of Yĕshua whose name appears 30 times that the correct grammatical pronunciation is with the waw. Elishua (the full form of Elisha), Malkishua, Abishua, Bathshua all appear with or without the waw.

Just to prove that the waw is indeed part of Yahshua’s Name is this image of an engraved plate placed in the Shrine of the Scroll in Israel. you can go down the stairs and look at it yourself…