By Popular Demand, Part One

Well, maybe not popular demand, but certainly requested. So big brother Dave, this one's for you. Sorry it took so long. I really meant to blog more these last weeks but I didn't follow through. So Dave's comment went something like "Next blog you should include the most precious name I know: Jesus. Find out how we got from Yeshua to Jesus and what does it mean in Hebrew anyway? What does YAHWEH mean and how is that different than Elohim?" Good questions Dave! Those seem like pretty straight forward inquiries. They weren’t. It took a little digging for credible online sources and references books at my mom’s. My first stop was the http://www.behindthename.com/ site. I’ve had a lot of good use out of that site. Back when I was researching Gaelic and Irish names for my 2nd unfinished novel I was scouring websites to find names that suited my characters personalities. Here’s what I found there… JESUS Gender: Masculine Usage: Theology, Biblical Pronounced: JEE-zəs (English) English form of Ιησους (Iesous), which was the Greek form of the Aramaic name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshu'a). Yeshu'a is itself a contracted form of Yehoshu'a (see JOSHUA). Yeshua ben Yoseph, better known as Jesus Christ, was the central figure of the New Testament and the source of the Christian religion. The four Gospels state that he was the son of God and the Virgin Mary who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. He preached for three years before being crucified in Jerusalem. So that leads to Joshua and here’s what I found for that name: JOSHUA Gender: Masculine Usage: English, Biblical Pronounced: JAH-shə-wə (English), JAW-shwə (English) From the Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshu'a) meaning "YAHWEH is salvation". Joshua was one of the twelve spies sent into Canaan by Moses in the Old Testament. After Moses died Joshua succeeded him as leader of the Israelites. As an English name, Joshua has been in use since the Protestant Reformation. Then we come to YAHWEH or YHWH. The actual pronunciation of God’s name has been lost since it was so revered by the Jews that they did not pronounce it. This is explained again in the description below. YAHWEH Gender: Masculine Usage: Theology Pronounced: YAH-wah A name of the Hebrew God, represented in Hebrew by the tetragrammaton ("four letters") יהוה (Yod Heh Vav Heh), transliterated into Roman script Y H W H. Because it was considered blasphemous to utter the name of God it was only written and never spoken. This resulted in the original pronunciation being lost. The name may have originally been derived from the old Semitic root הוה (havah) meaning "to be" or "to become". I checked out a couple other baby name sites. Here’s one that I found interesting. From thinkbabynames.com: The boy's name Jesus \j(e)-sus\ is pronounced JEE-zus, hay-SOOS. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "the Lord is salvation". Short form of Joshua, from the Hebrew name Jehoshua. The name of the biblical Christ is very frequently used as a given name in Hispanic cultures. Here’s another tidbit I found at about.com (http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/f/jesusoryeshua.htm): Yeshua is the Hebrew name for the Lord. It means "Yahweh [the Lord] is Salvation." The English spelling of Yeshua is “Joshua.” However, when translated from Hebrew into the Greek language, the name Yeshua becomes Iēsous. The English spelling for Iēsous is “Jesus.” So Jesus and Joshua are the same name; just translated differently. Pretty neat! Next Time….Elohim....