Hi Sam,
Since the discussion has been brought over here I will also bring my comments here:
Bro Seagraves:
Because Oneness Pentecostals love the name of our Lord intensely, we may be intrigued when we hear of teachings that supposedly present the Messiah’s name even more accurately. We should be careful of such claims, however, for they can lead the unwary away from the Lord rather than closer to Him.
One example is the notion that the Messiah’s true name is not Jesus, but Yahshua. This claim may be presented with a show of knowledge of the Hebrew language, with the claim that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and with the assertion that the name “Jesus” is a corruption connected with the ancient Greek god Zeus. These claims are not true, and those who make them do not demonstrate an accurate knowledge of the Hebrew language.
The name “Jesus” is the English rendering of the Greek Iesous, which is used throughout the inspired Greek New Testament as the Messiah’s name, beginning in
Matthew 1:1. Iesous is the Greek rendering from the Hebrew Yeshua’, which is an abbreviated form of the Hebrew Yehoshua’. Both names, abbreviated or not, mean “Yahweh is Savior.” “Yahweh-Savior,” or “Yahweh will save.” This is why the angel told Joseph, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (
Matthew 1:21, NKJV).
If a person is not familiar with the Hebrew language, it may seem that Yahshua and Yeshua’ are the same. They are not. Yahshua is an invented non-word., without meaning. It never appears in the inspired Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Yeshua’ and Yehoshua’ both appear in the Old Testament. The name of Moses’ successor was originally Hoshea’, the Hiphil infinitive form of yasha’ which means “salvation.” But Moses changed his name to Yehoshua’. (See
Numbers 13:16.) During the exile, Yehoshua’ was shortened to Yeshua’. (See
Ezra 3:2). The translation of Yeshua’ in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures quoted most frequently in the New Testament, is identical to the spelling in the New Testament. (See
Revelation 22:16).
Me:
This seems like a straw man argument. He rightly points out that Oneness people are intense over the love of the name of the Lord. Then he rightly points out that many are today using Yeshua or Yahshua. Though I would say that does
NOT include many Apostolics.
He then discredits the name Yahshua as a made up word and then goes on to say how Yeshua is the original. He speaks of name theology and how important it is to use the English name Jesus.
But wait a second. What happened to Yeshua? If he knows
IT is the
ORIGINAL and we are people who love the name why do we (Oneness) not use it more?
Having said that no one should assume I am against the name of Jesus or connect it with Zeus period. My point is if we know the original name and we have the sounds in our language what is wrong with using it? It seems very right to me.
Do we want the faith once delivered to the Saints? What name did Gabriel say the Son of God should be called? What did his mother call him? What did the Apostles call him?