Calling on the Name of Jesus (at baptism)

[votivesoul]

In Hebrew and Aramaic, the spelling of the name of the Lord looks like this:

ישוע

With vowel points, it looks like this:

יֵשׁוּעַ

Let us all note, however, that the vowel points are a much later construct, courtesy of the Masorites, somewhere between or around the 9th and 11th centuries (obviously far removed from the time Jesus actually lived).

The point I am intending to make is that, without the vowel points, the name of the Lord can be pronounced in many various ways.

Just to illustrate, take the following letter from the Hebrew/Aramaic:

ש

This is the letter sin. However, with the vowel points used above, it becomes this:

שׁ

Note the one little dot in the upper right hand corner. This one dot changes the letter from sin to shin.

This little dot then changes the pronunciation and orthography from Yesua to Yeshua.

It is a veritable to shibboleth (See Judges 12:6).

Now, take this letter (without vowel points):

ו

This is vav. Depending on vowel points or not, it can be pronounced like a "v" in English, or it can have a long "O" sound (as in "Oh, I see."), or even a long "U" sound (as in "Ooh-Ahh").

According to the vowel points the Masorites gave the name, we see it written like so:

וּ

That one dot to the left tells the reader to pronounce vav with the long "U" sound.

But what if the Masorites were wrong in where they placed their vowel points?

The name could then be pronounced and spelled like so:

Yesoa, (i.e. ye-SO-ah).

But wait, there's more!

Note in the Hebrew/Aramaic spelling, the one above without vowel points, there is no extra letters between the yod and sin/shin. Without the vowel points the pronunciation is up for grabs.

With the vowel points, we have this:

יֵשׁ

The two dots under the yod are called Tseire. This gives the yod a mid front unrounded vowel sound, which in phonetics looks like this: [ei̯]. This is a very short "e" sound, similar to how we use the letter "e" in words like: men, yes, test, best, rest, and etc.

But again, the questions must be asked. What if the Masorites were wrong?

The point in all of this is that there is no way to know for certain how the ancient speakers of Hebrew or Aramaic pronounced the name of the Lord. In fact, since the Masorites didn't come on the scene until centuries later, it can rightly be said that the name "Yeshua" as it now exists may actually be a Middle Age invention.

Yeshua, both in orthography and pronunciation is, however, acceptable. But let us not quibble about it as if it is the only legitimate pronunciation. I personally make use of the name Yeshua, both in writing and in prayer. But I don't think it needs to be elevated as if it were some grander, better version than anyone else's. The truth is, had the Masorites not placed their vowel points into the Hebrew text of the Bible and thus create the Masoretic Text, we'd likely have almost no idea how to learn to read Hebrew in the modern day. And we'd quite possibly not pronounce "Yeshua" as "Yeshua".