Philippians 2:10
so that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth,
Today I
want to address an issue that has arisen in recent times, causing confusion and
doubt and alarm among many well-meaning and sincere believers. It is the
mistaken idea that, if you believe in the name of Jesus, and not Yeshua, you
are believing in a pagan god.
The
notion that you need to address our Abba Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit by only
using their Hebrew names (and not the names used in other languages) for you to
worship the only true living God, is without grounds.
Let me
give a practical example here. If someone you know has the name of Jean, this
person will be addressed as ‘Jeen’ in England and as ‘Je-ahn’ in France. The pronunciation of the name
does not alter the identity of the person bearing that name in the slightest. Consider
that Myriam (Old Testament Hebrew) is Maryam in Aramaic (the language Jesus
spoke); Mary in English; and Maria in Afrikaans. All are transliterations of
the original. This has to do with language, not identity.
Where then does the name Jesus come
from? The name ‘Yeshua’ is the Aramaic form of the Paleo-Hebrew (the ancient Hebrew
used in Israel and Judah) word ‘Yahushua’, which means ‘Saviour’. When the New
Testament was written in Greek (the few Hebrew versions of books in the New
Testament unfortunately do not exist today), the writers faced two major
problems: There is no ‘J’ sound in
Greek; and names that end in ‘a’ are feminine in gender. Male gender is
indicated by having an ‘s’ at the end. The front part of the name Yeshua
therefore was written as ‘Iē’ to be pronounced as ‘Ee-ye’; and an ‘s’ added to
the end, so that the whole name became ‘Iēsous’. This was just a sensible and
logical manner to find the closest-sounding Greek pronunciation of the original
Hebrew word. The name was then transliterated as Jesus in the English
translations; Isus in Croatian; JeZiS in Czech; Jezus in Dutch; Isa in Turkish
(to name but a few examples) - all referring to Yeshua our Saviour.
And our beautiful, faithful Jesus
honours them all. We have heard testimonies of believers from deliverance
ministries that demons flee at the name of Yeshua and of Jesus; that
when people cry out to Jesus specifically for help in dire circumstances, He
responds! I have not up to today heard of one testimony of an encounter with
Jesus where He instructed His followers to start calling Him Yeshua from now on.
Millions are still being saved in that precious name of Jesus.
Yeshua was also not an exclusive name
in the time of Jesus, it was quite commonly used, in fact archaeologists have
unearthed the tombs of 71 Yeshuas from the period of Jesus’ death.
This certainly does not mean that you
are in the wrong when you do use God’s Hebrew names. Not in the least.
But carefully examine your heart – what is your motive in doing so?
Points to ponder: Do you use the Hebrew names out of personal
sincere conviction and preference? Or are you perhaps using God’s Hebrew names
because you think that the other language names for Him denote a pagan entity? Do
you judge other believers as unenlightened or uneducated or wrong when they do
not use the Hebrew names?
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