YESHUA or JESUS
| There is evidence that YESHUA is a "modern" Hebrew
version of the name "Jesus", whereas the Hebrew of Jesus' time (Aramaic
Hebrew), would have His name more as "Yeshu" or "Isa". The common
language of Jesus' time was Greek, which gives us His name as "Iasous".
The important thing is that Jesus is the common English name we
"Westerners" use to
refer to our God and Saviour, and is perfectly acceptable, and
preferable to Yeshua ... in my opinion. ..... Keygar |
Yeshua is a Hebrew name which has been
transliterated into Greek as Iesous (IhsouV: pronounced "ee-ay-SUS"). The
English "Jesus" comes from the Latin transliteration of the Greek name into the
Latin Iesus. Now Greek has no "y" sound, but the Latin "i" is both an "i" and a
"j" (i.e., it can have a consonantal force in front of other vowels), the latter
of which is properly pronounced like the English "y" (which explains the German
Jesu, "YAY-su")That is why we spell Jesus as we do, taking it straight from
Latin, but we pronounce the name with a soft "j" sound because that is what we
do in English with the consonantal "j".
The first letter in the name Yeshua ("Jesus") is the yod.
Yod represents the "Y" sound in Hebrew. Many names in the Bible that begin with
yod are mispronounced by English speakers because the yod in these names was
transliterated in English Bibles with the letter "J" rather than "Y". This came
about because in early English the letter "J" was pronounced the way we
pronounce "Y" today. All proper names in the Old Testament were transliterated
into English according to their Hebrew pronunciation via the Latin, but when
English pronunciation shifted to what we know today, these transliterations were
not altered. Thus, such Hebrew place names as ye-ru-sha-LA-yim, ye-ri-HO, and
yar-DEN have become known to us as Jerusalem, Jericho, and Jordan; and Hebrew
personal names such as yo-NA, yi-SHAI, and ye-SHU-a have become known to us as
Jonah, Jesse, and Jesus. To further complicate matters, there was no letter "J"
in the old English alphabet and the letter "I" was often used in its place.
Often in early texts of the time, Jesus or Jerusalem would be spelled Iesus or
Ierusalem.
The second sound in Yeshua's name is called tse-RE, and is
pronounced almost like the letter "e" in the word "net". Just as the "Y" sound
of the first letter is mispronounced in today's English, so too the first vowel
sound in "Jesus". Before the Hebrew name "Yeshua" was transliterated into
English, it was first transliterated into Greek. There was no difficulty in
transliterating the tse-RE sound since the ancient Greek language had an
equivalent letter which represented this sound. And there was no real difficulty
in transcribing this same first vowel into English. The translators of the
earliest versions of the English Bible transliterated the tse-RE in Yeshua with
an "e". Unfortunately, later English speakers guessed wrongly that this "e"
should be pronounced as in "me," and thus the first syllable of the English
version of Yeshua came to be pronounced "Jee" instead of "Yeh". It is this
pronunciation which produced such euphemistic profanities as "Gee" and "Geez".
Since Yeshua is spelled "Jeshua" and not "Jesus" in most
English versions of the Old Testament (for example in Ezra 2:2 and 2 Chronicles
31:15), one easily gets the impression that the name is never mentioned in the
Hebrew Scriptures. Yet 'Yeshua' appears there twenty-nine times, and is the name
of at least five different persons and one village in the southern part of
Yehudah ("Judah").
In contrast to the early biblical period, there were
relatively few different names in use among the Jewish population of the Land of
Israel at the time of the Second Temple. The name Yeshua was one of the most
common male names in that period, tied with Eleazer for fifth place behind
Simon, Joseph, Judah, and John. Nearly one out of ten persons known from the
period was named Yeshua.
The first sound of the second syllable of Yeshua is the "sh"
sound. It is represented by the Hebrew letter shin. However Greek, like many
other languages, has no "sh" sound. Instead, the closest approximation, the
Greek sigma, was used when transcribing "Yeshua" as "Iesus". Translators of
English versions of the New Testament transliterated the Greek transcription of
a Hebrew name, instead of returning to the original Hebrew. This was doubly
unfortunate, first because the "sh" sound exists in English, and second because
in English the "s" sound can shift to the "z" sound, which is what happened in
the case of the pronunciation of "Jesus".
The fourth sound one hears in the name Yeshua is the "u"
sound, as in the word "true". Like the first three sounds, this also has come to
be mispronounced but in this case it is not the fault of the translators. They
transcribed this sound accurately, but English is not a phonetic language and
"u" can be pronounced in more than one way. At some point the "u" in "Jesus"
came to be pronounced as in "cut," and so we say "Jee-zuhs."
The "a" sound, as in the word "father," is the fifth sound
in Jesus' name. It is followed by a guttural produced by contracting the lower
throat muscles and retracting the tongue root- an unfamiliar task for English
speakers. In an exception to the rule, the vowel sound "a" associated with the
last letter "ayin" (the guttural) is pronounced before it, not after. While
there is no equivalent in English or any other Indo-European language, it is
somewhat similar to the last sound in the name of the composer, "Bach." In this
position it is almost inaudible to the western ear. Some Israelis pronounce this
last sound and some don't, depending on what part of the dispersion their
families returned from. The Hebrew Language Academy, guardian of the purity of
the language, has ruled that it should be sounded, and Israeli radio and
television announcers are required to pronounce it correctly. There was no
letter to represent them, and so these fifth and sixth sounds were dropped from
the Greek transcription of "Yeshua," -the transcription from which the English
"Jesus" is derived.
So where did the final "s" of "Jesus" come from? Masculine
names in Greek ordinarily end with a consonant, usually with an "s" sound, and
less frequently with an "n" or "r" sound. In the case of "Iesus," the Greeks
added a sigma, the "s" sound, to close the word. The same is true for the names
Nicodemus, Judas, Lazarus, and others.
English speakers make one final change from the original
pronunciation of Jesus' name. English places the accent on "Je," rather than on
"sus." For this reason, the "u" has been shortened in its English pronunciation
to "uh."
Today's tradition of pronouncing His
completely hellenized name as "Jesus" has indeed obscured His true name, "Yeshua,"
and has shifted its perceived meaning much like most of His original teachings.
As with all things Essene however, there is always the exoteric and the esoteric
philosophies and functions. That is, those ideas and teachings suitable to be
imparted to the public, and those designed for or understood by the specially
initiated alone.
Even His name, it would seem, became a part of this understanding. The name
Jesus or Jesus Christ is often used in everything from idle conversation, to
bumper stickers and jewelry, to enforcing false teachings, to justifying wars
and political agendas, and is even used as a profanity. The name Yeshua however,
has remained pure and holy, known and used only by those who would uphold His
name and teachings in the highest regard and thus reserving His holy name for
use only in spiritual matters and the most humbled and sincere of prayer and
obeisances.
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