The name Jesus is the most popular name in world and also one of the most controversial names which has been debated by many scholars as to whether truly the man’s name was Jesus or not.
The fact is, the man’s name was never Jesus and so the questions remains, so Who named him Jesus and Why? This what this article aims to point out.
In many of my debates, my colleague Christians always want me to understand there’s nothing wrong with him being called Jesus or any other name, the most important is the salvation he came to offer. But many of them have never questioned the fact that they could be giving the credit to the wrong person altogether. People never seems to understand the importance of names and so sees nothing wrong with it but if you become a good Christian and truly love Yah(God), you will like to know much about him and also try to find out all the truth there’s out there. In most of the debates, people try to prove to me how the name was translated from the original Hebrew name Yahoshua into Jesus.
Now the question we should ask ourselves is, are names translatable? My name is Kwaku Darko, if I leave this world one day and I become a prominent man and books are written about me in all languages, Do you think my name will be translated to suit every language out there? Let’s look at Nelson Mandela for instance, whose Biography has been written in many languages, is there any of his biography where his name changed because it’s in a different language? The name still remains Nelson Madiba Mandela even in Arabic.
Before I continue, I will like us to understand why names are so important they can’t be translated and how Yah(God) holds it in high esteem. First of all, we need to know the true name of God and if you notice, from the beginning of these passage, I kept referring to him as “Yah” because that is his true name. I wouldn’t want to go deep into the name of God now but a simple statement will let you know his true name. We usually say “Halleluyah” many times in Church, how many of us really know the true meaning of that word or we just say it for fun? “Halleluyah” means “Praise be to God” and you can see the name right there. Some write it as ‘Hallelujah’ but what we need to understand is that, the letter ‘J’ was not invented till the 1800′s and the Bible was written long before that. The same reason the name ‘Jesus’ can’t be true because when He was named, the letter ‘J’ was not invented. Let’s take a look at this quotation in the Bible to see how names are important to Yah.
2 Chronicles 7:14…”if My people, WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land”.
In this quotation, you realize Yah was speaking to his people and he signified by saying, “Who are called by my name” so what this means is that, if you become part of Yah’s family and you become one of his people, you must be called by his name. Simply put, you must have his name as your surname. If you study the real names of the Hebrews, you will notice they all have the name Yah in their names. That’s why it is important to have the real names. What you should know is that, 95% of the names in the Bible have been changed. The real name of Jeremiah for instance is Yirmiyahu in Hebrew.
What we need to understand is that if we were reading their original names, we will notice all Yah’s people, truly have His name in all their names.
Example:
Eliyyahu (Elijah)
Yeshayahu (Isaiah)
Yahoshua (Joshua/Jesus)
Yahochannan (John)
Yahchezkel (Ezekiel)
Obedyah (Obediah)
The list can go on and on and you will notice almost all the prophets have Yah’s name in their names. If you read Yirmiyah (Jeremiah 15:16), it says, “Thy words where found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I AM CALLED BY THY NAME oh! Yah of hosts (God of hosts)”
Check the real name of Yirmiyah and you will notice it ends in Yah. After reading all this ask yourself, why did they change the name to Jeremiah? So you will be led astray.
Now let’s take a look at the name Jesus and the history behind it’s invention. According to most of the books that wants to explain the history behind the name ‘Jesus’, it is stated that; “The word Jesus used in the New Testament comes from the Latin form of the Greek name ?????? (I?sous), a rendition of the Hebrew Yeshua (????), also used as Joshua or Yesua. The name is thus related to the Hebrew consonantal verb root verb y-š-? (to rescue or deliver) and the Hebrew noun yešua? (deliverance). There have been a number of proposals as to the origin and etymological origin of the name Jesus (cf. Matthew 1:21). The name is related to the Hebrew form [Yehoshua`] ?????????? Joshua, which is a theophoric name first mentioned within the Biblical tradition in Exodus 17:9. This name is usually considered to be a compound of two parts: ??? Yeho, a theophoric reference to YHWH, the name of the God of Israel, plus Hosea a form derived from the Hebrew triconsonantal root y-š-? or ?-?-? Numbers 13:16 “to liberate, save”.
Now from the beginning of the passage above, you noticed it says, RENDITION of the Hebrew Yeshua. Now let’s take a look at the meaning of rendition. Rendition means to hand over something. This means changing something from it’s original state. Now what we need to ask is, are names supposed to be changed or translated? and if they are, are they still original? We need not to be deceived, we need to question a lot of things and don’t just accept them when we don’t know where it’s leading us.
So we should ask ourselves, what if we end up in Heaven and we mention “Jesus” and he says, that is not my name, What will we say?
The Bible says, nothing should be added and nothing should be removed so why will someone want to change the names?
I will continue that in a different story, watch this page.