For quite some time now, whenever I have an opportunity, I question Christians on why they call Yeshua Ben Yosef Jesus rather than by his given name. Not that it particularly matters - but I find it a bit peculiar I know that some folks with difficult-to-pronounce [at least for Americans] names choose something simple like Sophie or Michelle, but Yeshua really isn't that hard to say. I found this interesting discussion from the website the Nazarene Way:
"Yeshua is the original Aramaic proper name for Jesus the Nazarene, who lived from about 6 B.C.E. to 27 C.E. (A.D.) The word "Jesus" is actually a mis-transliteration of a Greek mis-transliteration. It is most proper to call Him Yeshua. It was indeed his proper name, given to him by his parents, and only in Hebrew does this name have any meaning. In Hebrew Yeshua means both "Salvation," and the concatenated form of Yahoshua, is "Lord who is Salvation." The name Jesus has no intrinsic meaning in English whatsoever. 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. 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. 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."
Give the Rabbi his props and call him by his name.
6 comments:
Maybe it is Spanish. I saw a sign the other day that said, "Need help? Call Jesus." So I called the number and later that afternoon, a Mexican with a lawn mower showed up.
Interesting information. I will keep Yeshua in mind for private prayer and meditation. You certainly never hear it used as a profanity, speaking of which, our Grandpa frowned on the use of "polite" profanity such as "dang" or "darn," (which brings to mind "geez"). There are several others such as "gol darn," "gosh dangit," etc. My favorite was W.C. Fields' "Godfrey Daniel!"
Triple S - I have heard this joke several times, and I still had to chuckle!
Cousin Steve - glad you found this useful. I remember Sam's disapproval of 'polite' profanity. I still remember when one time we were having a particularly hard time getting his lawn mower started so I could mow at their brown house, and after numerous failed attempts, he uttered "You sow." :-)
Let's see, your post states that Yeshua lived from 6 B.C to 27 A.D. That means the world is going to end in 2027, 2000 years after the year Christ died. I know, the Bible says no one knows the hour or the minute, but says nothing about not knowing the year.
Bizzy - good to know that I have 14 years to party and then to repent in the last year!!!
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