Yeshua or Jesus: Does it matter what we call him? Part 1

Some of the things we will examine in this study:

1. Understanding "name" from a Hebrew perspective
2. The Hebrew word "shem"
3. Is Yahweh really concerned with what we call him?
4. The origin of the name "Jesus"

I want to start this blog off by making a statement that a lot of Christians do not know or fully understand: The Bibles that we hold in our hands are not the original writings, they are translations of the originals.

If this truth is not understood then a lot of things we study in our Bible will be lost in our interpretation. We simply will not be able to understand.
Since this post deal with Christ's name I will be using his real name "Yeshua" and God's real name "Yahweh" You have to determine based on a study in the word which names you will use.
The fact that our Bibles are translations is why we have this command in the Bible:

1. 2 Timothy 2:15 ~ We must study our Bibles and not just read them!

A "translation" is taking a document from one language and changing it to another language. Whenever this is done there are always some terms in one language which do not always line up with the other language so translators have to come as close as possible to the original.

When we read the following verses we need to understand the writers are not talking about our modern day translations but they were talking about the original writings:

1. 2 Timothy 3:16 ~ "Inspired" means Yahweh breathed
2. 2 Peter 1:20, 21 ~ What went into the original writings was givin to the men by the Holy Spirit.

The original writings were true to the letter! The men Yahweh used spoke the languages they wrote as well as the people they were writing to so there was no need for an interpretor or translator.

All but a few sections of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews. A few passages in the Old Testament were written in Aramaic, a similar language the Jews picked up when they were exiled to Babylon.

After twenty-some-year-old Alexander the Great swept through the Middle East in the early 300s B.C. Greek became the prevailing language.

An Egyptian King decided to create a new holding for his renowned library in Alexandria. As legend has it he asked the High Priest in Jerusalem to loan him 70 top scholars who would translate the five revered books of Moses into Greek. The result of the first Bible translation became known as the Septuagant, meaning "the translation of the 70" Over the next hundred years or so the rest of the Hebrew Bible was added. When New Testament writers later quoted the Old Testament thet quoted it from this Greek translation.

Rome destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and left the Jews with no temple for offering animal sacrifices. So the Jews began to offer sacrifices of praise and prayer by reading from their sacred writings. The problem was the Jews had a wide array of sacred books.
No one knows when or how the Jews settled on the books that made up their TANAKH, Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament. The five books of Moses, known as the TORAH, books of the Law, were probably among the first ones widely accepted. The books of the Prophets likely came next followed by books known as the writings: The Psalms, Proverbs, and others.

We need to take the time to make sure we understand these facts because they factor into our interpretation when dealing with Yahweh's name or anyhting else we study in the Scripture for that matter.
As we develop our understanding of "translation" we need also to develop our understanding of "name" among the Hebrew people. Why the Hebrew people you ask; because the Bible was originally written to them. The Hebrew word for name "shem" pronounced shame means more than what one is called by: allow me to illustrate

When we see "King David" we see the word "king" as a title and the word "David" as a name in our Western mindset a title describes a character trait while a name is simply the identifier. In the Hebrew language and culture there is no such distinction between names and titles. Both word "king" and "David" are descriptions of character traits: "king" is "one who reigns" and "David" is "one who is loved"
It is also common to identify the word "Elohiym" (God) as a title and YHWH (Yahweh, the Lord) as a name. What we do not realize is both of these are character traits: YHWH meaning "the one who exists" and Elohiym is "one who has power and authority"

The Hebrew word shem more literally means "character" when the Bible speaks of taking Yahweh's name to the nations it is not just talking about what he is called but his character. When we are commanded not to take Yahweh's name in vain it means to not misrepresent his character.
It is similar to our expression of "having a good name" which is not about the name itself but the person with the name.