Transliteration of Yeshua's Name

First, this important note:

Did you know the name Y'shua (Yeshua) means "Yahweh is salvation" in Hebrew? Y'shua is the only Heavenly Entity who has the Name of YHWH (Yahweh) within His own name! The angels/messengers all have the title of Elohim (God) within their names: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel....

The Name above all Names, however, is YHWH ("Yahweh"):

John 17: 11. Henceforth, I will not be in the world, and these are in the world. And I am coming to Your presence. Kadosh[1] Father, keep them by your Name[2], that which you have given to me, that they may be one as We are. 12. I was with them while I was in the world. I have kept them in your Name[3]; those whom you have given to me, I have kept. And not a man of them is lost except for the son of perdition, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. 13. And now I come to Your presence, and these things I speak in the world that my joy may be full in them. 14. I have given to them Your Word and the world hates them because they are not of the world as I am not of the world. (AENT

In view of the above, to call upon Y'shua (who was our Final SIN offering - He martyred Himself) is to call upon YHWH to save you!

(NOTE: Our use of the term "martyr" is intentional because traditional Jews love to point out that "G-d never required human sacrifice!" Well, Y'shua wasn't a "human sacrifice" because nobody "sacrificed" Him. He OFFERED, or MARTYRED himself - against which there is NO Torah command! He was a Divine "Sacrifice" (or more specifically, "offering") who willingly went to the cross/stake. As a human being, He had the choice to obey YHWH or not. As we see time and time again, He CHOSE to obey. He KNEW who He was....)

Our Messiah's Name is Y'shua, plain and simple. Y'shua means "YHWH is Salvation." There is no "correct" pronunciation or spelling of the transliteration of His Hebrew Name, yet many insist on arguing this issue. What matters is the Hebrew spelling of His Name which is:

At The Refiner's Fire, our preferred English spelling of Yeshua's name from the Hebrew letters, is "Yeshua" or "Y'shua" - because, in our view, it seems to be the most correct.

AS FOR ... we prefer to use "YHWH". Many attempt to argue the English transliteration of that Name, as well; but the truth is, all we (English-only speakers) are trying to do when we write "Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey" is *represent* the Hebrew letters with English alphabet letters. Period.

Many Hebrew Roots types will attempt to fight and argue abou the English transliteration of His Name; yet it can be written as either "YHVH" or "YHWH". It doesn't really matter how we attempt to portray that representation of the tetragrammaton. We, at The Refiner's Fire prefer "YHWH" because we believe the "vav" has an "oo" sound instead of a "v" sound. The "vav" is a complex Hebrew letter with multiple "sounds" depending on the Hebrew letters the vav is positioned next to.

Since the Hebrew language originally had no vowels and the pronunciation of is a bit of a mystery, with the vav acting as a vowel. As a consonant the vav has a "v" sound. But as a vowel, it has a "W", "ow", or "uw" sound, sometimes represented as "oo". So, it is perfectly acceptable to write the Hebrew letter vav as "vav" or "waw", and hence, represented as "YHVH" or "YHWH". Ignore people who try to tell you it can only be written "their" way.

"Words matter" and that even goes for a name! Let's find out why:

Yes, there different ways to transliterate but there is a standard that ensures sound, grammar and vowels are properly used. Most have little or no understanding of Hebrew transliterations of the names of ADONAI and His Messiah. This teaching is designed to give you an understanding of the Hebrew and transliteration involved, and hopefully, prevent you from continuing down the various false "sacred name" movements...

In whose name do we pray, preach, teach, and exercise divine authority?

Is it one of the following? Jeshua, Yeshua, Y'shua, Yeshuah, Yehshua, Yehshuah, YESHUA, YESHUAH, YEHSHUA, YEHSHUAH, Yeshouah, Y'shua, Y'shuah, Jeshu, Yeshu, Yehoshua, Yehoshuah, YHVHShua, YHVHShuah, Yhvhshua, Yhwhshua, YHWHShua, YHWHShuah, Yhvhshuah, Yhwhshuah, Yahvehshua, Yahwehshua, Yahvehshuah, Yahwehshuah, Jahshua, Jahshuah, Jashua, Jashuah, Jahoshua, Jahoshuah, Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Yashua, Yashuah, Yahshua, Yahshuah, YAHSHUA, YAHSHUAH, YASHUA, YASHUAH, Yahushua, Yahushuah, Yahoshua, Yahoshuah, Yaohushua, YAOHUSHUA, Yaohushuah, Iahoshua, Iahoshuah, Iahushua, or Iahushuah.

Why all the variations? Sounds like the translators were not quite sure what His Name really was, and that they did not have any original manuscript to examine. What is the correct form? There is salvation [Heb. Yeshua] in no one else; for there is no other Name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

In first-century Aramaic, the Messiah's name would have been pronounced Yeshua. Somebody says, "It doesn't matter - they are all translations of the original Name." So I ask, "What right do you have to translate the Name?" A name should be the same in ALL languages. Aren't the names oft Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington, Ronald Reagan or Dwight D. Eisenhower written the same in all languages?

Some might ask, "Does it really matter? They are just different spellings in different languages!" Well, a name is a NAME, and there is absolutely NO REASON for the spelling of YOUR name to be changed - ever.

So, what makes us think we have the right to fiddle around with ADONAI's Name, or the Name of His Divine Messiah?

The original form of a name is the most authentic. What is the original name of "Jesus" in Hebrew and Aramaic? The claim that it was Yahshua rather than Yeshua is based largely on the work of Anson Rainey, a linguist in Israel. Dr. Rainey claims that the Masoretic Hebrew spellings Yhwshw and Yhwsh - both pointed as Yehoshua-reflect latter-day usage, when the W after the H was added to help reinforce the pronunciation of H.

In his view, originally the H simply marked the present of the vowel A, and therefore the following W would not have been present. Yeshua would then be simply a Masoretic mispronunciation of an even shorter form, likewise pronounced Yahshua originally. But this theory does not explain why, in the Masoretic Text, Yehoshua is found only in books (or citations of those books) dating from before the Babylonian Exile, why Yeshua is found only in books dating from after the Exile - nor does it explain why both names were translated as Iesous in Greek. (Iesous certainly does not derive from Zeus as some gratuitously claim).

Here again, we must look to the Jewish reading tradition for answers. The Masorete Moshe ben Asher (ca. 895AD) made clear that he and his fellow scribes did not invent the vowel-points and musical accents they transcribed; they received them-ultimately from a family of Second Temple priests called the Elders or Sons of Bathyra. Taken at face value, this testimony means that the Masoretes preserved the official pronunciation and melodic rendition of biblical Hebrew current in Second Temple times.

Moreover, we know from inscriptions that was the Hebrew and Aramaic spelling current in Yeshua's day. We also know that this name was almost always translated into Greek as Iesous. We may therefore affirm that the Masoretic pronunciation of Yeshua-is reliable. The Name Yeshua should have been transliterated into all languages exactly or very closely to the way it sounds in the original. Some transliterations are close, but some, as in English, sound far removed from the original.

Some unlearned groups spell his name Yahshua or Yahushua. This has no biblical basis and is absolutely INCORRECT! The Masoretic vowel tzeirei used in the name "Yeshua" in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek vowel eta in the Septuagint prove that the ancient pronunciation of the first syllable was "Ye" not "Yah". The spelling Y'shua (with an apostrophe representing a "sheva") is not valid, because it ignores the vowel tzeirei under the yod. The names "Yehoshua" and "Yeshayah" do have the sheva under the yod, but in the Masoretic text of the Bible the name "Yeshua" has a tzeirei not a sheva.

Those who insist on calling Him Yahshua are so very wrong. First, it isn't even a word in Hebrew. It isn't found once in Scripture, but the real Name of our Master, "Yeshua" is found 30 times... in the Tanakh (29 times in Hebrew and once in Aramaic). Yahshua is something that someone fabricated and it has spread throughout our circles.

You may know that it is supposed to mean "YAH" and "saves". You may have heard that "shua" means "saves". Actually, the Hebrew verb for "to save" is "yasha" ... and the verb "shua" is the plural form of "yasha". A plural verb form takes the verb and intensifies it and shifts its focus to the subject. Instead of the verb describing something the subject is doing, the verb describes something that IS BEING DONE TO THE SUBJECT. That is what a Hebrew plural verb form does.

What "yah-shua" actually means is not that "YAH saves" us, but that "YAH needs to be saved" or "YAH cries out for help!" God forbid! It means the opposite of what our Messiah's name actually means! Do you understand the significance of that? It is blasphemy!