If your life is not in jeopardy
for what you believe, you’re probably on the wrong side!
If you don’t believe Genesis 1-11,
how can you possibly believe John 3:16?
“Indeed, all who want to live a godly
life united with the Messiah Yeshua will be persecuted.” (2Tim 3:12)
It is what you actually believe that determines how you walk out your faith,
“but avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, quarrels and fights
about the Torah; because they are worthless and futile.” (Titus 3:9)
Please Note: Absolutely nothing on this website should be taken as anti-Church or anti-Rabbinic. I am not anti-anything or anti-anyone. I am only pro-Torah and pro-Truth (see “Philosophy”), but sometimes the Truth upsets our long-held beliefs. I know it certainly upset mine! For example, see “Why Isn’t My Theology Consistent Throughout the Website?”
Developing a
Systematic Messianic Theology
“The purpose of careful theological formulations is not to put barriers in the way of people who are seeking salvation, but to define clearly the truths upon which genuine [Biblical] faith rests, so that people will not be misled by false doctrines.” [Bowman]
“It must be clearly and unequivocally stated that theology cannot save you. Only faith in Messiah Yeshua can save you. Theology can only give you sound doctrine.” [RLS]
Unless otherwise specified, throughout the Theology section of my website I use the term “Torah” in the wider sense of including the entire body of inspired Scripture: both the Tanakh and the Apostolic Writings. No other so-called “sacred writings” are considered inspired by God or authoritative for the Believe’s walk of faith.
[Explanations of rabbinic citations are HERE]
The Name that is Above Every Name
“In The Beginning ... Was The Name”
Before the beginning of “Christianity” as we know it today, [ca 326 CE] there was a Name, and that name was Yeshua. Some people who give an explanation of that Name will tell you that it is Jesus’ name in the Hebrew language. But actually that is not totally accurate. What is accurate is that it is the Messiah’s name, not a translation or transliteration into Hebrew of the name “Jesus.”
In the Bible we have many examples of names having meaning. We remember that Yitz’chak (rendered “Isaac” in English) was given his name which means laughter because Sarah laughed when she heard that God said she was going to have a baby.
Yeshua is the Hebrew word that corresponds to the English word “salvation,” and that is how the Hebrew word is translated throughout the English “Old Testament.” When the angel appeared to His adopted father Yosef in a dream he said, “You are to name Him Yeshua (Salvation) because He will save His people from their sins.” He was named Yeshua (Salvation) because He was going to provide for the salvation of God’s Elect.
“Jesus” is not a translation of the name “Yeshua,” but a transliteration. (A transliteration is the rendering of any word in a different alphabet.) Therefore, the name Jesus, although it has a marvelous connotation to numerous people, has no factual definition.
One interesting point about a name is identity. If you know someone, you call them by their name. If you have ever spent time in a foreign-speaking country, you no doubt have experienced an alteration in your name. Those closest to you have most likely called you by your correct name, if they know it. If you are reading this, chances are that you are close to “Jesus.” Why not call him Yeshua? His parents and all His friends called him Yeshua! Nobody in His entire lifetime called him Jesus, not even once, because that simply was never His name.
In Acts 26:14-15, Sha’ul (rendered “Saul” in English) was telling King Agrippa about his Damesek (Damascus) road encounter. He heard a voice speaking to him in Hebrew. It was the Messiah Who, speaking in Hebrew, identified himself by his name, Yeshua.
Why is this all so important? Well, first of all, it is Truth. Occasionally we have a hard time with truth that contradicts what we are comfortable with in our emotions and our minds. For us, as Jewish believers, this name issue is extremely significant because history has taken Yeshua’s Jewish identity so far away from truth that most Jewish people see him as the “Gentile God” and therefore miss the fact that He is their promised and long-awaited Messiah. Another tragic piece of history is the killing of the Jewish people by Christians in the name of Jesus — a name given to Him by Gentiles centuries after His resurrection and ascension. If His name had remained Yeshua (as the angel commanded Yosef to name him) His Jewish identity would have remained and the killing of Jewish people in the name of Yeshua, would have been very unlikely. But as history has been, even some Gentiles today still see Yeshua as the Gentile-only God. Isn’t it time YOU called on Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, by his God-given name?
NOTE: The above article is an only-slightly-edited copy of the page that was originally found at torahbytes.org, but has since been removed. The information is well-written, and I did not feel that I could improve upon it (except for some minor grammar, spelling, and punctuation changes). However, as frequently as pages on the Internet appear and then disappear, I felt that it would be a shame to lose this information. It seems now that I was right in so doing. Please see 17USC107. If you are the copyright owner and want it removed, please contact me.
I am firmly convinced that neither Yeshua HaMashiach nor the Shliachim (Apostles) intended to start a “new religion,” but rather only to fulfill, complete, and correct what was missing in Judaism. I therefore believe that the most valid form of worship is that practiced by Yeshua and His talmidim (disciples). I have therefore chosen to identify myself with that group of believers that is known variously as “the Messianic Movement,” “Messianic Judaism,“ or “Messianic Restoration.”
I further believe that much of the conflict that exists between Jewish believers in Mashiach and Gentile believers in Mashiach has been caused by anti-Semitic and anti-Gentile language that has crept into the household of faith. For example, the word “Jesus” is nothing but a compounding of errors. Nobody who every knew Yeshua in the flesh ever referred to Him by that word. In fact, it is grammatically impossible to say that word in either Hebrew or Aramaic, as neither language has the “jay” sound.
When His name was transliterated from the Hebrew of the original Apostolic Scriptures into Greek for transmission to the Gentile and Greek-speaking Jewish Messianic Believers in the Diaspora, the name was rendered in Greek as “Iesu.” When the “church” became centered in Rome and the Greek Scriptures were translated into Latin, the Romans added an “s” on the end of His name (because nearly all masculine Latin words end in “s”) making it “Iesus.” Then the Germans came along during the Reformation and changed the “I” to a “J” making the word “Jesus.” And then the men who translated the Latin and German version of the Scriptures into English didn’t bother to correct the error. In the meantime, as more and more Gentiles were brought into Messianic (or “Nazarene”) Judaism, Yeshua became thought of less as the Jewish Messiah and more as the “Gentile God.”
As the Gentile “church” became more and more anti-Semitic and the persecutions “in the name of Jesus” became increasingly severe, Jews around the world began to hate that word more and more, and for good reason. But just stop and think how difficult that persecution would have been if the Gentiles had remembered that they were nothing more or less than “adopted” members of a distinctly Jewish sect-- and how much more difficult it would have been to persecute Jews “in the name of” Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah. (See also our discussion on the word Jehovah.) Read more here
See also: Why do we use the name “Yeshua” rather than “Jesus?”
“Jesus Christ” is not Messiah’s name; it never was, and it will never be. It is grammatically impossible to say the word “Jesus” in either Hebrew or Aramaic. He is a Jew with a Hebrew name, Yeshua. If I know that your name is “George,” where do I get off calling you “Fred” just because I like that name better than your real name? Why should I be so grossly disrespectful to my Master as to call Him by any name except that which the angel instructed His mother to name Him, and by which He was known throughout His entire life on earth? And why is it that the Bible is the only book in all the world that attempts to “translate” names? If a book is written in Spanish about a man named Juan Rodriguez, and the book is then translated into English, no attempt is ever made to “translate” his name as “John Rogers,” because his ethnicity is an integral part of his story. The only reason that “Yeshua” is translated as “Jesus” and that the name of his brother Ya'akov is translated as “James” is because of the anti-Semitic[1] position of the Church of England which, following the Roman Catholic tradition, rejected everything about the Church that was Jewish[2] and translators since 1611 have historically refused to correct the error. If it were ever the intent of the translators to actually “translate” their names into English, they would have been translated as “Salvation” and “Heel Holder” or “Supplanter” respectively! Ditto for the names Yohanan (“YHWH Has Graced”), Miriam (“Rebellion”), and Sha'ul (“Desired”)! … Read more here
1. On 18 July 1290 the Edict of Expulsion issued by King Edward I ordered every professing Jew in England to leave the Realm, for ever. Every Jew who chose not to leave was forced to “convert” to the Church of England’s version of Christianity, as were my ancestors. Between sixteen and seventeen thousand Jews had to flee, and none dared return until four hundred years later. [The Edict of Expulsion of 1290, accessed 11 April 2016.] [BACK]
2. The King James Version, or so-called Authorized Version (because it was authorized to be used by the Church of England) was created primarily as a tool against the theology of the Puritans, and was required by King James to be carefully worded to support the doctrine and organization of the Church of England, not to create an accurate translation of the Scriptures. “James gave the translators instructions intended to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.” [Wikipedia, accessed 11 April 2016.] Of all the English translations existing, it is probably the second least reliable, narrowly beat out of first place by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s New World Translation. See “King James Version.” [BACK]
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