יהוה

Religion throughout the ages has taken many forms. Nearly every race or culture had its own system of beliefs and its own god or gods. The Egyptians worshipped everything from dogs and cats to the moon and sun. For every god or goddess they had a name. Ra was their Sun god, to name one. The Greeks and Romans worshipped a plethora of gods and demigods. Zeus was the chief god. In every case these gods all had names. So why does the God of the Jews and Christians have such a generic name? The truth is god, lord and christ aren’t names, they are titles. 

In the Oxford American Dictionary, the word god is a common noun. It has only been used as a proper noun when used in context with Christian and Jewish teaching.

Dog is a noun as well, but even most dog’s have a name. A dog is what the creature is, just as god is a "superhuman being regarded and worshipped as having power over nature and human affairs" (definition No. 2); or "a person or thing that is greatly admired or adored" (definition No. 3). This obviously means that to some, even money can be a god.

The definition of lord is "a master or ruler or sovereign; a nobleman; the title or form of address to certain high officials in Britain." The dictionary states that christ is "the title of Jesus." It means "the anointed one," or in some dictionaries you may find it to be translated as "the chosen one."

So what is the God’s name? The Lord’s name? The Christ’s name? And are the names important

According to Scripture, the names are extremely important. "Neither is their salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12, KJV, 1941). There is no mystery to the true name of the Creator.  The name, Yahweh, has been known since it was given to Moses some 4,000 years ago. The true name of the Father is Yahweh, the Word or Son is Elohim and the Holy Spirit is Yahshua the Messiah.

Creator Reveals True Name

In Exodus, Chapter 3, Moses has seen a bush burning that is not being consumed by the fire and realizes he is in the presence of a god.  Moses, who was raised with the Egyptians is accustomed to many gods, each with names, so he asked what name he should use to tell the children of Israel to whom he had spoken. The Creator tells Moses "Ayah Asher Ayah." Properly translated this simply means "I will be what I will to be."  Then in Exodus 34:5 Yahweh declares his name. "And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord." KJV

Now why would he bother to declare his name by the use of a title and common noun? We say the dog and the man -- but we don’t say the Fido and the Fred. The Creator wouldn’t and didn’t declare to be called by a title. In the Holy Name Bible, translated in the 1930s by A.B. Traina, an Italian Jew who discovered the mistakes in the English translations of the Bible, the proper names are returned to the biblical text.

"And thy Elohim descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of Yahweh." Holy Name Bible (HNB) Isaiah 42:8 states: "I am Yahweh; that is my name..." HNB. There is abundant evidence that YHWH or Yahweh is the true name.

One of the oldest Scriptural texts ever found contained the name Yahweh. A silver amulet dating back about 2,600 years (600 years before the birth of the Messiah) contains a seventh century extract from the Book of Numbers (6:24-26). It was part of a treasure found by a Tel Aviv University archaeologist in a First Temple Period family tomb in Jerusalem. When this amulet was written the Temple of Solomon still stood, the heirs of King David ruled and the Dead Sea Scrolls would not even be written for another 400 years. After three years of technological care the amulet was unrolled at the Israel Museum. The name of Yahweh was clearly read.

The Jerusalem Post issues 6-26-86 and 8-9-86 and the 6-87 issue of The Readers Digest). There are any number of reference books also that show evidence that Yahweh is, indeed, the name of the Creator. Unger’s Bible Dictionary, 1957, states, "Yahweh: the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH) traditionally pronounced "Jehovah" is now known to be correctly vocalized as "ya-way."

Increased understanding of the kindred Hebrew tongues shows that Yahweh was a finite causative verb from the root huy, which means "to be, to come into being."  The Wycliff Bible Encyclopedia, 1975, states: "The name par excellence for the Creator of Israel is Yahweh, found 6,823 times in the original text."  Other reference books that give evidence to this name include The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962; The Bible: A New Translation by James Moffatt, 1935;  and The Century Bible, 1901. An acknowledgment of the true name can also be found in The Catholic Encyclopedia.

The Encyclopedia Judaica, 1972,  states: "The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was pronounced ‘Yahweh.’ At least until the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C., Yahweh’s name was pronounced regularly with its proper vowels, as is clear from the Lachish Letters, written shortly before that day. However, at least by the third century B.C., the pronunciation of the name Yahweh was avoided and the word Adonai (which means lord) was substituted." 

It is thought that after the return from the Captivity and before the beginning of the Christian Era, the Jews came to believe that the holy name "Yahweh" was too sacred to be uttered on ordinary occasions.  It was said to be pronounced by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. But at other times when it was read, the word "Adonai" was substituted and that is where we get the word "lord" today. 

The name of the Father-Creator is Yahweh. And any other name is erroneous. Yahweh then chose the title Elohim for himself rather than god or lord.

In Hebrew translation, Exodus 20:7 reads: "Thou shall not substitute the name of Yahweh thy El (Elohim), for Yahweh will not hold them guiltless who will substitute his name."

The King James version of the Bible also has remnant references to the title "Elohim" as well as the name "Yahweh" in it, where translators and scribes may very well have either purposely or inadvertently left in the references to that which they knew were the true name and title. These can be found in various places, Psalms 68:4 is one such reference. "Sing unto God, sing praises to his name; extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name Jah, and rejoice before him." KJV

Knowing now that scriptural records from the Dead Sea Scrolls and before do confirm the Creator’s name as "Yahweh", we must ask about the Holy Spirit and the Word or Son.

In the New Testament the Messiah said, "I am come in my Father’s name..." Many people have concluded, for lack of being shown differently, that the name Jesus must come in some way from the word Jehovah. In fact there is no connection. And to take that point further the names Jah, Jehovah and Jesus could not have and did not exist prior to the year 1350 AD. The letter J is really only about 600 years old and it is an English letter. That letter as well as the sound it makes did not and still does not exist in the Greek or Hebrew languages. The name of the Holy Spirit is Yahshua.

 Salvation In Messiah's Name 

Since the Messiah was Yahweh in fleshly form, his name would point to that. And that is where Yah, a contracted form of Yahweh, in the name comes from. In Hebrew the word "shua" means salvation. Therefore Yahshua means "Yahweh is salvation."

As stated in Acts 4:12, the name Yahshua, is the only name by which one can find salvation. The Century Bible, 1901, states that just as Yahweh has been substituted with god and lord or Adonai, so too has Yahshua, the name of Yahweh’s Son."Likewise, the name of Yahweh’s Son, Yahshua: (Yahweh is Salvation), has been substituted by Yeshua, Iesous, Iesus, Jesus and Ea-Zeus (Healing Zeus)."

So where did Jehovah, Jah and Jesus come from? Erroneous English translations and words stolen from other languages.  There was never a reference to Jesus or Jehovah or Jah in the Hebrew nor the Greek language.

Letter "J" Latest Alphabet

A good encyclopedia, dictionary or other reference book containing the etymology of the letter "J" shows this letter did not even exist until the mid-1300s and was not universally used in English script until 1650. In fact, the letter "J" is the latest addition to the English alphabet and was inserted into the alphabet after "I" from whence it was created. The first printing of the King James version of the Bible in 1611 uses the words Iesus and Iudge.  The "J" was merely a decorative script form of the letter "I." It had no definitive sound or meaning other than "I" when it was first devised. It was merely a "device" to enhance the letter "I." If one looks up the word "device" in the dictionary you will find that one of the definitions is "a trick." This is exactly what the use of the letter "J" does to all of Christianity today. It tricks them.

Whether or not one wants to accept the name "Yahshua," it is fact that the "J" did not exist until nearly 1,400 years after the death of the Messiah. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that his name was not and could not have been Jesus. It is also clear that the reference to "Jah" would have actually been "Yah" in a Hebrew or Greek translation.

It also follows, of course, that the name "Jehovah" is erroneous. In The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (the Jehovah’s Witnesses), The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, admit in the foreword that: 

"While inclined to view the pronunciation "Yahweh" as the more correct way, we have retained the form "Jehovah" because of people’s familiarity with it since the 14th century." But remember Acts 4:12 -- there is no other name by which one can find salvation, regardless of familiarity.  It is said that "familiarity breeds contempt."

In The Catholic Encyclopedia under the word Jehovah, it is admitted that the true name and pronunciation is Yahweh. Their findings are limited to the Old Testament. The Catholics separate themselves from the name Yahweh, relegating its usage to the Old Testament.

Even though they recognize that the correct name of the Creator is Yahweh, they do not even attempt to explore the possibility that Jesus may be an erroneous name.

Under the entry of Jesus Christ, The Catholic Encyclopedia gives a discourse on the origins of the name Jesus. They readily admit that this word is taken from the Greek word Iesous. Their etymological investigation ends at that point, however. Further investigation of the origins of the word Jesus show that the Greek word Iesous comes from an earlier word, Ea-Zeus, which means "healing god." 

It isn’t hard to discern that, while they didn’t want to recognize him as the Messiah, the Greeks and Romans could not refute the powers of the Messiah and therefore gave him the status due a god by referring to him as a "healing god."  He was therefore called "Ea-Zeus." That was a title, however, given by the Greeks, rather than his given name. He came in his Father’s name Yah(shua). They classified him as merely one of many "healing gods." 

It is understandable that the men of that time who did not recognize the Messiah, yet had to give credence to his powers, would then assume he was one of Zeus’ gods and give him a name that characterized him as such, Ea-Zeus.  That makes the name Ea-Zeus, Ieusous and finally Jesus, the form that turned up in the 1400s, an idolatrous and generic name. "I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." (John 5:43) KJV

Yahshua predicted that he would not be recognized as the Messiah. But he also told the masses that he had come in his Father’s name. If we still want to hold on to the name Jesus, then it must also follow that even today, we don’t believe he was the Messiah. 

Because Jesus’ father would then have been Zeus (I come in my father’s name {Ea-Zeus}). But because we know that the true name of the Creator is Yahweh and because it is believed that the Messiah is the Son, it follows that the true name of the Son is Yahshua, who did indeed come in his Father’s name.

And was indeed sent to be our salvation.

Click here to see The Name Chart