Should You Call Jesus, Yeshua?

There is a growing trend on social media of well meaning people who are diving into the Torah and educating themselves on history and culture, claiming the proper way to refer to Jesus is “Yeshua.”

Some even claim if you do not refer to Him as “Yeshua,” you are deceived by western ideologies or even invoking the name of a pagan God.

I do not agree you are deceived if you do not refer to Jesus as Yeshua, nor do I believe you are invoking a pagan God...

Here is why:

Five years ago, my husband and I moved out of America. We have lived in and visited over six different countries. During this time I have learned a lot about languages and have been exposed to different Christian cultures, I have had to question whether my beliefs are rooted in truth and biblical teachings or just American/westernized christianity and culture, and I can agree that many Christians do indeed try and spread an Americanized gospel and it is so important we are mindful not to do this. However, I also do not agree with spreading a gospel that demands people call Jesus, “Yeshua.”

Before we dive in to why this matters and why I disagree with the movement to call Jesus “Yeshua,” let’s find common ground, shall we?

Was Jesus Jewish? Yes, Jesus was Jewish.

Scripture is clear that the New Covenant He established did not come into play until His death (Hebrews 9:16-17).

Which means, Jesus (or Yeshua, if you prefer) would have lived His entire life as a Jew under the Law of Moses. But the name has nothing to do with His Jewishness.

Was His name in Hebrew, Yehōshūa‘? Yes, but more likely in Aramaic Yēshūa‘. Due to the fact that He grew up in the Galilee region, Jesus would have likely spoken Aramaic, and He would not have heard His name as “Jesus.”

The Syriac translations (one of the first major translations) of the New Testament spell the name Yēshūa‘. But the New Testament is not written in Aramaic or in Syriac, it is written in Greek and the English name “Jesus” is a transliteration based on the latin, which is based on the Greek, which is based on the original Aramaic.

A transliteration does not render the meaning of the word into the other language, but only represents its sound.

While living abroad, I have learned different ways of referring to Jesus and the sounds of His name.

When I am worshipping with my church family in Albania, Jesus Christ is “Jezus Krishti” and God is “Zot.”

When I was in Costa rica, in Spanish, Jesus sounds like “Hey-Zoos” which sounds a lot like “zeus.”

This must mean the Christians there are actually all pagans who worship the god of the Greek pantheon, right?

No..

Jesus, Jezus Krishti, Jesús, and “Yeshua” are not different names, they are referring to the same person, just different pronunciations.

For those who claim saying “Jesus” is an attempt to insert paganism into Christianity because “Jesus” means “hail Zeus,” this is not accurate.

In Greek, “hail Zeus” would actually be chaire zeu, which bears absolutely no phonetic resemblance to “Jesus.”

Another reason for this push is that "Yeshua" is superior because it means "salvation" in Hebrew, unlike the Greek form. While knowing this is valuable, it's worth noting that names like Peter, which means "rock" in Greek, don't hold the same meaning in other languages, yet we don't insist on a universal pronunciation like "Petros”?

Other reasons I have come across, arise from those exposing the catholic church and racism among the early church fathers. These people believe early church fathers falsified manuscripts of the New Testament in order to erase “Yeshua” and insert the more Western-sounding “Jesus” and remove His Jewishness. There is no evidence for this claim.

We have nearly 6,000 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, and approximately 19,000 New Testament manuscripts in other early languages, such as...

Syriac, Coptic, and Latin. In addition to these direct copies, we have tens of thousands of pages of early Christian writings, some of which are from Jewish-Christian groups.

The name of Jesus occurs hundreds of thousands of times collectively in these ancient documents, and none of them points to a conspiratorial name change...

This claim also does not make sense to me, considering every author of the New Testament has some sort of Jewish background and most were born Jews (Galatians 2:15).

Paul even boasts not only of his Jewish lineage (Philippians 3:5), but also claim, “I am a Pharisee” (present tense!) long after his conversion (Acts 23:6).

Where racism exists in the New Testament, it is usually against Gentiles rather than Jews (Galatians 2:12-16; cf. Romans 2:14).

The push for “Yeshua” sounds a lot like what was being addressed in Acts 15 where the leaders at the time were addressing questions about the Old Law. The whole question in Acts 15 is “do the gentiles need to be circumcises and keep the law of Moses?” The whole conclusion is no, they just need to keep the instructions of Jesus and abide in Him. Many Jesus’ followers were there. Peter is there, James is there..

Peter even says, “why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” You would have to deny the conclusions of the apostles to say that non jewish people have to abide by the commands of the Old law.

I am not going align with that...It sounds a lot like “Yeshua” is becoming a similar yoke people are trying to bind today.

I have met some very kind people and have had some great conversations with people who do choose to call Jesus, Yeshua, and who do not try to bind it on others, so please know if that is you, this is not directed toward you...

But for those who are trying to bind it, I write this from a posture of love and concern, because the Jesus I know, says His Yoke is easy and His burden is light. He says He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14) and I choose to follow Him and know I do not need to speak His name in Hebrew to do so.

The Jesus I know, says His Yoke is easy and His burden is light. He says He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14) and I choose to follow Him and know I do not need to speak His name in Hebrew to do so.

Resources:

https://apologeticspress.org/jesus-or-yeshua-5602/