Nehemia Gordon and the Name of Yehovah

We are living in the information age, with the internet giving the opportunity to anyone and everyone who desires, to post whatever information they want to, whether it be written articles, audio teachings or even video teachings. The problem that arises, is that many people post so many 'things' on the internet that are not factual,things which are even downright lies and falsehood. There is not really any control over this, this situation is beyond control. Also, many people, who call themselves scholars, have the opportunity to teach their own personal doctrines, topics and opinions,as if the absolute truth, and that without any restraint at all. Two such people who have taken advantage of the wide audience of the internet is Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson who claim to teach the only correct pronunciation of the Name of the Almighty, even make lots of money by doing so.

This article has been written to test the so called “proofs” of Nehemia and Keith, and see if it is in fact true or not (factual or opinionated). This article is in no way an attack on Nehemia or Keith and I certainly do not want to speak any bad things about them. It is written purely to bring the truth to the light and to hopefully encourage others to test everything that they hear, no matter who they hear it from. This article is also not intended to diminish anyone’s faith and I am certainly not trying to make anyone believe what they do not wish to believe. Everyone has a right to do and believe whatever they want to. All I will be doing is to provide evidence and facts on this topic, and then it is up to the reader to do with it whatever they like.

The topic of this article is to see whether the pronunciation of the Name of the Almighty is “Yehovah,” as Nehemia and Keith proclaim it is, or not. Keith Johnson has written a book trying to “prove” or justify this pronunciation and the book is endorsed by Nehemia who taught Keith that the Name if pronounced is “Yehovah.” Both Keith and Nehemia influence thousands of people by touring the world and speaking, through their books and even through internet radio and other forms of communication, and try to convince them all that this is the only correct pronunciation and that the other people are all wrong. They do this, all while making a lot of money in the process. That is why I am writing this article, to give an objective look at their theory for other people to see the whole truth and not just a snippet taken out of context, which Nehemia has done as we will see below.

Now, to get to the explanations…

While listening to a recording that Nehemia and Keith did on an internet radio station, called Truth2u with Jono Vandor, about the Torah portion, “Beshalach – Exodus 13:17-17:16”. Nehemia explained in short why he teaches that the Name is to be pronounced as “Yehovah.” His explanation might sound clever and impressive to anyone who does not know any Hebrew grammar rules. But to anyone who has a good understanding of the Hebrew grammar rules, will see that Nehemia contradicted himself and actually rendered his theory to be false, as will be explained in detail below.

I am attaching a short MP3 file of Nehemia explaining it, for you to listen to it and analyze it for yourself. (It is attached below). I will be analyzing what Nehemia says and compare it according to the facts and grammar rules to see if he is telling the truth or not. I suggest that you listen to the audio MP3 (less than 3 min) before you carry on reading this article. Then after reading the rest of this article, you can listen to it as many times as you want and compare it to the facts for yourself.


(Listen to audio below before you carry on reading).

In order to download the MP3, right click the play button and then choose the first option, "download document".

Okay, now let us break it down and tackle what Nehemia said piece by piece. I have transcribed the audio to text and will now analize it piece by piece. I am also going to color code it for ease of reading and understanding. Keith’s words will be the color of  green, Nehemia’s words will be in the color of blue and the reply will be in the color of red.

Keith: The second issue I want to bring up, is for all of my brothers and sisters out there that say, “well now Keith, you should change your pronunciation. Here it clearly says, Nehemia Gordon, the great Hebrew scholar, just said, the way you pronounce this two letter name, is what Nehemia… how do you pronounce it?

Reply: Here Keith admits that many people have challenged him about the Name of the Almighty. He also sees Nehemia Gordon as “Great” Hebrew scholar. The fact of the matter is that Nehemia is more than competent in the Hebrew language, but there are many people who are far more advanced in the knowledge of the Hebrew language than Nehemia is.

Nehemia: Yah

Reply: Regarding the name, “Yah” one does not need a Hebrew expert to know that it is written and spelled as Yah and cannot be anything else. There is absolutely no dispute about this word at all.

Keith: Yah, so that’s why we should call Him Yahweh. And I am not going to move from this until you can help us understand, Nehemia, What is this YAH…

Nehemia: … Well, I mean, so look, the poetic form, if you can call it that, of the name Jacob in some languages is James. Does that mean…..

Reply: I do not want to argue this statement too much, but James is not a poetic form of Jacob. It is merely a result of the confusion of a language (English) which is made up of mixed multitude of other languages. This often results in many words, often totally different from one another, having the same or similar meaning. This is what has happened with James and Jacob… the one is not a poetic form of the other.

Nehemia: Lets take the example of Michael (which in Hebrew is Micha’el, where the English name is Michael), but what’s the nickname for Michael, Its Mickey. Does that mean that really… lets say that I didn’t have the vowels of the word Michael but I knew it was Mickey, would I then call him Michal? I guess I would call him Michal, Michi’el.

Reply: Here Nehemia did not say anything that has anything to do with his case. Theoretically, the statement he just made is more proof of the opposite of what he is trying to teach. But this is not where the problem is. We will see, when we get to the Hebrew grammar, where Nehemia makes his errors.

Nehemia: So that’s the type of logic that they’re implying when they say that YAH as the poetic form, therefore, it means that the full form is Yahweh, um, I mean there’s absolutely no connection there.

Reply: Firstly, I am not saying that the pronunciation of, “Yahweh” is perfectly correct. This article is about testing the pronunciation of Yehovah. So I am not going to get into why Yahweh is not perfectly correct.

To say that “Yah” has absolutely no connection to the pronunciation of the Name of the Almighty is not true at all. We will see this below when we get into the grammar rules.
Nehemia: Its, uh, you know, YAH… and actually the significance of YAH is that it almost always appears at the end of a word, like HalleluYAH. That’s the form you will normally find.

And even in Ex 15:2 (g¡I Z¡X¥N¦F¥E I¦i¡R – Ozi v’zimrat Yah) and that word Yah is attached toward zimrat which is called smuchut, or the construct case. Its attached to the previous word.

Reply: The question is, is the short form of the Name of the Almighty, “Yah” (spelled yud hey) ever pronounced differently when it is not attached to another word? No it is not, it does not ever have to be attached toward another word for it to be pronounced as Yah. (Ex 15:2; 17:16; Ps 68:4 & 18; 76:11; 89:8;)

Nehemia: And that’s very similar to what we would find when we have, “Yud hey vav”, the three letters of the full name in a larger name, as a compound name, for example, Isaiah, is YeshaYAHU, Elijah is, EliYAHU. So we always have YAHU, which is exactly what we find with YAH, the poetic form.

Reply: The Hebrew grammar rule teaches us that, in a “compound” word (as Nehemia calls it) the suffix (end part of the word) ALWAYS keeps its original form and pronunciation of the word it is using as the suffix, where the prefix (beginning of the word) ALWAYS shortens its syllables whenever possible. Nehemia and Keith so conveniently “forget” to quote the whole grammar rule and only part of it to try and justify their theories.
Nehemia: Now here’s the thing, whenever Yud Hey Vav appears at the beginning of a word its never YAHU, or YAH, its always Yeho, Yehoshua, Yehonatan, Yehonadav.

Reply: Remember that what the Hebrew grammar rule says, the prefix (beginning) always shortens its original syllables whenever possible. Let us look at a simple example. (Please note that this is also true according to ALL Hebrew grammar books. You can look it up for yourself)

Lets use the “Compound” name of Yehonatan (which is Jonathan in the English). It is constructed by joining two words together. The two words are Yahu (from the Name of the Almighty) + natan (give)

Yahu + natan = Yehonathan

Now lets join these two words together but in the opposite order, namely, natan + Yahu. If we do so, then we get the following:

Natan + Yahu = Netanyahu (Nethaniah in the KJV)
Notice how 'natan' shortened its 'vowels' and became 'netan' when used as a prefix.

(found in 2 Kings 25:23, 2 Kings 25:25, 1 Chr 25:2, 1 Chr 25:12, 2 Chr 17:8, Jer 36:14, Jer 40:8, Jer 40:14-15 (2), Jer 41:1-2 (2), Jer 41:6-7 (2), Jer 41:9-12 (4), Jer 41:15-16 (2), Jer 41:18)

As you can see, according to the Hebrew grammar rule, the suffix (end of the compound word) always keeps its original form and pronunciation of the word used for the prefix and that the prefix (beginning part) always shortens its syllables whenever possible.

Let us look at another example quick:

Yasha (to save, be saved, be delivered) + Yahu (from the Name of the Almighty) = Yeshayahu (Isaiah in the KJV)

Notice once again that the prefix shortened its syllable and that the suffix keeps its original pronunciation.

So if the prefix shortens and the suffix keeps its original form and pronunciation, then …yahu at the end of a word is the original form and pronunciation of the Name of the Almighty.
Nehemia: Now here’s the question you have to ask, In the Father’s Name (yud hey vav hey) are those three letters at the beginning of the Name, like in Yehoshua, Yehonatan, Yehonadav, Yehochanan, etc. Or are they at the end of the Name, like in, YeshaYAHU, EliYAHU etc. Obviously they’re at the beginning of the Name.

Reply: This is Nehemia’s explanation on why the Name must be “Yehovah”. As you can see by the above Hebrew grammar rules concerning “compound” words (two words joined to create one word/name), that the Name of the Almighty cannot be Yehovah as Nehemia professes to be true (the Almighty's Name is not a compound word). Now ask yourself, is Nehemia ignorant concerning Hebrew grammar, or is he purposely hiding this rule from you in order to promote his theory (which would be an outright lie)? (Remember that the Almighty's Name is not a compound word).

Once again, the Hebrew grammar rule proves that the original form of yud hey vav, the three letters of the Name of the Almighty, is Yahu and NOT Yeho

But it does not end here, there are a couple more problems with the pronunciation of Yehovah and also with what Nehemia said about it. He really does like to contradict himself a lot, which is the result of not standing by the truth.

Now, Nehemiah said above, that because the three letters, yud hey vav, are at the beginning of the Name, like that of Yehoshua, Yehonatan, Yehonadav etc. proves that it must be pronounced as Yehovah. But there is a very obvious problem with his statement. All the other names that Nehemia compared it to are all “compound names” (as Nehemia called them). The question you need to ask is, is Yud hey vav hey (the full Name of the Almighty) a “compound word”? And if it is, then from what word does the final “hey” come from and what is its meaning?

The fact of the matter is that the Name of the Almighty is NOT a “compound” word comprised of two or more words (as I mentioned above). Therefore, the grammar rule that Nehemia twists to try justify his pronunciation does not and cannot apply to the Name of the Almighty.

Now let us look at another Hebrew grammar rule that does not apply to “compound” words. In Hebrew, the general rule is that the accent falls on the final syllable. The syllable that is accented always keeps its original form and so does the syllable that directly precedes the accented syllable. So, the general rule is that the last two syllables of a word keep their original form (when the accent falls on the final syllable).

In Nehemia’s pronunciation of Yehovah, the accent falls on the final syllable. That means that the last two syllables must keep its original form. This is NOT the case in the pronunciation of Yehovah. Once again, it has failed to meet the Hebrew grammar rules.

Let us look at such an example of a similar type of word and see what the result is.

The Name Y’hudah is a “compound” word which is a combination of the two words, Yahu and yadah. Leah named her son Y’hudah because she, “gratefully praised YHVH” (Gen 29:35).

The accent falls on the last syllable of the name of Y’hudah. That means that the final syllable retains its original form and so does the syllable directly before it. That is why the name is Y’hUdah and not Y’hodah.

Now we have to apply this grammar rule to the Name of the Almighty too. If the accent falls on the final syllable, then the syllable directly before it has to keep its original form as it does in Y’hudah. Therefore, if Nehemia is correct, then the Name should be Yehuvah and cannot be Yehovah.

So once again we have proved the pronunciation of Yehovah to be false.
But we can even go a step further. And this is a clincher.

Nehemia outrightly admitted that the first three letters of the Name of the Almighty, when in the beginning of a word, is “Yeho...” Now if this is the case, all we are left with is the single letter, “hey”. Now the question that you have to ask yourself, once again, is, “is it ever possible to get the pronunciation of “…vah” from a single hey?”

The fact of the matter is that it is never possible and that what Nehemia teaches is false and has been proven to be a lie.

We once again need to ask ourselves the question, is Nehemia Gordon ignorant of these Hebrew grammar rules? Or is he outrightly lying to thousands, if not millions, of people? If he is lying, what is his reason for doing so?

The problem that Nehemia has gotten himself into is that his only audience, and the only people who buy his books and support him are the Christians and Messy-anics. Nehemia does not have any Hebrew following at all. For that reason, he is seen as a leader and makes a very pretty penny on the book sales and support from such people.

After realizing how Nehemia so blatantly lies about such an important topic, how then can he be trusted with anything else? Yes, many of the things that Nehemia teaches is truth, but the problem is that he mixes a lot of falsehood in-between. Everyone has the duty to test everything that they hear.

Every time that I have asked Nehemia about all this, He simply ignores me and has even deleted me as a friend on Facebook. If someone makes such a declaration, like he does, then is it not fair to give explanations and answer questions? Maybe he is unable to answer them without contradicting himself?


I posted a comment on the website where this teaching of Nehemia comes from. Jono Vandor, the owner of the website, has still not moderated my comment for others to see. It seems as if Jono is very biased and does not like anyone to speak against the doctrines of Nehemia, even if he speaks falsehood.

The comment I left was on 27 Jan 2012 and Jono has still not approved it as a comment.

I will post that comment in the comments section below for you to read for yourself.

May the Almighty open all our eyes to the truth of His Word.

There is only One Name for the Messiah.

I have decided to write this article because of so many people who ignorantly claim that their pronunciation of the Name of the Messiah is true, and yet, they do not consider any of the facts or evidence available. These people go by their own opinions and speculations without any knowledge of the Hebrew language. The true Name of the Messiah is based only on facts and evidence and NOT on opinions whatsoever.

One false opinion that I recently heard is that no one knows for certain what the true pronunciation of the Name of the Messiah is. This opinion is due to pure ignorance. How can the Messiah say that He came to restore the Name of His Father, and then ignorant people claim that we do not even know the Messiah’s Name. It just does not make any sense.  

Contrary to Christian beliefs, the Name of the Messiah is NOT “Jesus”. I have covered this issue in another article explaining this. You can go to the article by clicking on the name “Jesus”.

Now contrary to the Messy-anic belief, the names “Yashua”, “Yahushua”, “Yeshua”, “Yahusha”, “Yasha”, “Yahuw”, “Yehosha” and “Yahuwshua” are all incorrect and are NOT the names of the Messiah. This article will also prove all these to be incorrect too.

Let us start off with some Hebrew grammar rules.

With just a little knowledge of Hebrew grammar, you can know that many of the above pronunciations are absolutely impossible. We are going to have a quick look at a specific Hebrew grammar rule, and then apply it to the above names and see if they are legit or not.

Many Messy-anic leaders like to think that names, especially the Name of the Messiah, must start with either “Yah” or “Yahu.” These people probably mean well but do not have any knowledge of the language of the Almighty. They then teach thousands of their follower’s the false pronunciations because of their own ignorance on the subject. They base their teachings upon their own opinions or what they have learned from other ignorant teachers, rather than upon facts. Let us now get to the facts and see what the Hebrew grammar teaches us.

A composite word or name in Hebrew is made up of two words that are joined together to create a single word or name. The Hebrew language teaches us that the suffix (the end of the word) ALWAYS keeps its original form and pronunciation. However, the prefix (which is the beginning part of the word) ALWAYS shortens its syllables. There are no exceptions to this rule at all.

Now let us have a look at the practical side to this rule.

If we put “Yahu” in the front of a name, then we get the following:

Yahu + Nathan = Yehonathan (יהונתן) (which means, “YHWH has given”) (Jonathan in the KJV)

Yahu + yada = Yehoyada (יהוידע) (which means, “YHWH knows”) (Jehoiada in the KJV)

Yahu + shaphat = Yehoshaphat (יהושׁפט) (which means, “YHWH has judged”) (Jehoshaphat)

You can see that whenever the Name of the Almighty gets put in the front of a name, as Yahu, then its syllables ALWAYS shorten to become, “Yeho….” just as the Hebrew language rules teach us.

But if we now put the Name, “Yahu” at the end of a composite name or word, then we get the following:

Yasha + Yahu = Yeshayahu (ישׁעיהוּ) (which means, “YHWH has saved”) (Isaiah in the KJV)

Yaram + Yahu = Yirmeyahu (ירמיהוּ) (which means, “whom YHWH has appointed”) (Jeremiah in the KJV)

Banah +Yahu   = Benayahu (בּניהוּ) (which means, “YHWH has built”) (Benaiah in the KJV)
Please take note that when the prefix "Yahu" changes to Yeho THE MEANING DOES NOT CHANGE. It is only the syllable sounds that do. The meaning STAYS THE SAME.

Here we can see, once again, that the prefix (beginning of the word) always shortens its vowels as the Hebrew language demands (which is even evident in the KJV Bible), but the suffix (end of the word) ALWAYS retains its original form and pronunciation. Keith Johnson just happens to forget to share this piece information in His book on the Name of the Almighty, supporting the false pronunciation of “Yehovah”, but I will cover this in another article in the future.

Now I challenge everyone to go and research this for yourselves and try find even one case or name that does not work according to this Hebrew grammatical rule. There are many more examples of the names of people in the Scriptures that prove this to be true, I only picked a few to give a practical example.

So as you can see, the name (yud hey waw shin ayin) cannot be pronounced with the beginning of the name as “Yahu…” as its syllables must be shortened when joined to another word. So all the supposed pronunciations that start with “Yahu…” or “Yah…” are NOT correct according to the language of the Almighty. This disqualifies the majority of the pronunciations mentioned above. Anyone claiming that the name of the Messiah starts with “Yahu...” or “Yah….” Is ignorant in this subject and does not know what he or she is talking about.

Now for the most common pronunciation, “Yeshua”

Although the name Yoshua is a shortened form of the correct Name of the Messiah, it is not His full Name. Yeshua is used 78 times in the Tanakh and is the passive participle of ‘yasha’ (save or savior), which is used 205 times. “I have waited for your yeshua (salvation, deliverance), O YHWH” (Gen 49:18). Yeshua means “salvation” or “deliverance” it is however NOT the Name of the Messiah.

The Messiah comes in His Fathers Name. The question therefore is, “where is the Name of YHWH in the name Yeshua?” It is not there, and this point alone disqualifies the name “Yeshua” as being the Name of the Messiah. Although the Messiah did come to save and deliver us, His Name is much more than that.

So what then is the Name of the Messiah?

Let us start off with some evidence given to us by the Greek Septuagint LXX and the Greek manuscripts of the Brit Chadashah (New Testement or more correctly, Renewed Covenant). In the Greek New Testament, the Name of the Messiah is “Iesous”, which is translated as “Jesus” in the English bibles.

Now we find the name “Iesous” which is the exact same name that was used for the name of the Messiah in the Greek Old Testament called the Septuagint LXX too. The name of Joshua son of Nun was also translated as “Iesous” in the Septuagint LXX. This is because he has exactly the same name as the Messiah and was even a Messiah (saviour) in his own right.

Because of this reason, it is easy to know what the Name of the Messiah is. His Name has never been hidden at all. It also fits all the requirements for the Name of the Messiah. It has the Name of His Father the Almighty in it combined with the word meaning “saves”.

Let us go have a look at the name of Joshua in the Hebrew Tanakh. I have copied and pasted it here directly out of the Hebrew Tanakh and it is R§[]D¥I and is pronounced “Yehoshua” or “Y’hoshua”. The Name “Yehoshua” means, “YHWH is salvation”

Yehoshua is the Name of the Messiah, there is no other Name that is correct.

What then about “Yehosha” or “Yahusha” instead of “Yehoshua”?

Many people believe that the name of the Messiah ends with a “…sha” instead of “…shua”. This is because they say that it ends with a “shin ayin” and not a “shin waw ayin”. They say that the “waw” is necessary to give the “u” sound in “…shUa”. This however could not be further from the truth.

If you ever come into contact with a Hebrew magazine or newspaper, the first thing that you will notice is that there are no Masoretic markings in them whatsoever. This is because it is not necessary for native Hebrew speaking people to understand it. To understand it is actually a relatively simple process. Without the Masoretic markings, certain words have the same letters, but have a different pronunciation and even a different meaning.

In order to know what the word is without having the Masoretic markings, you have to read it in the context of the sentence or even paragraph. Let me give you an example:

If I give you the word “cr”, the first word that probably comes to mind is “car”. However, if I give you a sentence to put that same word into, for instance, “I have to take cr of my grandmother” then we can know for certain that the “cr” is the word “care” and not “car”.

Now when a Hebrew speaking person comes across the Hebrew word יהושׁע, they immediately know that it is pronounced “Yehoshua” and NOT as “Yehosha” or “Yahusha”. This is because there is no need for a “waw” for the “u” sound in Hebrew.

Let us look at the photo above which we find in the Hebrew Sh’mot/Exodus 1:22. we find the word that is circled (tashlichuhu). Notice that there are two ‘u’ sounds “…..chuhu” but there is only one ‘waw’ at the end of the word giving the ‘u’ sound for only the final letter. Where then does the first ‘u’ sound come from? If you take away the Massoretic markings, how would you pronounce the word? (It cannot be pronounced “tashlichhu”)

In this second photo in which we find in Sh’mot/Exodus 3:3 in the Hebrew Tanakh, is the word “asurah.” Once again, there is the ‘u’ sound but no ‘waw.’ We have to again ask ourselves how would we pronounce it if the Massoretic markings were not there. We would then try to pronounce it as "asrah" but that would be totally incorrect and would either change the meaning of the word or there would be no such ronunciation of the word in Hebrew. So there has to be a vocal sound inserted when speaking it out.

Another thing to remember is that the name of the Messiah has a specific meaning. It means YHWH saves, or YHWH is our salvation. You cannot get this meaning from Yehosha or Yahusha as the ending “…..sha” does not have any meaning and there is no such word in Hebrew, and certainly does not mean save(s).

The end part of the name of the Messiah “…shua” can be spelled with the (shin waw ayin) but can also be spelled with the two letters (shin ayin) without the ‘waw’ but with the added “qubbuts” under the ‘shin’, as you can see in the photo provided below that was taken of page 172 of the Benjamin Davidson Hebrew Lexicon. It still retains the “…shua” sound.

So it is very clear that the Name of the Messiah does NOT end with, “….sha”. Those people who teach this false pronunciation are once again ignorant of the Hebrew language and do not have any knowledge on this topic. Also, these people do not read the Hebrew Torah at all. If they did, then they would have noticed that the name of Joshua is also spelled with "yud hey vav shin vav ayin" in Deut 3:21. I would love to see how they explain this one.

Now I need to put a note here that the name can also be shortened. Yeho... becomes Yo according to Hebrew grammar. So the shortened version of his name is Yoshua. Yeshua is a verb which means "salvation". Yeshua is also the Aramaic form of his name.

So the correct pronunciation of the name of the Messiah is undoubtedly Yehoshua, or Y’hoshua, if we stick to the facts, rules and regulations of the language of the Almighty and do not use our own opinions and speculations. It cannot ever be Yahushua or Yahusha.

Yehoshua is the Messiah

 

18 New Testament Misconceptions No. 13

#13: Praying in the name of Y’hoshua

One of the foundational concepts within Christianity is that prayer is made in “the name of Jesus”, and there are many verses that appear to support this but not all verses as we will soon discover. Nevertheless, here are some verses that appear to uphold this from the NIV:

“Peter replied, ‘Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 2:38 NIV)

“But Peter said, ‘I don’t have any money for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!’” (Acts 3:6 NIV)

Also see Acts 3:16, 4:10, 4:30, 5:40-41, 9:27, 10:48, 16:18, 19:5, 19:13, 19:17, Romans 15:30, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 5:4, Ephesians 5:20, Philippians 2:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2, 2 Thessalonians 1:12, 3:12, Hebrews 13:15, 1 John 3:23 that also appear to bolster this idea. However, we must correctly understand the difference between names and titles while considering that there is One Name – imbued with power and linked directly to the One Elohim – and then there are many titles, even of the human variety that are comparatively powerless on their own. The ironic point is, Name and names look and sound the same. The difference is not only within the intensions we display when speaking them, but the distinguishing office of power behind the name.

A very important Torah concept is that of the power of the promise. Put simply, Elohim gives or changes someone’s name, and the new meaning that is given to it points to a promise that He will fulfill. The best example of this is the patriarch Abraham:

“Abram threw himself on his face and Elohim spoke to him further. “as for Me, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations, and you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham” (Genesis 17:3-6)

Abram is Hebrew for “exalted father”. However, Abraham translates to “father of many nations,” which is exactly what Elohim promises. A short time later, after Abraham almost sacrifices his son Isaac, he is told:

“All nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants” (Genesis 22:18).

Consider that the world shall bless itself through Abraham’s seed and now witness how this principle manifests itself:

  “Jehosophat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the House of YHWH at the front of the new court. He said, YHWH Elohim of our fathers, truly You are the Elohim in heaven and You rule over the kingdoms of the nations; none can oppose You. O our Elohim, you dispossessed the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and You gave it to the descendants of Your friend Abraham forever. They settled in it and built a House for your name. They said, Should misfortune befall us – the punishing sword, pestilence or famine, we shall stand before this House and before You – for Your name is in this House – and we shall cry out to You in distress and You will listen and deliver us’” (2 Chronicles 20:5-9).

Jehosophat addressed Elohim directly in His House and then invoked the name of Abraham to access the power of Elohim’s promise to the patriarch. In Orthodox liturgy, this is called Yitzkar, or “Yah remembers.” It is done on Judaism’s holiest day, Yom Kippur, when the faithful pray that Elohim will remember  their loved ones who have passed on because of the covenant with  Abraham and his seed. This is very obviously not the same thing as someone invoking the name of a man as if he were Elohim. Rather, it is an affirmation of Elohim that says:

1) I heard Your word’s: 2) I understood Your promise: 3) I understood how and by whom You will carry that promise out: 4) I am grateful that You have done this for us, Your people Israel: 5) and now I pray in Your name, and access the power of that promise by invoking the Name that You gave to the recipient of that promise.

This is a very Jewish concept to pray only in the name of YHWH, but ask in the name of the receiver of the promise. In Aramaic, the words pray and ask are not as nearly interchangeable as they appear to be in English. These are two very distinct words derived from completely different roots. As such, it is very easy to tell the difference between them. That clear delineation is also why, when you go through the Aramaic Renewed Covenant, you will always see Mashiyach or Paul addressing their prayers to MarYah, which literally means Master YHWH. In fact, the Aramaic Tanakh has MarYah in place of YHWH almost 7,000 times, so there is no doubt whatsoever of its meaning.

Conversely, if anyone wanted to pray in the name of the man, they would have used the phrase “Our Master” – (Maran). However, as with Abraham, they can access the power of the promise of Elohim with Maran. From here, two questions emerge: How did this happen? Is it really in harmony with Tanakh?

It is quite obvious that the post-apostolic church founders never understood that the name Y’hoshua is empowered by YHWH, and by that empowerment, the greatest promise of all is within it. Put simply, we have name and Name here too. The mortal, and common name, of a man is Y’hoshua, a form of “Joshua” in English. There may be millions of Yehoshua-Joshua-Y’shuas in the world right now and for them it is their legal name, but there is no power or divine promise embodied into the person because they have this proper name.

However, the Name Y’hoshua was Set Apart by YHWH for Y’hoshua to also receive his unique anointing as Mashiyach: Y’hoshua means “Yah is salvation” in Hebrew. Therefore, to call upon Y’hoshua is to call upon Yah to save you if you pray with the appropriate intent. Because of this one crucial fact, it is a major transgression to apply a pagan name toward the Almighty Elohim. Exodus 20:7 restricts us from taking the name in “vain” – shav – means “to make desolate”. How is this done? By either directly transgressing against His Name, or taking the name of a pagan deity and applying it to YHWH. For example, one of the pagan gods was named Zeus and was addressed as “Kurios” and “Theos”, --exactly the same words that the Greek translators applied to YHWH in the Greek “New Testament”! To use a name for Zeus and then apply it to YHWH renders the Name above all names as shav, literally giving His esteem to another (Isaiah 42:8). If is true for the Father, then this same principle also applies for the Son! Furthermore, that is why Philippians 2:9-11 says:

“Therefore Elohim exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, and that at the name of Y’hoshua every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Y’hoshua is YHWH, to the esteem of the Father.”

Hebrews 1:4 also teaches that the esteem  always goes to YHWH, but “the name that is above all names” is also YHWH; reason being, every other name for a messenger (angel) has El in it (MichaEL, UriEL, RaphaEL etc). EL is a name for Elohim but not the name of Elohim that YHWH is. Once again, the verse points to the Hebrew and Aramaic name and identity of Mashiyach, because the Name of Yah is in the name of Y’hoshua.

However, as alluded to earlier, not all verses support the mainstream Christian tradition; in fact, one neglected passage can correct the standard interpretations of dozens of others. That is why the “name of Jesus” references were kept intact with the Gentile name Jesus, because now you will see for yourself how difficult it is too understand the truth of what Y’hoshua means by using the Gentile name “Jesus”. However, here is the passage that breaks the truth wide open:

“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Set Apart Father, protect them by the power of Your Name – the same name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:11).

How about that? Even the Greek New Testament reads this way, proclaiming that the “name of Y’hoshua” is really that of YHWH. Therefore, every time we lift up our voices to Y’hoshua, we are really proclaiming praise to the one and only YHWH, literally, to the esteem of the Father. Furthermore, since there is only One Name for the One Elohim, those who call on the true Name of YHWH become one with Y’hoshua, which then makes them one with YHWH. So, to bring it all together we can confidently:

    * Pray in the name of YHWH.

    * Ask for the power of YHWH’s promises in the name of the method of their fulfilment, but only as a way to bring esteem to YHWH. This involves, by the way, performing miracles. Take the case in Acts 4:1-12. in that passage, Jews who witnessed the miracles of Peter and Yochanan were not content to hear that they simply came from Elohim. Instead, they wanted to specifically know by what name it was done. Peter says it was by the name of Y’hoshua the Mashiyach of Nazareth that a lame man was healed. However, Peter is careful to make the point that YHWH Himself raised Y’hoshua from the dead so that this power could be accessed when he believed the same thing. So, when he adds in verse 12, “For there is no name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved,” he is not saying that Y’hoshua the man replaces YHWH. Rather, what Peter means is that there is no other Mashiyach that Elohim has chosen except Y’hoshua to fulfill YHWH’s promise. To say the Name then of Y’hoshua, is to acknowledge the power of YHWH to save us according to His Word.

     * Immerse in the name of the Father (YHWH, Who promised and sent the Son), in the name of the Son (Y’hoshua, who fulfilled YHWH’s promise) and the Set Apart Spirit (who is the “spirit of truth” that gives you the reason behind the ritual). Reason: for only in that manner are the complete methods of fulfilling that promise recognised (Ezekiel 36:24), with all the esteem again to YHWH.  The Aramaic word for this carries a meaning closer to “immersion”, as in using Jewish ritual mikveh baths. Also, the fact is that Ruach haKodesh (Set apart Spirit) is another name for YHWH (Psalm 51:11) and the Mashiyach has the Divine nature within him that only comes from YHWH (Isaiah 11:1-2, 1 Corinthians 12:3).

     * Assemble in the Name of YAHU—SHUA: “When two or more gather in my name, there I am in the midst,” refers to these days when Mashiyach has physically departed from the world. He resurrected and ascended to “the right hand of the Father.” This is a metaphor that means “to dwell next to the Father” (Psalm 110:1). Two or three souls gather together to bear witness to the directives given by the Spirit of Mashiyach. So, remembering that Yehochanan told us about the Word made flesh that was with Elohim in the beginning (also see Yehochanan 17:5), what happens after ascension is that Y’hoshua becomes the Word again. We know this because when he comes out of heaven again he is called by the name that he took on when he entered it two millennia before: Word of Elohim (Revelations 19:13)! Therefore, since the Word is with YHWH again, they are inseparable, and to gather in that Name is to gather in the Name of YHWH, while accessing the power of the promise of His Mashiyach