The Messiah's Name is Not "Yahusha"
Is the Messiah’s Hebrew name pronounced “Yahusha,” as some modern Sacred Name teachers on the Internet claim? No, it is not. This video looks at the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible to show why that pronunciation is demonstrably false.
Transcript
YahuNatan (Jon Truth): “Is the Messiah’s name Yahusha or Yahushua?”
It is neither. Both of those names were made up fairly recently by people who don’t know Hebrew. How do we know that the Messiah’s name in Hebrew is not Yahusha or some similar variant? Because the Bible says so. The Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible explicitly tell us what his name was.
In the New Testament, the Messiah’s name is written in Greek as Ἰησοῦς. When we look at where this name appears in the Septuagint, we find that Ἰησοῦς renders the Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (“Yehoshua”), as well as the short form of that same name, יֵשׁוּעַ (“Yeshua”).
These are two variations of the same name, similar to “Mike” and “Michael.” Yehoshua represents an earlier form of the name, whereas the short form, Yeshua, became more common after the Babylonian exile. Once we get to the first century, we find that Yeshua is by far the most widely attested form of the name.[1] Hence, the Messiah’s contemporaries likely referred to him as Yeshua.
Now, there is some debate over the last syllable of Yeshua’s name. Some scholars think that the “ah” sound at the end was pronounced much more subtly in the first century, resulting in a name that was pronounced more like Yeshu’. However, my understanding is that this idea is speculative and is based on limited evidence that mostly comes from the medieval period.[2] In any case, according to the Masoretic text that our Bibles are translated from, the “ah” sound at the end of the name is fully pronounced.
What about modern forms of the Messiah’s name that people on the Internet claim are the original Hebrew? For example, you mentioned Yahusha. This and other forms of the name were popularized by Sacred Name teachers in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. But again, if we care about what the Bible says, these forms of the name are just demonstrably false. According the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible, the first part of the Messiah’s name is never pronounced as “Yah.” And this is easily proven.
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the name Yeshua looks like this in Hebrew: יֵשׁוּעַ
The first letter to the farthest right is called a yod. It makes a “y” sound, as in “yellow.” Under the yod are two horizontal dots. This vowel is called tzere. This vowel makes a long “a” sound, as in “say.” The yod and tzere together make Ye-. Hence, Yeshua.
Now let’s look at the older version of the name, Yehoshua, which looks like this in Hebrew: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Here, the two vertical dots under the yod form a vowel called a shva. When this vowel appears at the beginning of words, it makes a short “e” sound, as in “men.” Hence, Yehoshua.
The Greek Septuagint confirms this pronunciation. Again, both יֵשׁוּעַ and יְהוֹשֻׁעַ are always rendered into Greek as Ἰησοῦς, which is the name used for the Messiah in the Greek New Testament—translated into English as Jesus. The Septuagint uses the same first vowel for the Messiah’s name as the Masoretic text does. Notice the second letter in this Greek name. This letter is a vowel known as an eta (η), and it makes the long “a” sound, which is the same sound the Hebrew vowel tzere makes. If the name were pronounced something like “Yahusha,” the Greek translators would have represented the initial sound with an alpha (α) rather than an eta (η). Their choice of η proves that the Messiah’s name does not begin with “Yah.”
The bottom line is that no ancient text says “Yahusha” or anything close to it. Those forms are modern English inventions, not authentic Hebrew pronunciations. So if you want to refer to Jesus by his Hebrew name—and do so accurately—then you should use Yeshua.
YahuNatan (Jon Truth): “The Bible that I read from that has the name of Yahuah / Yahusha is the Cepher.”
Well, that right there is your problem. The Cepher is garbage, as I explain in this video.
In any case, I know that most people think this a trivial issue, and I totally agree in one sense. Nobody is sinning by mispronouncing the Messiah’s name in Hebrew. Having said that, since we can know the truth about this issue with certainty, we should be strive to be accurate. There is no reason to continue using a name that is easily proven to be a compete fabrication. No good could come from it. Also, it is possible that some harm could come from it. If you get basic things like this wrong, people might not take seriously anything else you have to say.
[1] Richard Bauckham, “The Names on the Ossuaries,” in Buried Hope or Risen Savior: In Search for the Jesus Tomb (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2008), 69–112.
[2] See Eran Shuali “Yešu or Yešuaʿ? A Sketch of the History of Jesus’ Names in Hebrew from Antiquity to the Present,” Revue de études juives 179 (2020), 169–170.
About David Wilber
David Wilber is an author, Bible teacher, and CEO of Pronomian Publishing LLC. He has written several books and numerous theological articles, with his work appearing in outlets such as the Christian Post and the Journal of Biblical Theology. David has spoken at churches and conferences across the nation and has served as a researcher and Bible teacher for a number of Messianic and Christian ministries…