The Proper Biblical Hebrew Names

Yahweh-The Name of The Father

The term “God,” whether capitalized or not, is a general, not a specific term; it does not identify any particular elohim (god). Other religions identify by name the one to whom devotion is given, but by and large, Christians have been ignorant of or reluctant to identify by name the one to whom they give worship. That is even more strange when one considers the many exhortations recorded in Scripture to identify Him by name.

There are documented reasons why the Jewish people moved away from identifying Yahweh by name and came to substitute, first of all in their oral reading and finally in their written Scriptures, another word which came to be translated by the general term of “god.” Today, Scripture translators are aware that Yahweh best expresses the name by which the Creator identified Himself, but because of religious tradition and other reasons, there is reluctance to restore this name to the written Scriptures.

In the 16th century, an attempt was made to restore the proper name by the introduction of Jehovah, but that word falls short for different reasons, the chief one being that there is no “J” sound in the Hebrew language. The best evidence we have available to us indicates that Yahweh is the true name of our elohim, the one by whom and for whom all things were made, and therefore we are committed to using His true name — the one He gave to Himself. Yahweh means, “The one who exists, or whose nature it is to exist.”

Yahweh - The Name Of God

Yahshua- The Name of The Son

Perhaps it would be better to ask: “Why Jesus?” Jesus is an English transliteration of the Greek Iesous, and is nothing like the Hebrew name, Yahshua which means Yahweh is salvation.

No matter where a person travels in the world and no matter what is the language of the people, his or her name remains the same–it is never translated. This is an inviolate rule of language: a person’s name is not translated.

You will notice this in the reporting of international news; the name by which a person is identified in this country would be pronounced exactly the same in their country, no matter what the language.

Being Hebrews, and bringing their infant son to the Jewish temple to be dedicated, it is unthinkable that Joseph and Mary would have given any but a Hebrew name to Him. The name they most certainly gave to that child is Yahshua. If that be true, then that is the only correct name by which He can be identified today.