In Isaiah 6:14 we have the famous prophecy concerning the messiah, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call His name Immanuel."
BUT..700 years later:
When the angel comes to tell Mary that she is going to give birth to the messiah, the angel says that He will be called Jesus.
At first I didn't understand this, it makes zero sense at first glance. But God doesn't instruct us to glance at the Bible or even read it per say. He wants us to search and try and discover and meditate on His word.
So when we look at the original language we have to understand that the Bible wasn't translated into English until way later. Okay hold your breath but Jesus isn't His original name; His original name was the Hebrew word for Joshua. His mother Mary and the disciples called Him Yeshua. So the angel didn't come to Mary and say you will be with child and call Him Jesus; he said you will be with child and call Him Yeshua. This name was translated into the Greek as Iesous and eventually into the old English as Jeshua. It wasnt around 1600 a.d. that we begin to see His name referred to as Jesus. Don't get me wrong, Im not saying that we cant call Him Jesus because in all actuality He has many names. But this does help us with the earlier question of Immanuel and Jesus. In Hebrew the names all have special meanings derived from their root words.
1. Immanuel literally means "God is with us" (more like God is going to be with us right)
(Its almost like God was showing those who really studied His word what was to come)
2. Now heres where it gets exciting for me: Yeshua literally means "God is Salvation"
(Its almost like God was showing us what Jesus or Yeshua's purpose was)
Call Him what you like He is real and "with us"
1. Prince of Peace
2. Lion of the Tribe of Judah
3. Immanuel
4. Lamb of God
5. Christ, Messiah
6. Bread of Life
7. King of Kings
8. Son of David
9. The Redeemer
10. I AM
11. Yeshua bar Joseph
12. Messiah Yeshua
13. Jesus the Christ
Interesting and exciting...I did not know this. It seems so amazing that it literally means God is Salvation. Just WOW!!
ReplyDeletethat's fascinating... that doesn't explain why Mexicans name all their sons Jesus... hahahaha, that's my lame humor.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that leads me to what i am really writing about (not mexicans and their children). Some time in the past, i have began researching the different translations. I have read on how meanings can change over time through a translation that has mutilated the original meaning of scripture. The three original languages that ancient scripture was written in was in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. In my attempt to find the deeper meaning in what is being proclaimed in the written word I have found that there are other bible translations. it is abysmal all the different translations. That said, I just Ordered a Bible called the Jerusalem Bible, that is purported to be a direct translation from Hebrew; hence being a more literal translation. i did come across a bible form 1885, that belong to a gentleman that fought in World War I, I can with all his love letters and photos, indeed quite a find. That said, that bible was the same as the one i currently used, The King James version. This is where my constant search for the word of god in life, has taken me. Food for thought; I thought i would share that with you.
Mark
I did want to add one more final thought. We refer to God, as God, or Lord, or the Father. Interestingly, in this other Bible he is called by his name Yahweh. Why is this interesting? Because in ancient tradition, we are not suppose to udder the name of God as we are not worthy to call him by his real name. It is easy for us to say God or Lord, However, if you look into your hearts, are we truly worthy of calling unto him by his name? I quote John the Baptist, "I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don't know. He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to loosen."
ReplyDeleteI stand with what John says"... whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loosen"
Thats a good point Mark. The very first name given for God was Elohim:
ReplyDelete"Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'arets"(In the beginning God Created heaven and earth)
Than later when moses asks who should I say sent me, God gave himself a name. He said tell them I AM who I AM, which in Hebrew is translated as Yahweh. Traditionally this was considered the unspeakable name so they took out the vowels when Gods name was used, so it became YHWH. However, when you are reading from scripture in the synagouge how do you pronounce a word like that. In turn, Gods people substituted that name with "Adonai" which means literally "the name."
Also from alterations of YHWH we also get the name Jehova.
Also did you ever notice the fact that in your English bible sometimes the word LORD is written in all caps and sometimes it is written just Lord. Also sometimes His name is just written God.
Translation Help:
LORD=Yahweh=I AM
Lord=Adonai=the name
God=Elohim= interestingly the word Elohim is plural but thats a whole other discussion.
Responding to your first comment I have to respectfully disagree with the fact that the original meaning of scripture has been mutilated. The evidence for this was found in the dead sea scrolls in the 1950's in the small settlement of Qumran. You see over 900 untouched documents including books of the Bible dated at around 2100 years old were found in 11 caves. One amazing find was the complete scroll of the Book of Isaiah. Amazingly this scroll dated to around 150 B.C and when compared to the book of Isaiah we have today it was practically spot on. over 2000 years of translation spot on. I think this is because the Bible is Gods word and He has preserved it for us through time so that we can trust it.
ReplyDeleteThey took pictures of this scroll page by page, put it online for our access and translated it to English.(check it out, type in great Isaiah scroll into google!)
I do agree that we lose some meaning when we translate from the original Hebrew and Greek to English. If thats what you meant, however throughout history we have evidence that it has been translated through time accurately.
Mark we need to get together and study the next time your in town. Go find us a coffee shop or something, we haven't hung out in forever.
Some words in the bible are changed because they have different meanings back in the day than they do now. An example would be in James 2:3.
ReplyDeleteThis is James 2:3 in the King James version:
"And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool."
This is James 2:3 in the New International version:
"If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet."
In the King James version, during that time 'gay' obviously meant something different than it does today, so they had to edit that word and write 'fine' so that people wouldn't get confused and get a different meaning than the verse is supposed to portray. The newer versions also make it easier for people now-a-days to read. However, just as the Dead Sea Scrolls show us, God has preserved His word for thousands of years.
In regards to the name of GOD; I feel as if it is a grave importance that we recognize the traditions regarding GOD and what he is called. It is my feelings that by reducing the importance of how we revere his title, we humanize GOD more. By humanizing GOD, bringing him down to our level, it makes it easier in life to marginalize GOD in our lives; it makes it easier for us to give into temptation for in our lives because The greatness of GOD suddenly isn't as great because we are taking away, chipping away at what makes GOD so great. Yes, titles are merely titles, or are they?
ReplyDeleteI had a hard time when others called me sir all the time. I didn't want to be the older guy, out of place. But as time went by, it began to sink into me that i was not being called sir as an insult.At work, with colleagues, at school, people called me sir because i carried myself differently.
This discussion is so very important, for by defining the name of GOD, and the absolute importance of this name, this title, can we lay a foundation of truly how great the LORD is.
As men, I feel that if we allow each other to have a little less faith then ultimately we have failed each other and ourselves.
In regards to tanslations, i feel you are absolutely accurate. who are we to argue semantics and articulation of any language that the word is passed on in. So long as the meaning is not lost, that is what truly counts
ReplyDelete