Christian Pure

What Does Yeshua Mean? Jesus’ Hebrew Name, “He Saves”

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • Yeshua is the Hebrew name of Jesus, and it means “he saves”: the long form, Yehoshua, means “the LORD saves.”
  • It is the short form of Yehoshua, Joshua’s name, and the Greek Bible wrote both forms Iēsous, which became Jesus in English.
  • In Hebrew it is written ישוע, or יֵשׁוּעַ with vowels, and said yeh-SHOO-ah.
  • Yeshua HaMashiach means Yeshua the Messiah, the same as Jesus Christ, and Messianic Jews use it.
  • The spelling Yahshua is used by the Sacred Name movement, which began in the 1930s, and is not found in ancient Hebrew or Aramaic sources.
  • Yeshu is the name commonly used in Israel; its origins are disputed and it later took on a derogatory sense in Jewish history, so Hebrew-speaking Christians say Yeshua.

Yeshua is the Hebrew name of Jesus. It is the short form of Yehoshua, the name of Joshua, which joins God’s name to the Hebrew verb for saving: “the LORD saves.” The Gospels, written in Greek, spell it Iēsous, and that became Jesus in English: Yeshua and Jesus are one name in two languages. The name was a promise before it was a word on a page. An angel told Joseph to give it to Mary’s son, “for he shall…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • King James Version, quoted from Bible Gateway: Exodus 14:13; Numbers 13:16; Ezra 3:2; Nehemiah 8:17; Psalm 118:14; Isaiah 12:2; Matthew 1:21; Luke 2:21–22, 29–30; John 1:40–41; 19:19–20; Acts 4:8–12; Philippians 2:10. Matthew 1:21 in the Habrit Hakhadasha/Haderekh, Reina-Valera 1960, Russian Synodal and Swahili New Testament, on Bible Gateway.
  • Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (1906), Strong’s Concordance and the NAS Exhaustive Concordance, entries for Yeshua (H3442), Yehoshua (H3091), yeshuah (H3444), yasha (H3467) and mashiach (H4899); Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Iēsous (G2424) and Christos (G5547), on Bible Hub.
  • Nicholas J. Schaser, Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg and Yeshaya Gruber, “Was “Yahshua” the Real Name of Jesus?,” Israel Bible Center, 2024.
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 436, “Christ.”
  • Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, “Defining Messianic Judaism,” 2005.
  • Assemblies of Yahweh, “Statement of Doctrine.”
  • Bob Hunter, “Yahweh Is His Name,” Christian Research Journal 34:06 (2011), Christian Research Institute.
  • David Neuhaus, “The Man from Nazareth: Yeshu or Yeshu’a,” open letter to Haaretz, 24 March 2017, reprinted on Jewish-Christian Relations.
  • “J,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), and Matthew 1 in the Nova Vulgata, on the change from Iesus to Jesus.

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