THE NAME WHICH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME
Paul Wong
The Third Commandment reads like this:
“You shall not take the name
of the LORD your God in vain, for the
LORD
will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (Ex. 20:7)
Many people who read the Bible do not
know the word “LORD” in capital letters is a translation of the Hebrew
tetragrammaton “YHWH” that represents the sacred name of God. Whenever this original Hebrew “YHWH”
appears in the Old Testament the Jews would substitute the Hebrew word “Adonai” that
literally means “LORD”. Their reason for
doing so is because of the fear that they might violate the sacredness of God’s
name. The only time when the name “YHWH” was
pronounced audibly as “YAHWEH” was when the high priest entered the
Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This Jewish tradition was still in effect during the time when
Jesus Christ walked the earth.
While the religious Jews continue with
their tradition of not uttering the name of “YAHWEH” even to this day, there is another
extreme view that goes in the opposite direction. The Sacred Name movement promotes the invocation of the name “YAHWEH”. In their liturgy the English words “God” and
“Lord” are replaced by the Hebrew words “Elohim” and “Adonai”. Many Sacred Name assemblies use the Hebrew
name of “YAHSHUA” and look upon the Greek/ English name of “JESUS” with disdain. This is unfortunate but it is a fact that they avoid the name of “JESUS”. It
is highly commendable to use the Hebrew name of “YAHSHUA”,
but to completely disregard the Greek/English name of “JESUS”
or His name in other languages is a serious error. Here is the rationale for having a balanced view on this issue.
The Hebrew name “YAHSHUA” is related to Salvation
We need to realize that our Savior was
born in Israel and His name was first revealed to His earthly parents who are
Jews. “But
while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to
him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you
Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, And she will bring forth a Son, and you
shall call His name YAHSHUA (JESUS), for He will save His people from their
sins.” (Mt. 1:20-21) The angel revealed the Savior’s name “YAHSHUA” in Hebrew that consists of two words. The
first word “YAH” is the shortened name for “YAHWEH”, the
Eternal God, and the second word “OSHUA”
means Savior. “Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I
come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has
sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to
them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM (YAHWEH)’. And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the
children of Israel, ‘I AM’ (YAH) has sent me to you.” (Ex. 3:13-14) When our Lord said, “Most
assuredly, I say to you, before
Abraham was, I AM.” He was referring to His name “YAH” (Jn. 8:58). The Hebrew name “YAHSHUA” is related to salvation therefore it is
more meaningful than another name in another language. The angel gave the reason for this
name. “You shall call His name YAHSHUA, for He will save
His people from their sins.”
The apostle Peter preached: “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name,
whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43) “Nor is there salvation in any other, for
there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
(Acts 4:12) For this reason the meaning of the Hebrew
name “YAHSHUA” should be understood by all
believers. There is a variation in the
English spelling of this name. Some
spell “Y’SHUA” while others spell “YESHUA”.
There should be no conflicts on the spelling because they all refer to
the same Savior.
The Greek/English Name “JESUS” is also Acceptable
Many Sacred Name congregations do not
use the Greek/English form of the name “JESUS”
because of two main reasons. They think
that it is derived from the names "Zeus" or “IASO” the mythical Greek deities. This is incorrect. Any
reliable Bible dictionary will inform us that “JESUS”
is a transliteration of the Greek “IESOUS”.
The second objection is that the letter ‘J’
was non-existent in the Hebrew alphabet therefore we should not pronounce the
Savior’s name with the ‘J’ sound. It must surely grieve the Holy Spirit to see
God’s children arguing about the letter ‘J’
in our Savior’s name. Our Heavenly
Father is not concerned about phonetics.
He is not seeking a people who pronounce the Savior’s name that begins
with a ‘J’ or a ‘Y’. Our Lord said, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father
is seeking such to worship Him.” (Jn. 4:23) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not
about the letters ‘J’ or ‘Y’. It is
about the Eternal God who became Man
so that He could suffer, shed blood and die for the sins of mankind.
The Savior’s Name is above every name in the
world
“Let this mind be
in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not
consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation,
taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of
the cross. Therefore God also has
highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of
those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil.
2:5-11 - NKJV)
For most Christians living in the
English-speaking countries, the name of “JESUS”
is “the name
which is above every name”, but for the Sacred Name congregations
they would rather have “YAHSHUA”, the Hebrew
name of their Savior. One of their assemblies have printed its own Bible that
uses the Hebrew words “Elohim” for “God”,
“YAHWEH”
for “LORD”,
“YAHSHUA” for
“JESUS” and “the Messiah” for “Christ”.
If they choose to use Hebrew names for their liturgy that is fine, but
the name “JESUS” is also acceptable.
The
Savior’s Name is
the Best in
any language
Let me affirm that I do believe the
Hebrew name of our Savior is “YAHSHUA” and I do
call upon this precious name in my prayers every day. However, I pray and preach in the precious name of “JESUS” to my English-speaking Christian friends,
and I also talk about “YESU” to my Chinese
friends and relatives. To me, the name
of my Savior is above every name on earth, regardless of whether it is in
Hebrew, Greek, English or Chinese. In
the Chinese Bible the name of the Savior is printed with these two Chinese
characters 
YE-SU. There are more than two hundred Chinese
dialects and each one has a different pronunciation and enunciation. In Mandarin these two characters would be
read “YE-SU”,
in Cantonese it is “YE-SOU”, in Taiwanese it is “YA-SAW”, and in Hakka it is “YA-SU”. You can see there are differences in
pronunciation in only four Chinese dialects.
You can imagine the diverse ways of pronouncing the Savior’s name in the
other two hundred Chinese dialects.
What about the pronunciation in the over three hundred Indian dialects,
not to mention the tens of thousands of languages and dialects in the
world? Surely God cares for people of
all languages.
The Wonderful Works of God in different languages
The Day of Pentecost is the birthday
of the Church when the disciples “were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews,
devout men, from every nation under heaven.
And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were
confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled,
saying to one another, ‘Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own
language in which we were born?
Parthians and Medes and Elamites, . . . . Cretans and Arabs - we hear
them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” (Acts 2:4-11)
God was speaking to “devout men, from every nation under heaven” and “everyone heard
them speak in his own language.” The disciples were talking about “the wonderful
works of God” in various languages of the world. The word “God” was spoken in different
languages. He is an international and multi-lingual God. If He wanted the Hebrew language to be the only
means of communication He could have made the disciples speak only Hebrew and
made everyone listen in that language.
He wants to save people of all languages. “And
they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are
worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have
redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and
nation,” (Rev. 5:9; ref. 7:9).
Greek Language was Widely Used in the Early
Church
Towards the end of the Old Testament period
(about circa 400 B.C.) Hebrew began to fade out and Aramaic became the lingua franca
of the South West Asia. By the time of
Jesus Christ, Aramaic was the common vernacular in Palestine with koine Greek
and Latin being universal languages.
The superscription on the cross was hence written in Greek, Latin and
Hebrew/Aramaic (Lk. 23:38). This was
done so that the people could read it in the language they are familiar
with. The Gospel according to Saint
Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were dedicated to a Greek believer
Theophilus, therefore these two books were originally written in the Greek
language. (Lk. 1:1-4; Acts 1:1)
Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles,
wrote nine epistles to the Gentile churches.
Being a Roman citizen he wrote to the Roman church in Latin. (Acts
22:25-29; Rom. 1:7; 11:13) All the
other eight epistles were written in Greek.
Paul was well educated and spoke Greek. (Acts 21:37) He spoke to the Athenians using the Greek
words “Theos”
for “God” and “Kurios” for “Lord”. He used the same words over and over again
in his eight epistles to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians and Thessalonians. In all
his epistles he addressed the Savior in Greek as “Kurios Iosous Cristos” translated
as “Lord Jesus Christ”.
The Church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.” (Eph. 2:20) With such strong and solid support from the
New Testament we are convinced that the use of the Greek name and title “Lord
Jesus Christ” is fully acceptable.
God Accepts His Different Names from Different People
In the Old Testament time God revealed
His different names to different people at different times. He does not insist on only one way of
calling on His name.
“And God spoke
to Moses, and said to him: ‘I am YAHWEH (the LORD). I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as EL SHADDAI (God
Almighty), but by My name YAHWEH (the LORD) I was not known to them.” (Ex.
6:2-3)
If “YAHWEH” is the only name that we can address our
God then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had no knowledge of it. We can see that different people called the
Deity in different ways. Melchizedek,
king of Salem, called Him “EL ELYON” - God Most High (Gen. 14:18-20). The prophet Isaiah called Him “Q’DOS YISRAEL” -
Holy One of Israel (Isa. 1:4) and “BIR YISRAEL” - Mighty One of Israel (Isa.
1:24). We can exalt the One
True God by addressing Him in different ways.
Our Lord Jesus Christ Addressed God in
Different ways
The four Gospels showed our Lord Jesus
Christ addressing God in His prayers in
different ways. In the Garden of
Gethsemane our Lord “fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father,
if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will, but
as You will.” (Mt. 26:39) Mark recorded our Lord addressing His
prayers, “Abba,
Father, all things are possible for You.” (Mk. 14:36). John
recorded His prayer, “Now I am no longer in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to You. Holy
Father, keep them through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they
may be one as We are” (Jn. 17:11) During His crucifixion “Jesus cried out
with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?’ (Mt. 27:46; Mk. 15:34) In the Sermon on the Mount He taught His
disciples “In
this manner, therefore, pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your
name.” (Mt. 6:9; Lk. 11:2) Our Lord had addressed His prayers to “My Father” and
“My God” and not once as “YAHWEH”. If our Lord Jesus Christ had never
taught His disciples to pray in the name of “YAHWEH”
no one should insist on it.
Our Lord Jesus
Christ Taught Us to Pray in His Name
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His
disciples to pray in His own name. “And whatever you
ask in My Name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. If you ask anything in My
name, I will do it.” (Jn. 14:13-14) He said that if we pray in His own Name YAHSHUA
“the Father may be glorified in the
Son”.
May God bless you.
Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the
President of ARK International.
His ministry also serves as an architectural service company in Houston.
The ARK Forum on the Internet is international and non-denominational.
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