A NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION OF MESSIAH'S NAME IN THE OJBC

We know that at least one of the languages our Moshiach spoke was a dialect of Western Aramaic (note TALITHA CUMI, GOLGOTHA, MARANATHA). YESHUA is the Aramaic form of YEHOSHUA. Anyone who questions this should look at the Aramaic dictionary at the end of the standard Brown, Driver and Briggs Lexicon where the word YESHUA can be found listed as an Aramaic word. And YEHOSHUA (Hebrew for JOSHUA) is the Hebrew form of YESHUA (Iesous in Greek).

Parts of the Tanach are written in Aramaic (e.g. Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Daniel 2:4-7:28; Jeremiah 10:10-11; Genesis 31:47). This is important because the infallible Bible settles all arguments. To the question "What is the Hebrew translation of the Aramaic word YESHUA?" the Bible tells us the infallible answer by translating the Aramaic word YESHUA in the Aramaic passage in Ezra 5:2 with the Hebrew word YEHOSHUA in the Hebrew passage in Zechariah 6:11-12, which also says that this "sign" man's name is TZEMACH ("BRANCH" [of Dovid], a code name for Moshiach).

So the Moshiach's name is YEHOSHUA/YESHUA (not an "either/or" but a "both/and") and in the OJBC the decision was made to use the Hebrew form of Moshiach's name rather than the Aramaic form. In the Greek

NT the very same Greek word Yoh-tah ee-tah seegh-mah oh-mee-krone eeps-ee-lone final seegh-mah is used

for Yehoshua/Yeshua/Joshua Ben Nun in Acts 7:45 and for Yehoshua/Joshua/Yeshua Ben Elohim in Acts 7:55, showing that both Joshua and Yeshua are exactly the same as far as the Greek is concerned, meaning either

translation (Yehoshua or Yeshua) is acceptable in faithfully rendering the Greek NT in English.

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