Joshua and Jesus יֵשׁוּעַ = Yeshua

Today I want to draw some interesting parallels between Joshua of Old Testament fame and Jesus the Christ. The first point I need to make is that in Hebrew, their names are identical. First of all, since Hebrew doesn’t contain written vowels per se, on paper, there names look exactly the same. From right to left, the letters are Yud-Shin-Vav-Ayin. The Hebrew transliteration into English of Joshua is Yehoshua which was eventually shortened to Yeshua. Yehoshua is simply the longhand transliteration of Yeshua. So even though our English bibles use the names Joshua and Jesus, be confident in the fact that in Hebrew their names are EXACTLY THE SAME!

The setting for today’s lesson is the Book of Exodus. The Israelites have exited Egypt and are trudging through the desert. Along the way, they are mercilessly attacked by a group of people known as the Amalekites. The Israelites form a makeshift army and begin fighting for their lives. Now a man named Hosea is commissioned by Moses to lead the attack. If you recall, this is the battle where in order to win Moses had to keep his arms raised up to the sky and eventually had to sit on a rock where he had others hold up his arms for him. In the end with Hosea (Hoshua in Hebrew) as commander, the Israelites prevail and a short time later Hosea’s name is changed to Yeshua. or Joshua as it says in our English Bibles. Now why the name change? Let’s break it down as follows:

Hoshua (“Hosea” in English) means “help” or “salvation”.

Now what G-d did when instituting this name change is simply add His prefix “yah” to Hoshua’s name. Hence, the following etymological transformation occurred.

Hoshua→Yah-Hoshua→Yehoshua→Yeshua

Hence, Yehoshua or Yeshua means G-d saves. As Yeshua (Joshua) of the Old Testament saved Israel in the physical realm from all of her enemies so will the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) save Israel both spiritually and physically in the final days. Totally awesome!

In closing, now that you understand that Jesus’s real name was Yeshua, I think we should begin incorporating it into our daily usage. It will serve as a strong reminder of the spiritual heritage we have in Israel.When Jesus was a small child, His parents called Him Yeshua. When He was travelling throughout Israel preaching and healing, He was known as Yeshua. And given that this name actually means “G-d Saves”, what could be a more appropriate way to address our Savior than by his G-d-given name.

L-rd, thank you for sending Your only Son Yeshua to save us from our sins.

Amen.