In Part 1 of this post (here), I described the etymology and history of how the correct name of our Messiah, Yahshua Anointed, eventually became the familiar name of our Lord Jesus Christ today.  This name gradually changed over the years, but there was a sudden change in the 1st century A.D. which forced that change.  At that time, his correct name of Yahshua was deliberately changed to Yeshu because it had suddenly become illegal to say, write or use the former name.  This astonishing fact, which has almost been lost to history, is easily identifiable using just the Bible, and not having to do research using outside reference materials.  How in the world could this have happened and why doesn’t anybody know about it?  And, if it’s in the Bible, where is it?

Before I cite the moment that the name was changed, we need to look at the events occurring in Israel shortly after Yahshua was raised from the dead, but had not yet ascended up into heaven.  In Acts 1:3, we learn that Yahshua showed the people “MANY infallible PROOFS, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of Yahweh.”  This went way beyond the teachings that he did while he was still in human form.  That information is well documented in the gospels.  No, these revelations were taken to a whole new level.  While he was human, there was a great deal of skepticism of both his identity and his message, but not anymore.  Now, he was no longer explaining things to them in parables, or in metaphors, causing the listener to ponder what he might have meant.  He was soon going to be ascending into heaven and had only 40 days remaining on earth to show the PROOFS of both his message and his future kingdom on earth.  Did this message resonate with the people?  Yes, better than most people realize.

How many people heard these infallible proofs, as spoken by Yahshua?  Paul provides that answer here, 1 Cor. 15:5–“And he [Yahshua] was seen of Cephas [Peter], then of the twelve: v. 6–After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”  So, you have the 12 Apostles, which consisted of Matthias, who replaced Judas, and more than 500 people all absorbing the astonishing revelations that Yahshua told them for 40 days!  Each day’s new information must have been breathtaking as it built upon the previous day’s information, until at the end of those 40 days, the people were bursting at the seams, about to explode with their passion to go into the lands and share all that they had learned with all the people.  The Apostles’ determination to spread his message was galvanized the moment that all of them stood and watched Yahshua depart and ascend up into heaven–Acts 1:9–“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”

These were the people who were there during his ministry and these same people watched Yahshua’s final moment on earth.  No doubt, the apostles could not wait to begin to teach the message of Yahshua, especially armed with all the new information they had learned in the past 40 days.  Peter took the lead.

In Acts 2:42, Peter converted so many Jews that 3,000 of them were baptized into this new doctrine.  Three THOUSAND were converted, which had to be a substantial portion of the Jewish population at that time.  He didn’t stop there.  Later, in Acts 3:4, Peter had converted 5,000 more men into this new faith.  It looked like he was going to be unstoppable in converting every last citizen and baptizing them all.  This is not hyperbole.  And this was putting at risk the influence and power that the high priest held over the people.  If Peter’s quest to baptize all of the citizens into this new faith were successful, the high priest would no longer have any followers who were obedient to him, thus destroying his powerful position.  He decided to confront Peter, determined to put a stop to this rabble-rouser, so they brought him to Jerusalem to speak with Annas, the high priest.

A boiling point had been reached in the high priest’s frustration with the miraculous deeds that Peter was performing, which were reinforcing his stature among the people and causing more and more Jews to convert into this new faith.  In Acts 3:6, Peter healed a 40-year old man who had been crippled from birth, allowing him to stand up and walk.  The high priest could not deny that this had happened, but his office was now being threatened.  If every Jew converts to this new faith, he would become the high priest of a congregation of zero people.  Something had to be done about this.

Acts 4:7–“And when they had set them [Peter and John] in the midst, they asked ‘By what power, or by what NAME have you done this?”  Peter’s response:  V. 10–“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the NAME OF YAHSHUA ANOINTED  of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom Yahweh has raised from the dead, even by HIM does this man stand here before you whole [the crippled man that Peter had healed in ch. 3].”

V. 11–“THIS is the stone which is set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.”  V. 12–“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other NAME under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved!”

When Peter spoke these words to the high priest, the highest Jewish authority in the land, he boldly told him EXACTLY how he had the power to perform these kinds of miracles and–this is crucial to understand–he spoke these words in the Hebrew language.  He did not tell Annas that he performed these miracles in the name of “Jesus”.  He did them in the name of Yahshua.  This is what he said.  This is what Annas heard.

Annas, the elders and the scribes were dumbfounded and had no rebuttal to Peter’s argument.  They looked at the formerly crippled man, standing in the Temple, a person who was clearly healed without any logical explanation and didn’t know what to say or do.  V. 14–“And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.”

Now comes the moment when the name Yahshua becomes an “illegal” word.  Unless you’ve read this passage in Hebrew, you miss it’s impact.  I’m going to paraphrase v. 15-18 (the KJV text appears, following, so you may see that I’m not distorting these verses) in order to explain the significance of what happens next.

V. 15-18–So the high priest ordered Peter and John to step outside the Temple to allow the Sanhedrin to confer among themselves to figure out what to do.  They said “Now what are we going to do to Peter and John?”  It’s obvious that a notable miracle has occurred  which was done by those apostles and it has been seen and is known to all the people of Jerusalem; and we can’t pretend it didn’t happen.  But, we MUST put a stop to this and we mustn’t let Peter’s success continue as before, so let’s IMMEDIATELY THREATEN THEM with Annas making a new decree that from this point forward, NOBODY shall ever again speak this name again to any other human being.  So, they brought Peter and John back into the Temple and told them that this new law, going into effect immediately, is that they are henceforth COMMANDED that they are no longer allowed to either speak or teach in the name of Yahshua.

From the KJV:

¹⁵ But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, ¹⁶ Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷ But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. ¹⁸ And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

From this moment forward, any person who dared challenge this new law that the high priest had just decreed would have been severely punished.  Thus, the word that was used, which would not violate this new law from the high priest, was the word “Yeshu” in replacement of Yahshua.  This was the word which people spoke.  This was the word, as it was written (in Hebrew letters, of course).  And this was how the word appeared when all the holy texts, which were kept for safekeeping in the Temple, were later transcribed from Hebrew into Greek.

It was the name “Yahshua” that allowed the apostles to have power on earth to perform miracles.  It was the name “Yahshua” by which Peter said is the ONLY name under heaven by which we are saved.  Peter did not say that we are saved by that “person” regardless of how his name is rendered in the future, nor what other foreign language is used to identify that person.  If that were the case, then why did Peter put so much emphasis on the NAME of our Savior?  Why not just say that we are saved BY Yahshua, instead of saying that we are saved by the NAME of Yahshua?

Remember, Luke is the author of Acts, and he was a doctor who prided himself on his exact explanation of the events of this moment.  (Luke 1:3–“It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things….”)  This same professional background is evident in the book of Acts, and it’s not random that he records Peter’s insistence that we are given salvation from the NAME (and deeds) of Yahshua.

This is a hard pill to swallow to most professed Bible believers.  This is such a departure from their lifetime of bedrock faith that they usually cannot fathom that something so fundamental should even be discussed, let alone challenged.  The usual response from my friends is either laughter, mocking or ridicule, without having to rebut the facts.  But if, 2,000 years ago, our ancestors changed the identity of the color red to “green” and the color green to “red”, today, every stop light would be called green and every golf course fairway would be called red.  We wouldn’t give it a second thought.  The color that our eyes see would be the same as the color they saw, but we would now be using an incorrect name to identify that color.

The name Yahshua is just like the description above.  Nearly everyone for the rest of the 1st century would have known the correct name and spelling (in their minds), but they would have spoken and written the word according to the high priest’s orders.  By the time the 2nd century arrived, this identification of that name and/or its spelling would have been considered a matter of history, with little relevance to their lives over 100 years later.

By the year 1,000, this information would have been so obscure, it would have practically have been lost to history.  Here we are, 2,000 years later, and people don’t give this episode from the 1st century even a moment’s notice.

But they should.