I began translating the New Testament before the Old Testament because I felt that the world needed the true Gospel of Jesus Christ before the Old Testament. It has taken me seven years to translate the New Testament. Along the way I made many discoveries about the effect the old translations of the Bible from the Greek have had on the Christian World, especially the West.
One of these is the fact that I have not found any names, except for Adam, that sound the same in English and in the Ancient Aramaic. So early on I made the decision to use only the English transliteration of names. Then I found out that the Jews today do not like the name Jesus Christ because their persecution in the West is identified with this name.
Of course, Jesus Christ is not how the name is pronounced in the original language that Abraham brought from Mesopotamia, which is the same language that Jesus spoke. In the original it's Eashoa Msheekhah. In modern-day theology this language has been called Hebrew-Aramaic or Ancient Aramaic. I prefer the Hebrew scholars' name for it, namely "Ashurit," because the language is from North Mesopotamia, the language spoken in Nineveh six centuries before Christ.
Now that Iraq has been liberated and the thousand-year-old pall of evil has been lifted from the land where Abraham came, we can reveal the truth about the name of the Messiah prophesied in Scriptures. Padan Aram, where Abraham was born and raised, is in North Iraq. Abraham is the father of the Hebrew people. There were no Hebrew people before Abraham. The time of Abraham is roughly 1500 BC.
It's interesting that the Jews recorded the Old Testament in Babylon, where they were taken captive by king Nebuchednezzar II of Babylon around the 5th Century BC. Significantly, they recorded it in the Ashurit language of Nineveh. Nineveh had already fallen a century before, but at that time the Jews had achieved equality in Nineveh. This was in the reign of Shalmanasser III, where Tobiya (Book of Tobit is in the Apocrypha) was the treasurer of this king. During the reign of Shalmannasser III the Jewish community was thriving. This was also the time after Jonah preached the true faith successfully to the Ninevites.
Because of this historical background regarding the Scriptures and the name of Jesus Christ, many people have e-mailed me and asked me why then do I still use the name Jesus Christ instead of the true transliteration of the name: Eashoa Msheekhah. I admit after all is said and done that one should use the true name of our Lord, for us followers of the true Messiah. And "Messiah" as you may have noticed comes from "Msheekhah," as "Jesus" comes from "Eashoa." There is no letter "sheen" in Greek and in English, and the letter "j' was invented to serve as the consonant for "i." This is unfortunate, as it would've been better to use the letter "y" as the consonant for "i." Therefore, "Jesus" should've been written "Yesus," this being how the name is pronounced in Greek anyway. All the Europeans in fact pronounce the name this way. In English, however, we do have the "sh," which can be substituted for the letter "sheen" in "Eashoa." So then we could've said "Yeshu" and dropped the last "s" in "Jesus," because this is simply a Greek stylistic addition. In other words, the name in Greek should've been "Yesu" and not "Yesus." So then why don't I use "Yeshu" as the spelling? Because the "e" after the "Y" in "Yeshu" does not exist in the correct pronunciation of the name. And if we write it "Yshu," it will still come out wrong, because then the name will be pronounced, "Why-shu."
The correct pronunciation is "Ea-shoa." I've added the "a" at the end so as not end up with "Eashoo," which happens to be another name in Aramaic. The name "Eashoa" is made up of two syllables. In Aramaic every vowel in every syllable is enunciated.
Now, the name "Christ" is a different matter. The name comes from the Greek word for "anointed." In the Ancient Aramaic, it's "Msheekhah." In English the word has been translated as Messiah. "Messiah" is much closer to "Msheekhah," from which it is derived.
Finally, we must decide if as Christians we're going to pick the best designation for our Lord's name, whether to use Msheekhah, Mesheekhah or Mesheeha, or stick with "Messiah," as this name is acceptable to the Jews as well. Personally, I'm leaning toward "Eashoa the Messiah" as the best designation for "Jesus Christ." Eashoa the Messiah will be at once more acceptable to the Jews and the Christians of Eastern Christianity.
Posted May 22, 2003