There have been a myriad arguments in Messianic circles concerning the "correct" spelling of Yeshua's Name. Some insists it's spelled "Yeshua" or "Y'shua" while others will damn you to hell if you don't adhere to their preferred spelling of "Yahshua." (The "Yahshua" crowd is especially vicious when it comes to the spelling, and therefore, it's time to set the record straight.

According to Aramaic scholar Andrew Gabriel Roth, the short response to the above is: If you insist on arguing about the transliteration of the Hebrew then you apparently have nothing better to do and like to waste your time being petty!

The longer answer is: It is ridiculous to insist that one must spell our Savior's Name as "YAHSHUA"! No one who knows Hebrew or Aramaic believes that one must spell it that way; that is nothing more than a theological issue masquerading as linguistics. In Hebrew, both the long form YEHOSHUA and the short form YESHUA are pointed with a TSERE (AY) NOT a PTAHA (AH). NEVER! The belief arises from a mistaken idea that "not one yodh" means preserving the YAH sound.

In Hebrew YAH morphs to other sounds in names that contain YHWH/Yahweh. YAH (YHWH) + KHANAN (our mercies) = YOH-KHANAN NOT "Yah-khanan". YAH + EL = YOH-EL (Joel) NOT YAH-EL (which is a separate girl's name - get the picture?)

One thing is for sure: We know that neither YHWH's nor Yeshua's Names were pronounced as "LORD." Doubters need to go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem next Yom Kippur (rabbinic calendar) in the early morning and they will hear pious Jews call on the Name properly, as YAH-WAY. The world doesn't know that we Jews have NOT forgotten His Name in spite of the fact we also conspired to hide it.....

And the Son's name always has a TSERE (eh) not a PATAHA (ah) sound in proper Hebrew pointing. It is the shortened form of YAY-HOE-SHOO-WAH (Joshua) and that pointing does NOT change in truncation. Unfortunately, there are a myriad "experts" who attempt to say otherwise, and this is because they don't understand basic Hebrew morphology.

The YAHSHUA or YAHUSHUA error arises from THEOLOGY and not from sound linguistics or Semitic grammar. The idea is a misapplication of "not one yodh shall pass", where they think wrongly that changing the sound to YAY takes part of YAH's name out. The fact is, YHWH created Hebrew and in that creation He, in His Wisdom, made names that CHANGE the sounds of words.

NO SERIOUS HEBREW SCHOLAR would ever suggest that Moshe's sucessor's name is not YAY-HOE-SHOO-WAH and this is the same etymology of Y'shua, same words "YHWH is salvation". Therefore, if Yehoshua does not come under "not one yodh" and changes its words from YAH to YOH, so much the shortened form of the SAME NAME, YAY-SHOO-WAH.

For those who insist on spelling Yeshua as "Yahshua" - go for it! But please don't send death threats to those of us who don't agree with that spelling!