The impact of a culture and its hallmark language onreligion is manifold and it is certainly amazing to note such an impact on Christianity by one such culture. Now that the biblical scholars are in agreement that the gospels were originally written in Greek and later translated into Hebrew and Aramaic-the lingua franca of the Palestine during the time of Our Lord, the cultural confluence needs no introduction. The impact of the Roman Empire and the deep-seated traditions, philosophy of the Hellenistic Empire under Alexander gave way to the powerful undercurrents that buoyed the intellectuals of the day in Jerusalem and the cities of the RomanEmpire in accepting traditions, mores, and morals of the influential Greek members of the nascent Christian religion.

Apostle Paul who was the first educated follower of Yeshua capable of writing reading and great oratory-studied under the great teacher Gamaliela teacher of well-rounded reputation. The name Paul shortened form of Paulose itself a Greek name must have been chosen by Saul-a Hebrew to appease to the Greek to get a foothold for the burgeoning Christian tradition. Apostle Paul in his infinite wisdom might have thought about the futile exercise in convincing the tired and the world- weary Jewish people about the messiah and found a much different terrain for Christianity among the Greek- speaking diaspora of the Roman Empire. Apostle Paulsaw the powerful Sanhedrin’s as an impediment to the growth of Christianity among the Hebrew population.As Paul often said – “I am all thing to all people” an idea he richly practiced and professed in his writings that alluded to the Greek traditions and philosophy of the day. Paul often called himself “the prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles”-a true reflection of his fondness for the Greek Christians.  This commingling of culture has contributed to the first foray of Christian teachings to the Greek population and the Gospel of Lukea follower of Paul- blessed the tradition through his gospel intended for the Greek Christians of the day.The Septuagint was itself a body of Greek philosophers and biblical scholars who knew Hebrew well enough to pass judgment on the veracity of authorship of the books of the bibleto compile them and translate it to form the original Koine Greek Bible.

The Greek tradition of translation and transliteration-the fine art of literary substitution of thealphabet to thealphabet for the name of people has brought tremendous harm- to Christianity in particular. That brings us to the central theme of this article- the name of Jesus; a name which has no relevance to the original name of our Lord- Yeshua or Yehoshua-the Son of Yahweh. In the Hebrew Tanakh Yehowshuwa or Yahushua meansYahweh’s salvation. Modern bible scholars have taken every verse of the bible with salvation and substituted it with Yeshua to seek the hidden truth behind it! The name Yeshua occurs 27 times in the Hebrew bible and Zechariah 3:8-Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch.The Greek transliteration of the name was Iesous which is a transliteration of the name Yeshu or Yeshua.This was then transliterated to Latin to Iesus and then to English as Jesus. Bible scholars knew that there was no letter “j” in Hebrew language and the letter “J” came to the English language in the last 500 years or so. Traditional languages have no letter j and simply remember how Jesus sounds in Spanish-hesus. Every word, name that starts with Y has been transformed into j, Yahweh became Jehovah and Yeshua became Joshua and Yehoshua turned up to be Jesus by the process of three transliterations-Aramaic to Greek then Greek to Latin finally to the new English version of Jesus The original King James version of the Bible in 1536 has His name Iesus as in Latin as there was no letter j then. Iesus is Ea-Zeus- meaning healing Zeus. As the English language spread it acquired letters, words, and phrases to suit the requirement of the land it controlled and thus expanded its sway on the population.The sad story of the name Jesus does not end there. A quick review of the name through history says the saddest part- the commingling of the Greek God Zeus-the most prominent God equivalent to Yahwehin collusion with the name Jesus. The most authoritative book on earth; The Encyclopedia Britannica says thus: Iesus is a combination of two mystical deities IEU and SUS (Zeus). In gnostic and Greek mythologies IEU and SUS are the same ones- Zeus.The Greek name ending in –se or –ose as in Paulose, Markose all are thereverential marking of the great God of - Zesus. Thus when we utter the name Jesus we are not holding His name but the false god Zesus. The original meaning of the name Yeshua;salvation is lost in the name Jesus as it has no meaning but just a sound. Some bible scholars defend the name change as an indication to separate Joshua, the son of Nunn and the great leader after Moses from Yeshua. This is really disappointing and deserves no merit as we say three Mary’s at the cross and two Lazarus in the New testament.

 So some of you may say, what is in a name? I am thinking of YeshuMessiah- the son of God and the picture of the crucified one when we utter thename,Jesus.  Is this true faith? Does the right word matter! Oh. Well, Shakespeare once said: Rose by any name is arose, but try to call arose by the name jasmine, you could hear asweet voice answering the call- as both are sweet female names. What has Calicut to do with Kozhikode or for that matter Madras to do with Chennai, if it was alright why then take all the effort to change it? Why Islam doeshave only one name for their God and Lord- Allah, and no matter you translate it to any other language it remains the same. That is true monotheism!. No wonder the Islamic religion is spreading and gaining strength across the world. The lordship of the English language has brought changes that need further changes to bring back the truthiness and the reality to the history of our Christianity.  I have never heard any of myforefathers or their relatives uttering the name Jesus or now sweet Jesus-the modern fad- but only YeshuMeshiha. No wonder their prayers were answered-testimony that you andI are in this land of the free and the liberated! Some of us might think about the common names; Yohannan, Yakob, and Mathai for the English John, Jacob, and Mathew which was easy for British officials to call and record. The advent of the Jesus crusades-the great evangelical movement of the sixties and seventies pioneered by Rev. Billy Graham and others brought the name Jesus into our lingua franca displacing Yeshua-the real Aramaic name of our Lord. We were fortunate to have the Hebrew people of Kochi and the Syriac language-the language that keeps the tradition of Aramaic- to give us the true name of the Lord, theright name, and the right teaching. We take tremendous joy in espousing our Christianity and are prepared to go to war over the supremacy of our faith. Then how do we still keep this redundant vestigial name in our Christian lexicon celebrating the Greek God Zesus and not the Son of TheAlmighty Father Yahweh?John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Further in John 1: 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Changes are difficult but we who pride in our creed and the orthodoxy -translates to the right doxologymust hold authentic practices. Salt that has lost its flavor has an ending as the Bible says and we can expect the same ending for our creed. Don’t be alarmed by this revelation as it was known to bible scholars and church leaders who decided to look the other way and took no action to thwart the spread of this paganism.Calling the truth seekers kook and paying perfunctory sermons will not eradicate the demi-gods and pagan worships thathave taken deep roots and hold sway and lead the masses astray.Yahweh created the world by his Word and the same Word became flesh for the salvation of man. Do we seek salvation? Then we need the right prayer and the right name.Is it time to change Jesus Christ to Yeshu messiah or the least Yeshu Christ? Say it in prayer a few times and you will feel the liberating experience of the true Word. True and genuine efforts are needed to eradicate heresy and falsehoodfrom our midst and establish the true faith of Yeshu Messiah a.k.a. The Word of God.We must not forget the prayer that extols us to say “ Our father which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name- thy true name Yahweh and the son Yeshua a.k.a. The word of God that offers eternal salvation be our guide in these times of tribulations.