Be kind to me, I am launching a brand new podcast that I am calling “Messianic Minutes”, a shortform podcast that talks about various Messianic issues, theological matters and more. Please give it a listen and tell me what you think!

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And please, leave any comments below! I certainly need the feedback!

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It is December 18, 2025 today. Where did this year go? Man, did this year go fast, or at least, it felt that way to me. It seems like I had just tried to reboot this substack and here, the year is nearly up.

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First, Happy Hanukah to all of my readers that observe it. We are right in the middle of it as I write this, but better late then never, right?

Alright, I am coming on here to announce a restart to the page. Two months ago, I had intended to, at the very least, begin posting the Torah portions, but I blinked and time had got away from me before I ever even realized it. But thankfully, the busy time of my work (I work full time at a gas station, but in a very busy tourist trap area…) is about to come to an end so I think I will be able to get to writing articles for this substack.

I am going to start with a new series, a bible survey styled series of articles, taking a look at the bible as a whole and each of it’s individual parts and books. I am doing this from a Messianic POV so I hope for it to have a breath of fresh air for those out there looking for such a thing. These will be roughly once a week. This should last all of 2026 and more if I follow the plans that I have at the moment.

But I will be doing other articles on other topics as well, making two articles being posted total most weeks. If I can get them written in time, at least. Working full time and such does make it a little harder to get some of it written quickly and well done. But I will making the extra effort here to get things launched after the start of the year.

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I also have registered a domain name for this substack. I originally had thought, perhaps hoped, that I could get other people to start writing articles, even small little ones, for this page, but it looks like it will only be me (for the foreseeable future). So, I am embracing it and the new domain name will be messianiceric.org. It won’t be active until next week some time, but it has been registered, so you can book mark that domain and eventually you’ll see it connect here.

Would you as a reader of this substack consider financially supporting me? I hate to ask but everyone dollar that I can get someone to donate to this will help me get more done here. If you like my writing and wish to help, please consider becoming a paid subscriber! Every little bit helps.

Please leave any comments below!

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I started this “blog” roughly a year and a half ago. I haven’t written much and posted it here, but I am happy with what I have written and posted. But I have realized that there is one thing that I have never posted - a statement of faith to help people understand the direction that I am coming from.

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I consider myself a forever student of our Father in heaven, His Son, and the Ruach Hakodesh (that is, the Holy Spirit). I have learned to let my faith and that what I believe in to be malleable, moldable into something new every time that I learn something new. So, what I post below is by no means the final version of what I believe at any time after I post it. It represents a snapshot of my faith at the time that I wrote it. Things can change and should change, so I expect them to change. I’ll try to post a new “edition” of this statement anytime a major change has taken place.

1. I believe that God is One. - The Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:4, declares “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Despite having three or more aspects, as I speak about below, He is still simply One, that all three aspects described in the Bible are just that, aspects of the one single Creator.

2. I believe in God the Father. - He is the creator of everything. Genesis 1 speaks of Him creating all that there is, including the heavens and earth. He then proceeded to create the earth in six days. His power knows no boundaries. Personally, I believe His name to be Yehovah, but I do what I can to keep the name holy and will normally use HaShem or Adonai in place of His name.

3. I believe in God the Son, also known as Yeshua. - He was with God the Father at the beginning (John 1:1), and it was through Yeshua that all things were made by God the Father (John 1:3). He also came to this earth in human form and, through him and his sacrifice, redeemed those who believe in Him and God the Father.

4. I believe in the Ruach Hakodesh, also known as the Holy Spirit. - The same as the “Spirit of God”, the Ruach Hakodesh is the vehicle that God the Father used to traverse the earth during its creation (Genesis 1:2). Following the ascension of the Lord, the Spirit of God descended upon the believers who had gathered together and “settled on each one of them” (Acts 2:1-4).

Well, thanks for reading this Statement of Faith. Please feel free to leave any comments that you have below!

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This week’s Torah Portion is called “Noach”, which means “Noah”. It is the 1st portion.

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Torah:
Genesis 6:9 - 11:32

¹³ Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is coming before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Behold, I am about to bring ruin upon them along with the land. ¹⁴ Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with compartments and smear pitch on it, both inside and out. ¹⁵ Now this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a roof for the ark, and you shall finish it to within a cubit from the top. You shall put the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third stories. ¹⁷ Now I am about to bring the flood—water upon the land—to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life from under the sky. Everything that is on the land will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you. So you shall come into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ Also of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of everything—male and female—into the ark to keep alive with you. ²⁰ Of the flying creatures according to their kind, of the livestock according to their kind, of all the crawling creatures of the ground according to their kind—two of everything will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ As for you: take for yourself every kind of edible food and gather it to yourself. It will be food for you and for them.” (Genesis 6:13-21, TLV)

Read online: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%206%3A9%20-%2011%3A32&version=TLV

Haftarah:
Isaiah 54:1 - 55:5

“Sing, barren one, who has not given birth.
burst into singing and shout,
you who have not travailed.
For more are the children of the desolate
than the children of the married one,”
says Adonai. (Isaiah 54:1, TLV)

Read online: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2054%3A1%20-%2055%3A5&version=TLV

Brit Chadasha:
* Luke 17:26-37
* These readings were selected from the Brit Chadasha suggested reading list as found in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), by David Stern.

²⁶ As it was in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷ They were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26, TLV)

Read online: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A26-37&version=TLV

Please leave your comments and thoughts about this week’s Torah portion down below!

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This week’s Torah Portion is called “Bereisheet”, which means “In The Beginning”. It is the 1st portion.

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Torah:
Genesis 1:1 - 6:8

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the surface of the water. (Genesis 1:1-2, TLV)

Read online: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201%3A1%20-%206%3A8&version=TLV

Haftarah:
Isaiah 42:5 - 43:10

⁵ Thus says God, Adonai,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it,
and Ruach to those who walk in it (Isaiah 42:5, TLV)

Read online: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2042%3A5%20-%2043%3A10&version=TLV

Brit Chadasha:
* Matthew 1:1-17
* These readings were selected from the Brit Chadasha suggested reading list as found in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), by David Stern.

¹ The book of the genealogy of Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Ben-David, Ben-Avraham: ² Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, ³ Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, ⁴ Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, ⁵ Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth,^[d] Obed fathered Jesse, ⁶ and Jesse fathered David the king. (Matthew 1:1-6, TLV)

Read online: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201%3A1-17&version=TLV

Please leave your comments and thoughts about this week’s Torah portion down below!

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Shalom everyone! I hope this message finds you doing well!

Just wanted to post something on here to show that I am still around and I am still planning on the reboot. But I have to admit, I am pretty well behind schedule right now. I work a forty hour a week job that often ends up with me working around fifty hours total. And I am not in the best shape, so I get tired easy these days. I am, after all, forty-six years old, working like I am still twenty-five.

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So, first, I am going to work on getting setup the weekly Torah portions, so that, even if I don’t have new articles to post every week, there will still be an update with that week’s Torah portion.

I also wanted to address the sudden appearance of images here on this Substack. Let me admit to the truth of most of the images: Yes, they are AI generated. I use PicLumen to generate images based on ideas that I have taken from the content of the article that I have posted. The image above was generated just thirty minutes before I wrote this paragraph. But I am NOT using AI to write any of my articles. If I did, there will be a lot more articles (but they’d all be wrong in so many ways!) then what I currently have. But I personally see no problems with AI generated images and will be using them as needed.

But not ALL of the images that I have up here are AI generated. A few of them are public domain images that I have found that fit the theme of the article. Perhaps I should make note of how I use the images and in the future, I will try to make note of times that I am using a public domain image. Unless, I am taking a photo of an item that I am reviewing or just talking about in general, I will try not to use any images that aren’t public domain or AI generated.

I wanted to take some time and throw some plugs out to everyone for some places that I like.

First is my local congregation. Shomair Yisrael in Knoxville, TN has been the place that I have attended in the past. It is a fair drive from where I am, so that, along with my work schedule, has made it really hard to attend their services in person. But I love watching their services on YouTube. Check them out if you need a good service to watch on Sabbat morning!

There also is a place that I did attend for short time and they are a small but great group over in Townsend, TN called Destiny’s Gate. Check them out as well!

And since I finally received permission to do so, there is a discord server that I wanted to invite all of my readers to come and attend. It’s a Messianic server, but we welcome everyone to come in and participate in everything that you are comfortable in participating in. It’s also connected to the r/messianic reddit forum. Just last night, we had a wonderful voice chat, several of us on the server all came together and had a chat. So far, the plan is to do this at least every other Sunday night, so please come join us if you can/want!

Speaking of which, I also started my own reddit, r/Messianic_Gentiles. I myself am a Messianic Gentile (that is, I am not Jewish) and I am going to, hopefully, explore the role of the Gentile in the Messianic world in the coming reboot. Please feel free to come on in to r/Messianic_Gentiles and ask the tough questions that you may have had.

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So, that’s all for now. I think. I am hoping to get this kicked up into full gear here soon and get articles written, edited and posted. I love all of you! Praise HaShem!

Leave a comment below, please, and let me know how excited you are about the coming reboot! Or anything else that you have on your mind! I’ll even take prayer requests! Always willing to lend a prayer to anyone!

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Shalom everyone! I hope you are all doing well.

I wanted to just let everyone know that I am working on a reboot to this Substack. However, this is still a ways away. This reboot will begin roughly Mid-October. Wow, I bet you are saying that that is a long time away yet. Yes, two and a half months away. But this is on purpose.

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First, this is align with the Torah portions. They start over for the second half of the week leading up to October 18th. I realized that as I had started the Torah portions before so late into the rotation that it made no sense. So they are being restarted with the start of the next rotation.

Next, I will be delisting the existing articles close to the time of the reboot as they are going to be edited and republished. Other posts, like the various updates, are just going to be straight up removed. Going forward, there will be a regular schedule (hopefully, *crosses fingers*) on what is posted here.

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I am trying to find others that would be willing to write up some articles to be posted here. If that ever happens, this will no longer be simply “Eric’s Messianic Musings” but just “Messianic Musings”. But that’ll be tackled if/when that ever happens.

Alright, more will come as it gets closer to the time to reboot. Leave a comment below. Give glory to our wonderful Father above.

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Over on Reddit, in a thread for my last article here,1 I had a discussion with someone, that replied to one of my comments with a question. He asked “Why would there be a 3rd temple when we have Yeshua?” And this really is a great question. So I have started to dive into the subject.

Quick note: This article has taken a lot of research to put together and it is taking a good bit of time. In order to get something out, I have split it into more than one piece. I don’t know yet how many pieces there will be, but this is just Part One.

First, I wanted to make sure that I understood what came before. The temples were the center place of worship for the Hebrews and so far, there has been two temples built in Israel over the centuries. Within these temples was the Ark of the Covenant, which housed the Ten Commandments.

These two temples can be found in the Bible, in fact. The First Temple is the temple that was planned by King David but eventually built by his son, King Solomon. King David made the statement once where he realized he lived better than the Ark of the Covenant was being treated.

1 Now it came about when the king lived in his palace and ADONAI had granted him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 that the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, yet the ark of God remains within curtains.” (2 Samuel 7:1–2, TLV)

The reference to curtains was a reference to the time the Israelites were lost in the desert and the Ark of the Covenant was housed in a tent, behind curtains. After the Israelites made Israel their home, the Ark was continued to be stored this way. King David expressed his distaste that he was being treated better (in his own eyes, at least) than the Ark of the Covenant was being treated.

However, God replied to him.

Are you to build Me a house for Me to dwell in? (2 Samuel 7:5, TLV)

But God told him that this would never happen, not for him at least. Adonai went on to say more.

12 When your days are done and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed, who will come forth from you after you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. (2 Samuel 7:12–13, TLV)

King David wouldn’t be the one who built the Temple, but his seed. But this didn’t mean that he couldn’t be involved. He began the process of planning out the temple and building up the supplies needed to build the Temple.

1 Then King David said to the entire assembly: “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced and the task is great, for the palace is not for man but for ADONAI Elohim. 2 Now I have made every effort to prepare for the House of my God gold for the golden objects, silver for silver, copper for copper, iron for iron, and wood for wood; onyx stones and inlay stones, stones of antimony and variegated colors—every kind of precious stones and marble in abundance. 3 Moreover, in my devotion to the House of my God, I have given over my private treasure of gold and silver to the House of my God, in addition to all that I have already supplied for the holy House: 4 3,000 gold talents of gold from Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the houses— 5 gold for golden objects and silver for silver for all the work—into the hands of craftsmen. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself this day to ADONAI?” (1 Chronicles 29:1–5, TLV)

When Solomon became king of Israel, he began to prepare to build the Temple.

18 Then Solomon vowed to build a House for the Name of ADONAI, as well as a royal palace for himself. (2 Chronicles 1:18, TLV)

The Bible doesn’t say how long that it took, but before too long, the Temple had been built. It would become known as Solomon’s Temple.

1 When all the work that Solomon undertook for the House of ADONAI was finished, Solomon brought in the things David his father consecrated—the silver, gold and all the furnishings—and put them in the treasuries of the House of God. (2 Chronicles 5:1, TLV)

Afterwards, the Temple became the worship center for all of Israel. The Hebrew tribes would make pilgrimages to the Temple multiple times a year. That is, until Babylon came to town and destroyed the Temple along with every other place in Jerusalem.

8 Now on the seventh day of the fifth month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the imperial guard, officer of the Babylonian king, came to Jerusalem. 9 He burned down the House of ADONAI, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem—every notable building he burned with fire. 10 Then the whole Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard demolished the walls of Jerusalem on every side. (2 Kings 25:8–10, TLV)

And thus, the first temple was gone. The Israelites were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. Some say that this lasted 48 years, others 70 years.2 However, the Spirit of God went to work.

1 Now in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to accomplish the word of ADONAI from the mouth of Jeremiah, ADONAI stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, announcing in a written edict, saying:

2 “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: ADONAI, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build a House for Him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you from all His people—may his God be with him—may go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the House of ADONAI, the God of Israel—He is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4As for anyone who remains, wherever they may be living, let the people of those places supply him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the House of God in Jerusalem.” (Ezra 1:1–4, TLV)

This return to Israel is chronicled in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, in which the rebuilding of the Temple begins. This rebuilding would become the Second Temple. However, Israel faced many challenges while the building of this Temple took place. Many others didn’t want to see the Temple rebuilt.

1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple for ADONAI the God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the leading patriarchs and said to them, “Let us build with you, for like you we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.” (Ezra 4:1–2, TLV)

4 Then the people of the land began discouraging the people of Judah and making them afraid to build. 5 They bribed advisors in order to thwart their plans all the days of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:4–5, TLV)

But Israel persevered and the Temple was rebuilt. Eventually, Herod would add onto the Temple and this temple would be called Herod’s Temple as a result. This would be Temple that stood when Yeshua the Messiah was here.

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In fact, Yeshua scared his parents once by going to the Temple instead of traveling with them as he was suppose to be doing.

41 Now His parents were going every year to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. 42 When He became twelve years old, they were going up according to festival custom. 43 As they headed home after completing the days, the boy Yeshua remained in Jerusalem, but His parents didn’t know. 44 Supposing He was in the caravan, they went a day’s journey, then began looking for Him among relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for Him.

46 After three days they found Him in the Temple, sitting in the center of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all those hearing Him were astonished at His understanding and His answers. 48 When His parents saw Yeshua, they were overwhelmed. And His mother said to Him, “Child, why did you do this to us? Look! Your father and I were searching for You frantically!”

49 He said to them, “Why were you searching for Me? Didn’t you know that I must be about the things of My Father?” 50 But they did not grasp the message He was telling them. (Luke 2:41–50, TLV)

Later, as an adult, he’d even cause a stir there. An example of this can be found in Luke 19: 45-46

45 Then Yeshua entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants, 46saying to them, “It is written,

‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’

but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (Luke 19: 45–46, TLV)

But he would teach in the Temple often too, much to the dismay of others.

47 And He was teaching every day in the Temple. The ruling kohanim and the Torah scholars, even the leaders of the people, were trying to destroy Him; 48 but they could not find any way to do it, because all the people were hanging on His words. (Luke 19: 47–48, TLV)

There’s more that I could (and probably should) put here about Yeshua and the Temple, but I want to bring this article to an end eventually!

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In 70 CE, this temple was destroyed by the Romans when they (re)invaded Jerusalem, following a revolt by some Jewish people.

Unfortunately, this was the final Temple so far. The Hebrew people never controlled the land of Israel since then, at least, not until May 14, 1948 when the Israel we know today came into being!

This is the end of the Part One article of this topic. Hopefully, I’ll get part two written up a bit quicker, but it’ll be a few weeks at the very least. In the meantime, I am hoping to get my first Book review posted! Watch for it!

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The word Torah is often translated “law”.1 This is because when the translators of what is called the Septuagint was translating the Tanakh2 into Greek, they came across the Hebrew word תוֹרָה (Torah) and decided to translate it into Greek as νόμος (nomos), meaning “law”.

Perhaps they couldn’t figure out a better way to translate it. The word actually means more than just “law”. In my Strong’s Concordance, it says “Torah signifies primarily direction, teaching, instruction.”3 That is the common definition that I see people use when they wish to define the word Torah, that it is God’s teaching or instruction.

So, when it came time for the authors of the Brit Chadashah4 to write their works, they stuck with tradition. They used νόμος as the Hebrew to Greek translation of the word Torah. And thus, throughout the Brit Chadashah, νόμος is used in the Greek and then, when it is translated into English, most translations just translate it as law, the meaning of the word νόμος.

So, we can then be well assured that, for at least most of the usages of the word law in the Brit Chadashah, it is a reference to the Torah itself. Most everyone today agrees upon this, even Christians. Some of the references are fairly obvious, like in Matthew 5:17-18.

17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (NKJV)

But not all references are this obvious as to what it is referring to. Let’s take a look at 1 John 3:4.

4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. (NKJV)

The Greek word for lawlessness here is ἀνομία (anomia). The word is made of two parts. The ἀ- is actually a prefix that means “anti-”. νομία is actually the same word as νόμος (nomos), meaning “law”. ἀνομία thus means “anti-law”. In this verse, it is saying that, by sinning, you are anti-law.

But wait, if νόμος/law in the Brit Chadashah means Torah, what does that mean for that particular verse? I will offer this translation of the verse.

4 Whoever commits sin also commits Torahlessness, and sin is Torahlessness.

This is one of the few places in the bible where the Bible defines what sin is. Here, it defines sin as Torahlessness, or perhaps as Anti-Torah. Thus committing sin is anti-Torah.

The Torah has been the moral standard of the Jewish people for several thousand years. It defined their way of life, the way they lived their lives since it was given to Moses, as described in the book of Exodus. Over time, 613 “laws” (or Mitzvot) have been extracted from the Torah.

However, most Christians feel like this is too much, that 613 laws are impossible to follow without breaking the laws. In fact, they claim that it has all been done away with, often claiming it has been “nailed to the cross.”

13 When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions. 14 He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13–14, TLV, emphasis mine)

But what they don’t understand is that this verse doesn’t speak of “the Law”, but instead, it’s speaks of “debts”, which is often the way the bible speaks of sin. Your debts was what was nailed to the cross, which as I have now demonstrated above, is actually lawlessness, or Torahlessness.

But Yeshua said something that also addressed this. He said:

30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:30, TLV)

His “yoke” is our Father’s yoke. They are one and the same. Thus, the Torah is easy, the burden light. Out of 613 commandments, are any of them hard to follow? No. Take a look for yourself. Go to this website5 and see for yourself if there really is anything hard to follow.

Now, I am not talking about just things that you want to do, but in general. Is it hard not to eat the flesh of unclean beasts? Not really. Most of the “laws” listed are just things or actions that a person is just to abstain from, or in other words, not do! How hard is it to just NOT do something?

On top of that, not ALL of the 613 applies equally to all people! Some are for men, some for women, some for priests, and some for those that only live in the biblical land of Israel. It isn’t hard to follow the yoke of Torah.

I hope you have enjoyed this article. It took me a little while to write as I hit a case of writer’s block towards the end. Please let me know what you think of the article in the comments below and let me know what other topics that you’d love to see me tackle in the future as well.

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Shalom everyone! I hope you are all doing well!

Please help me out by taking this short survey!

How many of you reading this know of Dr. Michael L. Brown? Well, I just learned of him and have been checking out his YouTube channel. Just today, March 4th, 2024, he streamed this video.1 Check it out if you haven’t already, it is really good.

It got me to thinking almost immediately. In the video, Dr. Brown spoke about homosexuality. He says that homosexuals are not his enemy. Instead, he speaks of showing the love of God to these individuals.

What do you think about this? To me, it was one of the best messages that I have ever heard. It made sense to me in every possible way. Don’t take that the wrong way, as I am totally against homosexuality in any form. I certainly will never condone such behavior. But what was the commandment that our Messiah said was the second most important commandment?

34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that Yeshua had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together in one place. 35 And testing Him, one of them, a lawyer, asked, 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”

37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love ADONAI your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22: 34-40, TLV)

That’s right, Yeshua declared as the second most important commandment from the Torah (it is a quote from Leviticus 19:18) to be the commandment ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’. And what does this mean, to love our neighbors as ourselves?

I have seen that some connect this to the “golden rule”, that is, “So in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you—for this is the Torah and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, TLV) That is a very good thing to always remember too, but that isn’t exactly what it fully means.

Of course, none of us wants to be treated badly, so it is a great rule of thumb to walk daily in treating others with kindness. It is one part, perhaps the first step, of what I am going to attempt to bring up in his article. Bare with me.

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There is a saying that I have. “I hate ____ but I love ____.” The blanks in that sentence can be filled in with quite a bit of things. In this case, I would put “homosexuality” in place of the first blank and “homosexuals” in place of the second blank. Do you get what the sentence means? It means that I condemn the act, not the person.

First, I do try to keep in mind the challenge that Yeshua gave to those who were trying to trick Him into condemning a woman of adultery.

7 When they kept asking Him, He stood up and said, “The sinless one among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7, TLV)

He told the one without sin among them to cast the first stone at her. The point was that there isn’t one among any of us without sin. However, Yeshua himself was without sin, and if you think about that for a moment, if He was without sin and he didn’t condemn this woman, then why should we?

It was the ultimate act of love that Yeshua showed that woman that day, the same love that he has shown all of us. This was the ultimate act of love that we today should be showing in our everyday lives.

Yes, I condemn the act of homosexuality, among the many other sins being practiced by this world today, but I will never condemn an individual for practicing them. If someone had done that to me, I would not be a believer today. I’d be lost among the sinners, practicing my own various sins. Instead, today, I try to walk in love. I try to show people that I meet on the street the true love of our Father in heaven.

But people today, supposedly “well-meaning” pastors and preachers, are out there condemning the individuals. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Now I see why a lot of people out there are walking completely away from any kind of faith whatsoever. When people see “hate”, they will respond in kind.

I have witnessed so much venomous hate out there towards the Christian/Messianic faiths by people who thinks those loud mouth preachers represent all of the faith as a whole. Though I think it is in the process of reversing, there are still many within the Messianic faith that seems closed up about this issue. Instead, they end up coming across as stuck-up, that is, “better” than the ones that are feeling judged.

For some, addressing this issue makes them feel uncomfortable. Others, it goes against everything that they’ve been taught by their congregations. So they do nothing. That doesn’t help anyone in the long run. It’s time we change this.

19 We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19, TLV)

We need to become proactive in this. We need to walk actively in our faith, displaying the very same love that our Father in heaven has shown us. What does this mean? And just who is our “neighbor”? A quick Google search for “Who is our neighbor?” brought up this quote:

By definition, our neighbor is “the other person,” or “anyone who is in front of us,” regardless of their nationality or religion.2

I couldn’t have said it any better. If someone does you wrong in something, even if that “wrong” was something like someone cutting you off on the highway, you need to show them the love that we ourselves have received. Instead of flipping them off, just let it roll off your back.

It’s the turning the other cheek concept that Yeshua spoke of:

39 But I tell you, do not resist an evildoer. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other. (Matthew 5:39, TLV)

In addition, we need to be completely selfless in our daily lives. I struggle with this one, getting wrapped up in my life and interests, but I try every day to do something for someone even if it cost me something of my own.

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I am currently taking care of my 81-year old father and while he is still doing fine, even working a full-time job, there are many things that he can’t do anymore. I have to take time out of my day to help him, sometimes even having to stop doing whatever I was doing in order to help. Of course, this is my own living father, but it is teaching me so much more.

When I am out, I do small simple things to help people. I hold doors open, for instance. Small things can lead to big things in life. I’m not perfect and neither are you, but imagine what this world would be like if we all could do “little things” for each other.

This can also means standing up for groups like homosexuals. We have to show them the love of Father in heaven to show them that our Father in heaven is also their Father in heaven as well. That He loves them as well. And when someone says something bad towards them, standing up for them. How else are we going to win them over? How else are they going to learn about the wonderful love of our Father in heaven?

I feel very strongly on this issue. This certainly was not the next article that I had planned to write for this blog, but I felt a pull to write this. I have several other articles in the works and I had hoped to have them up sometime later this week. In the meantime, please give me (and other that will read this) some feedback in the comments below!

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Wow, am I not choosing a huge topic to tackle for what is only my second post on here? It’s such a controversial topic and I am often left wondering why. So, I am going to see if I can explore the topic and perhaps bring a bit of rational thinking to the whole thing. I am not saying that I am going to bring anything to an end as I am not sure that it ever going to be possible.

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The Names of the Messiah

Our wonderful Messiah has had many names over the years. I am not talking about the titles that we get in the Bible, but no, I speak of the names that people have given him.

Jesus: the traditional name that the Christian church gave our Messiah, due to the name given in the Greek (Ἰησοῦς). In translating from the Greek to English, we got Jesus.

Yeshua: In the traditional history of the Messianic/Christian faith, this is believed to be his “real” name, the name given to him by his parents, making him Yeshua Ben Yosef (Yeshua the son of Joseph).

Yehoshua: It is believed that Yeshua (above) is the shortened form of this name, Yehoshua. This was the Hebrew name of Joshua, the man that inherited the leadership over Israel after Moses passed away.

Yahshua: The people that believe that our Father’s name is Yahweh believe that our Messiah’s name is Yahshua instead of Yeshua, “interpret(ing) John 5:43 (“I have come in my Father’s name”) to mean that the Messiah literally needed the name (or part of the name) Yahweh in his own name: “Yahshua,” rather than “Yeshua.””1

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How did we get Jesus?

I mentioned above that Jesus came from translating the Greek name Ἰησοῦς into English. But one question remains is how did we get Ἰησοῦς to begin with. This is actually an issue that predates the Greek New Testament. The issue was actually one the translators of the Septuagint has while translating the Tanakh (that is, the Old Testament), they came across the name Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) and needed to translate it.

Yeshua can be found throughout the Tanakh. It can be found in 1 Chronicles 24:11 and 2 Chronicles 31:15, and in Ezra and Nehemiah where it is transliterated into English as Jeshua.2

The problem was that there was no perfect translation of Yeshua into Greek. For instance, there isn’t a letter to translate the very first letter of the name, which is a yod (י), into Greek. The “Y” sound is Greek normally doesn’t occur except at the beginning of a word where it is normally represented by a comma (there are two such commas).

So, they had to compromise from the get go and used the closest way they could to represent the “Y” sound, which was the Iota (Ἰ). When used at the beginning of a Greek word with the mentioned comma, the sound of the Iota becomes softer and sounds closer to a “ya” sound.

Next up was the “e” sound. That was simple. They used an eta (η) which is the best match for it.

Then we get to the next problem. Greek doesn’t have a “sh” sound, only the sigma (σ), so another compromise was made and they used the lone sigma in place of the shin (שׁ). We now have Ἰησ so far, which is “Yes..".

Up next is the Hebrew letter, Vav (ו). This Vav however has a dot in the middle, called a Dagesh, which changed it from a “V” sound of a normal Vav to a “ou” sound. When translating this letter, they used the combination of letters, omicron upsilon (οῦ). That little swiggly line above the upsilon simply denotes the two letters are pronounced together as they are a diphthong and are meant to be mentioned together.

The final letter of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is the ayin (עַ). It has no sound by itself, but in this case, it does carry a vowel sound with it, the patach (the little line beneath the ayin (עַ). The patach carries an “A” sound so they would have simply used the Greek alpha (α) to finish off the translation, but Greek grammar didn’t allow some Greek words to end with a vowel (there are exceptions though) and they had to use the proper ending to finish off the name, which was a final sigma (ς).

Thus, we get Ἰησοῦς in Greek. It’s pronounced “yay-soos”. When the translators of what we name call the New Testament went to translate the Messiah’s name, they would have been quite aware of this translation and used it in Greek translations. The work had already been done for them.

But we’re not done yet. When the English translators when to translate Ἰησοῦς into English, they were able to translate it pretty much as written. Transliterated, Ἰησοῦς is Iesus and that is what they ended up using at the time. Of course, the I we have today was pronounced a little different back then, with a softer Y-like sound. Over the years, the sound of the I got harder and the J-like sound was adopted by English speakers over the years. Thus, we have Jesus.

But today, we can transliterate יֵשׁוּעַ better into English and when we do so, we get Yeshua. Though sometimes it is transliterated in some English Bible translations as Jeshua in it’s appearances in the Tanakh.

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But isn’t Yeshua a shortened form of Yehoshua?

The sixth book of the Tanakh, the first book that normally follows the books of the Torah, is, in English, Joshua. In Hebrew, this name is Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ). Both this name and Yeshua mean “Yah saves.” or “Yah is salvation.” But are they both the same name?

Many people actually do believe that they are the same name, with Yeshua just being the shortened form of Yehoshua. It’s even mentioned on the Wikipedia page for Yeshua as being the case. But from everything that I have read and studied over the years, I am not convinced that they are.

I am of the understanding that both names come from the Hebrew word for salvation yeshua (יְשׁוּעָה) and because of that, they look to be more closely related. No matter what, I don’t think it really matters if one is a shortened version of the other. What we do know is that Yeshua was the name used by those who knew our Messiah and the name they would have used when talking to or referring to him.

What about Yahshua?

This is a name that we can be sure isn’t at all correct. While we know that Yah is a name for our wonderful father in heaven, we do know that Yahshua is not a word that anyone has ever used before the 20th century.

Proponents of the Sacred Name and Hebrew Roots movements popularized the use of this name when they felt that the “Yah” of “Yahwah” needed to be “restored” to the Messiah’s name. So they changed Yeshua to Yahshua.

This ends up being wrong. Even Hebrew grammar says that it is wrong. For more information, I suggest reading First Fruits of Zion’s book “Hallowed Be Your Name” (by Aaron Eby and Toby Janicki)

Since no mention or usage of this name can be found before the 20th century, we can be certain that this name isn’t correct in any way.

There are several other variations of the Messiah’s name that could be covered here, but I wanted to only cover the more common names used. If there is interest, perhaps someday I’ll do another article to cover other names.

Should we even use His name?

Now, here’s the real touchy part of this whole issue. There are some people who believe that we shouldn’t use any name of the Messiah at all, no matter what the belief as to what His name is.

What do I think of this? It actually more or less confuses me. When it comes to the Messiah, I use His name. There were many men before and after He came to this earth that shared his name, Yeshua. While when referring to him, yes, the name is and should be considered sacred, it is a common enough name that we should be able to use it as long as we don’t slander it.

In Conclusion

With this article, I have not expected to “convince” anyone on the proper way to pronounce our Messiah’s name. This article was only meant to serve as an educational tool for those who were curious or confused about the topic. Personally, I hope that everyone who reads this article will find it educational and enlightening.

I am opening up this article to comments below, so please take the time to let me know what you think of this article! Did I get anything wrong? Do you have any kind of feedback? What about other topics that you would love to see me cover? Please, let me know below in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe!

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