Showing posts with label mary mother of jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mary mother of jesus. Show all posts

Monday 28 November 2011

Virgin Mary’s girdle

A chunk of the Virgin Mary’s girdle, made of camel hair and preserved for centuries since its owner headed heavenwards according a lot of Christians. For several Christians it is a holy relic, which is now on tour in Russia and drawing crowds of Orthodox believers on a scale that makes U2 concerts look under-populated

The belt is usually kept in a monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, but has been toted round a series of Russian cities over the past few weeks, ending up in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour – the vast white and gold post-USSR replacement for an Orthodox cathedral razed under Stalin. Pilgrims are flooding in to kiss the relic, which is believed to have special powers to treat infertility and promote health.

For the Orthodox Church, already enjoying a resurgence and snowballing membership since the USSR fell apart, the public display of faith is an apparent triumph: devotion doesn’t come much plainer than this. Not everyone agrees, though: even among the faithful, the extremity of the response (at least half a million people have turned out in Moscow alone, and another two million elsewhere in Russia) smacks a touch too much of superstition, of a kind of mass hysteria.

Read the whole story:
  1. Belt up! – the Virgin Mary comes to Moscow

  2. Belt up part II – how the Virgin Mary won Russia’s elections


Monday 10 October 2011

Spelling Yahshuah (יהשע) vs Hebrew using Yehoshuah (יהושע)

For centuries, Bible translators around the world did not transliterate or copy the tetragrammaton in their translations. For example, English Bible translators (Christian and Jewish) used "LORD" to represent it. Many authors on Bible translation have explicitly called for translating it with a vernacular word or phrase that would be locally meaningful.

The spelling Yahshuah (יהשע), first documented during the early days of the Sacred Name movement in the 1930s, is not found in Hebrew texts. The Hebrew Bible uses Yehoshuah (יהושע), and later Yeshua, for Joshua, which means "Yah is Salvation." Christians, historians, and linguists outside the sacred name movement for the most part reject the term Yahshua in favor of Yeshua (ישוע) as the original pronunciation written in Germanic languages like Dutch as in English with a J for the Yod = Jeshua.

Critics say that in their labor to get the pronunciation "Yahshua" out of יהושע, they are ignoring Hebrew linguistics that do not allow the waw to be silent, so "Yahshua" is a questioned translation. Furthermore, it is argued by some that this pronunciation is not attested in antiquity, unlike the pronunciation "Yehoshua".

Those who really love the One and Only God and his son, should consider them as part of their family and use the sounds of the names of those persons.
We should consider it appropriate to use Semitic names in our translations of both the Old and New Testament.
- Bible scholars and translators such as Eusebius and Jerome (translator of the Latin Vulgate) consulted the Hexapla, but did not attempt to preserve sacred names in Semitic forms. Justin Martyr (second century) argued that YHWH is not a personal name, writing of the “namelessness of God”.  - (Justin Martyr, Hortatory Address, ch. 21)

Good christians should transliterate (“bring over the sound”) into their own language, e.g. English and Dutch. We can wonder if we not have to go to the phonetic use of the name, or should we write it phonetically right but let it pronounced in the tongue of the speaker?

But we should not give preference to go for the popular version like the translator Joseph Bryant Rotherham lamented not making his work in to a Sacred Name Bible by using the Yod in English as well and not keeping to the three Hebrew vowels when he choose for the English favourite in his translation.
Some Restored Names Bibles therefore keep using the populist form Yahweh and even go to base there version on the King James Version (where in the old edition was used Jehovah) and just change the names of the Father to Yahweh and His Son into Yahshua in both Testaments.

From the beginning of the 20th century many people became more aware of the importance of the use of Gods Name, but like several Sacred Name groups they clanged to the English "Yahweh" and "Yahshua" instead for opting for the Hebrew conversion of hte sound for Yehowah wich would sound as "Yea-Hovwhah" and could best be written as Jehovah in Latin and Germanic languages. also for the wrong name of the Nazarene son of Joseph and Myriam (Mary/Maria) from the tribe of David who became generally known as Jesus (from the Greek "Iesous", which means 'Hail Zeus') Christ (= the "Christos"), the Messiah. Bringing over the Hebrew sounds it would be

"‘Jesus’ is a transliteration of a Latin name Ioesus, pronounced heysus - which means NOTHING in Hebrew, but in Latin it means ‘Hail Zeus’. If Yahshua’s name had been
transliterated into our language, it would have been closer to Joshua (or Jehoshua).." (


Originally, the name of the Messiah was , pronounced Yahushua or (Yehoshua). This is the Messiah's original name. The correct pronouncement would be "Yahushua" or spoken out as "Yea- Hu- Shua" (In Dutch "Je-hoe-shoewha") and could be written down as Jehushua. While the short form for "Ya-Saves" or better "Jeh-Saves" also often used in the scrolls would be Jeshua.

Biblequotes from Restored Name Bible "The Scriptures" >

God about His name “יהוה“ + Creator of heaven and earth and everything around יהוהThe Only One Elohim who creates and gives all


in the Dutch Translation "De Geschriften":
God over zijn Naam  + יהוה Schepper van hemel en aarde en alles er op en eraan

Read more:
Related articles:
In Dutch

About the change of the son of God for the sake of keeping the piece (in the 4° Century CE):