His real name

Several times, no -- many times, I have heard sermons telling how the Joshua in the book of Zechariah is a type of Jesus, and that Joshua, or the Hebrew pronunciation, Yeshua, Yahshua, or other very similar-sounding variations, is actually Jesus' real name. So, as I said before, what? That seemed to be the speakers' attitude, as well. The name doesn't matter, does it, as long as we know Who we are talking about? Therefore, does God care about the name? Or does He care about NAME at all?

I thought about the text in Matthew 1:21:

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

NAME is important as made clear when the Angel told Mary what to call her son, and why. He said to call His name Jesus, according to our English Bibles.

As I thought about it, I saw two reasons why the Angel could not have said, "Jesus." For one, the Angel would have spoken to Mary in her own language, not Greek, and secondly, the name Jesus means nothing. It is an English transliteration of the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name, Yeshua, Yahoshuah,YAHshuah, or a variation thereof, the name known in English as Joshua - a name that does mean something - "Salvation," or "Lord who is Salvation." That our Savior is named Salvation has such tremendous impact that it makes delicious chills go up my spine!

I am not a scholar and do not pretend to be. Many internet sites discuss the name of Jesus/Yeshua. In fact, I just now looked up: Jesus, Yeshua, name - and found many links of a more scholarly nature than this blog will ever be. It is very interesting reading.