Yeshua´s Name Appeared in the Old Testament 75 Times

By Richard Sison | 2013

It is very interesting to know that the word Yeshua (ישׁוּעה Yeshû‛âh) which literally means "salvation" or "God is my salvation" appeared at least75 times in the Tanakh (Genesis to Malachi). We know for a fact that Yeshua is the Hebrew name of Jesus of Nazareth, our Saviour and Lord. Although many christian believe that Jesus existed from the beginning, they are having a hard time to equate that it was Yeshua or Jesus was literally present in the writings of the Old Testament. Many would assume that Jesus only came into play and became the focus of everything in the New Testament only. This erroneous assumption was unknowingly copied from a false prophet by the name of Marcion from the second century. As a matter of fact, Marcion was the one who divided the Bible and coined the term "Old" and "New" testament. 

"There is no Old or New Testament but rather just a Scripture or Biblios (Bible), which means holy books."

From time to time, I would ask some fellow believers who gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and they would immediately answer with confidence that it was God who gave it.  When I would press further as to who exactly,  whether it was the Father or the Son, their usual answer is the Father after a long pause. Again this is Marcionic belief as he was saying that it was a different god who reigned and was the focus of the "old" testament who ruled Israel with a very tough Law and Jesus triumph over this god and now saved us by grace, thus, we no longer need the Law as we had been freed from this "tough" Law. If I tell them that it was Yeshua who gave the Law to Moses, they hardly believe and many would even disagree.  They cannot connect the gracious and loving Jesus to the tough law-giver in the Old Testament who would punish to death any violators of the Law and who ordered Israel to annihilate their enemies including women and children. They seem to forget that Yeshua drove people selling in the Temple with scourge of cord and overthrew tables and many things.  I will discuss this further in a separate topic.

For many fellow christians, they cannot believe or accept that Yeshua was the giver of the Law (Torah). If I ask them how many and what are the commandments that Jesus gave, they will only say 2 commandments, i.e., To Love God and neighbor (Matt 22:37-40). However, people tend to forget that these two commandments were given to Moses and was part of the Torah (Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18). Whether christians will accept it or not, Jesus was the giver of the Torah to Moses, including the Ten Commandments.  This is very clear in James 4:12, "There is one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy...".  Therefore, if Yeshua is the Lawgiver, how do we treat the Law whom He gave? He specifically said in John 14:15, "If you love me, keep my commandments". We are also responsible to teach the Law and His commandments to people as mentioned in Matthew 28:18-20, specifically verse 20, "teaching them to observe ALL that I commanded you..". When He said all, He means ALL.  Can we keep them all? No, we cannot! This is the reason why we need Him, our Saviour but it does not exempt us from doing His commandments.  We keep what we can and those that we struggle with or cannot cope up, His grace kicks in. That is how loving our God is!

Why is it important to know whether Yeshua's name was written in the Old Testament? Because God in His loving mercy has revealed Himself to us in every possible way, even from the very beginning.  If we can understand that He was the Lawgiver and that the Scripture is all about Him (Luke 24:27) then it is easier to understand that we have to follow ALL His commandments, from "Old" to "New" Testaments, from Tanakh (Genesis to Malachi) to Brit Chadasha (Matthew to Revelation).  In those 75 verses as well, the Scripture has literally stated that Yeshua is God!  Not only that Jesus was mentioned in the New Testament, His Hebrew name was literally mentioned all over Old Testament declaring that Yeshua is God.