JehoshuahThe Name That Saves
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ

Yehoshuah — “Jehoshuah”

Yahweh Is Salvation

This site traces the meaning, scriptural resonance, and devotional weight of the name rendered in older English as Jehoshuah — the Hebrew name behind the name Jesus. Where the record speaks plainly, we follow it. Where later tradition has built upon it, that is marked as tradition, set apart in the margin rather than folded silently into the text.

The Name Itself

Jehoshuah is an older English transliteration of the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshuah), a compound name built from two elements: the divine name YHWH (יהוה), and the verb yasha (יָשַׁע), “to save” or “to deliver.” Read together, the name is usually glossed “Yahweh saves” or “the LORD is salvation.” It is the same name, by a different path of transliteration, that reaches English readers today as Jesus — by way of Hebrew Yehoshua, contracted in later Hebrew and Aramaic to Yeshua, transliterated into Greek as Iesous, into Latin as Iesus, and finally into English.

English translators of earlier centuries — including some renderings of the King James tradition when the name appears for Old Testament bearers — used spellings such as Jehoshuah to keep the connection to the Hebrew visible, rather than substituting the more familiar New Testament form. This site uses that older spelling deliberately, as a way of holding the Old and New Testament bearers of the name, and the single Hebrew word behind both, in view at once.

How This Site Is Organized

Four studies follow, each building on the last: the name's Old Testament foundations, its fulfillment in the New Testament witness to Christ, the theological themes the name carries, and its place in devotional practice. Each page keeps a running margin of notes — etymological, textual, and traditional — set apart from the main body, so that what is directly attested and what is later interpretation stay visibly distinct.

I — Foundations

Old Testament Foundations

Joshua son of Nun, the renaming in Numbers, and Joshua the high priest in Zechariah.

II — Fulfillment

Christological Fulfillment

Matthew's angel, the Greek Iesous, and the name as a stated mission.

III — Themes

Theological Themes

Name as office versus name as person, and the doctrine of salvation it carries.

IV — Practice

Devotional Practice

How the name has been used historically in prayer and contemplation.