Identity Theft (8 page)

“And, we will study history. For all you know, I could just be making up stories, but if I supply you with the documents to back it up, not only will it be credible but, back to point one, you will be better equipped to convince others.”

Convince others
—what was he talking about?

“Let’s begin,” Ariel was now dressed in professorial garb of cap and gown like in a prep school. “We will start with names. I do not deny that names are important,” he began to lecture. “They are. But at the risk of contradicting myself, I would also warn you not to get too hung up on names. The Father is not looking to catch us on technicalities. Sadly, there are those who obsess over names and miss the essence of the person of Yeshua.”

Ariel tapped the center of the file that read DL 1.0 and suddenly the computer within the ancient tablet came to life. Several men appeared. The first one said, “Unless you read the Bible in the King James English, you are not reading the Bible!”

The second one said, “If you are not baptized according to our church’s constitution, you are not saved and you’re on your way to hell.”

The third and last one proclaimed, “If you don’t pronounce His sacred name correctly, you will be damned.”

Ariel was laughing. “Silly religious people—this is not the God of the New Covenant, who ‘is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.’”

As he said this, I heard a sound, not unlike the one my cell phone emits when I get a new text message. Right on cue “No. 1: Matthew 18:14” appeared on the right side of my personal tablet.

“There is no angel at the gates of Heaven ready to say, ‘Sally, we really would like to let you in. Your heart was pure, you loved people and sacrificed for the kingdom,
but
we got you on a technicality. You got a name wrong and so you’re disqualified. Sorry about that!’”

Oh, so my angel is a comedian.

“No!” He continued, becoming serious again. “God is looking for every opportunity to save. People who get caught up in names, genealogies, traditions, or rituals and overemphasize their importance have a
religious spirit
, and that is not a good thing, David—it blinds them to the love of God, and sometimes to God Himself. Paul warns Timothy about those who promote controversy rather than God’s love.”

The text message sound and another verse appeared on my desktop, again with a number beside it: “They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions” (1 Tim. 6:4).

My tablet desktop was taking notes for me.
I could’ve used one of these in college,
I thought.

“Sadly, there’s always the danger of getting so hung up on the minutiae that we miss the very purpose of Yeshua’s coming, which was, ‘to seek and save those who are lost.’” A third passage appeared—Luke 19:10 NLT.

“Having said that, if we are going to understand the New Covenant in context, we are going to have to review a few names, as these name changes and translations influence how we perceive both the culture and message of certain New Covenant characters. These name revisions have resulted in both Jewish and Gentile readers completely missing the fact that these people were Jews, with Jewish names. Revisions that have tragically obscured the Jewishness of the New Covenant, communicating incorrectly to Jews that the New Covenant is not Jewish.”

“D’ling,” announced the appearance of Jeremiah 31:31 on my tablet:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.”

“David, while English versions of the New Covenant refer to Yeshua by His Greek name,
Iesous
, which when translated into English becomes
Jesus
, His parents never called Him by either of those names. Joseph, His stepfather, was given very specific instructions as to what His name was to be and why.” My tablet promptly displayed Matthew 1:20-21:

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take
[Miriam]
home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
[Yeshua],
because he will save his people from their sins”
(Matthew 1:20-21).

Ariel continued his lecture, “The name
Yeshua
, in Hebrew, actually has meaning. Just about every Hebrew name has a meaning or comes from a similar root with a meaning, and the angel was very specific about the name that the Son of God, the Messiah, should have: His name was to be
Yeshua
. Pronounced slightly differently, putting the emphasis on the last syllable instead of the middle,
ye-shu-à
means
salvation
. In essence the angel told Joseph,
‘His name shall be “salvation” because he will “yoshia” (verb form, save) His people from their sins.’
It is impossible to pick up on this prophetic word play in the Greek or English versions.

“And that, of course, was the mission of the Messiah,
to bring salvation to His people and to be a light to the nations
. Indeed, Simeon, the aged prophet who had been told he would not die until he saw the Messiah, prophesied as much.”

Then I saw an old man on the larger tablet begin to pray, tears streaming down his face, as he held a baby in his arms. This had to be the Simeon of whom he spoke.

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel
(Luke 2:29-32).

“His name was
salvation
because He would bring
salvation
.”

“The name
Yeshua
was also a shortened form of the name
Joshua
, which in Hebrew is pronounced
Yehoshua
. In later books of the Hebrew Bible we find the Hebrew name
Yeshua
and it is translated as
Joshua
. (See Zechariah 3.) Joshua means ‘the Lord is salvation,’ or ‘the Lord saves.’ Tell me David, what sounds more Jewish to you, the name
Jesus
or
Joshua
?”

“Well Joshua, of course,” I answered.

“In the Greek, both Joshua and Jesus are exactly the same:
Iesous
. But when referring to the Messiah, they translated His name as
Jesus
. When Joshua is mentioned in the New Covenant, they do not translate His name as Jesus, even though in the Greek it is the same, but use the Hebrew transliteration—Joshua—leaving us to think they are two different names. As a result, we lose the Jewish character of Jesus’s name. While Joshua is seen as Jewish, the Jewish Messiah has been portrayed throughout history as being something other than Jewish.”

“So Joshua and Jesus are the same name?”

“Don’t be so amazed, David. There is more.

“All your life you were probably told that the mother of Yeshua was a woman named Mary. In fact, millions of people actually call her Maria. Why is this significant? It’s important because these names make the mother of Yeshua sound English as in
Mary
or Italian as in
Maria
, when of course she was neither. She was not the lead role in
West Side Story
or Jimmy Stewart’s wife in
It’s a Wonderful Life
.”

“How do you know about movies, Ariel?”

“Stay focused, David.”

“I always viewed Mary as a Roman Catholic teenager,” I offered.

Ariel chuckled and said, “That would have been difficult, as she was born in Israel several hundred years before there ever was such a thing as the Roman Catholic Church.”

“Well, what about this
mother of God
business? They worship her and pray to her in some cultures.”

On the larger tablet appeared a woman, a precious woman. She began to talk to me. “David, this breaks God’s heart and mine as well. I am just a woman, a very blessed one, but nothing more. The Father never intended that people would pray to me or worship me. While it is difficult to be sad when you are constantly in the presence of the Almighty, what people have made of me disturbs me greatly. And what is worse is that the very people who claim to adore me have oppressed my people. They pray that I will intercede for them, and at the same time they persecute and kill my descendants. I am an Israelite, and my name, by the way, is Miriam,
a Jewish name
—the same name as the sister of Moses.”

“So why is your name printed as Mary in the New Testament, but the sister of Moses is
Miriam
?” I asked her.

“Oh, I’ll let Ariel explain that. He’s the expert. I shared what I needed to share. Bless you David,” and the board was empty again.

“The answer is simple,” said my eager angelic teacher, “and it is not as sinister as you may think, although it still confuses the identity of Yeshua’s earthly mother. The New Covenant was written in Greek so her name had already been
Hellenized
—that is, conformed to Greek culture. Even in the original text, they wrote the Greek equivalent of her name rather than her actual name. And the English translation of the Greek form of Miriam is
Mary
or
Maria
. Whereas when the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into English, there was no Greek influence. Thus, Moses’s sister remained Miriam.

“One more thing, David—while Miriam was correct in saying that she was not divine, I don’t want to sell her short. She was chosen for a reason. She was a humble, loving, Godfearing servant of the Lord. She has taken her place next to Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel in the kingdom. She is a very special woman and should have been an example to young Jewish girls throughout the centuries, but like Yeshua, her identity was greatly altered, even hijacked.”

“This is really new to me,” I responded. “But, I have a question.”

“Shoot,” said Ariel.

“Okay, this
John the Baptist
character; if you are saying that the New Covenant is Jewish, who is this guy? I mean, he is a
Baptist
, for crying out loud. How could there be anything Jewish about him?”

The massive tablet came to life again and a fellow wearing some sort of caveman outfit appeared. He was laughing at me.

“Tell me something, Dave,” he chuckled. “If I mentioned the name
Ezekiel
would you think Jewish or Christian?”

“Ezekiel was a Jewish prophet, so Jewish, of course.”

“How about
Jeremiah, Daniel, Isaiah
, or
Haggai
?” the man asked.

“Well they were all prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures, so once again, Jewish.”

“Right, Dave.”

I didn’t appreciate this caveman character calling me
Dave
. My name is David.

“Okay, I’ll call you David,” he laughed again.

“But how—I didn’t say anything.”

“No, but you thought it and I’m a prophet, which is not a mind reader, of course, but if the Lord allows it, I sometimes see things, and I saw that you didn’t want to be called
Dave
, okay David?”

“O…kay,” I uttered uneasily.

“David, getting back on point,” the prophet continued, “if I mention the name
John the Baptist
, what do you think of?”

“Well Christian, right?”

Then he yelled out, “
Booooom! Gotcha!
”

I was startled. This guy was a hoot.

“My name is John, actually Yochanan in Hebrew, and I was
not
a Baptist. And here is another shocking revelation for you:
There were no Baptists at that time—although they seem like fine folk
,” he said jokingly in a southern accent. In his normal voice, he continued, “The truth is, David, I was a Jewish prophet and I died, actually I had my head handed to me on a silver platter—literally!—years before anyone had ever used the word
Christian
.

“In the manner of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah,” he became serious, “I was honored to be the last and greatest of the Jewish prophets who proclaimed the coming of the Messiah in fulfillment of prophecy.”

A sound signaled new activity and Isaiah 40:3-5 appeared on my tablet.

“Sadly, I died prior to the New Covenant, but it was important for me to get out of the way,” he added with feigned annoyance, “although it would have been nicer to simply die in my sleep—and keep my head!

“David, the only difference between me and my predecessors was that my ministry was recorded in the New Covenant. They called me
the Baptizer
because when my
100 percent Jewish
followers would repent, I would immerse them in water, symbolizing spiritual cleansing. Funnily enough, the practice did not begin with the New Covenant or as a Christian tradition; immersion in water had been common practice in Judaism as a form of ritual cleansing for centuries before I implemented it in my ministry.

“In fact, outside the Temple in Jerusalem were nearly fifty
mikvot
—immersion tanks—for Jews wishing to make a sacrifice at the Temple. The ministry of immersion with which the Lord entrusted me preceded and prepared the people for Yeshua’s coming. It was not something new to the people of Israel. They understood its significance. The fact that thousands of Jews ‘from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan,’ went out to be immersed by me attests to this fact.”

Matthew 3:5 appeared on my tablet. “The fact that people now associate me and my signature with a denomination that began only five hundred years ago and that they don’t see me as a Jew is truly sad, because it takes the Jewish context away from the Gospel narrative. God called me, a Jewish man, to call the Jewish people to prepare themselves for the Jewish Messiah.”

The screen on the larger tablet went blank.

“I liked him, Ariel.”

“I should let you know that the people you are meeting do not look as they appear to you. It was decided that for the purposes of our investigation each of these figures would appear to you as they would have appeared on earth during their lifetime,” Ariel explained.