Thanks a lot for your care and advice. I feel I am not alone but have support.
He think I intentionally use the Hebrew name of Yeshua HaMashiach but avoid the Greek-Chinese Name, it is not true. In fact in Chinese environment I use the Greek-Chinese name most frequently. See my signature. I used the name Yeshua HaMashiach in the church in public only once. That name I wrote a letter to him with was Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach) and [FONT=宋]耶穌([/FONT]Yesu[FONT=宋])[/FONT].
The next letter from him told me why he doubted I was a heretic . He found a guy on web who used the name of Yeshua HaMashiach and preached against being justice by the faith, and if one does not keep the torah and Sabbath one can not be saved. He thinks the guy as a heretic. So he asked me to use the Greek-Chinese name but not the Hebrew name, because the new covenant was revealed by Greek. Since one misused the Hebrew name, the Hebrew name can not be used. It still sounds like a joke of confusing the Logic . We can not use the language and letter of Yeshua himself? We must have the right of speaking and writing in our way, it is one of most important foundation of our existence.
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Technically,
If one wants to ever make the case that the Lord would only use the Greek, they're already at odds with scripture since the Lord never had the mindset that the New Covenant was revealed in Greek - and that's no different than those in camps for Judaizing whenever they claim that anything Greek is corrupt and that only Jewish names could be used because that was the original culture (more discussed here on that in #
25 ).....never mind the Jewish believers who lived in DIaspora and who also had experiences in Greek Culture.
There are many good/solid reads on the issue which go into great depth on the matter to bring the issue home...and if interested, there's an excellent work on the issue entitled
In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity (more shared
here /
here) you may consider trying to invest in/buy. It is an
excellent work in regards to explaining what it was like for Jews in the Diaspora and what they did when it came to Greek and Hebrew names/idioms used simultaneously to convey God's Law/Truth to others. For more, one can
go here...
The Lord would have used multiple languages to communicate (nor did the apostles - more shared here in #
5, #
6, #
7 )...and as the Messiah, he could have easily since others often came to him from areas where the Hebrew was not in view. Again, even Christ did not simply speak one language. For He also spoke in Aramic...and apparently, Greek as well. He'd need to know multiple languages as others did (including the disciples ) since there were multiple cultures within the Roman Empire.
Something else to consider is the reality of how Palestine was developed. For given that it was always a crossroads for entire peoples in their spontaneous, and often times forced, migrations, was by necessity a multi-lingual land. It was a place where they spoke several languages at the same time. That is, in the times of Jesus, there were no less than two local languages spoken and understood by the majority of the people: Hebrew and Aramaic. Two international languages were also used: Greek and Latin.
People didn't live in a linguistic vacuum. ..and its more reasonable to conclude that the Lord spoke Aramaic from the cross because He wanted to be understood rather than He spoke Aramaic so He wouldn't be understood.
Thus, when he communicated the scriptures to those who were Greek or Greek Speaking (such as Hellenistic Jews), they would have heard it in their own tongue just as the Jews who spoke Hebrew would have heard the scriptures in their own as well. Recall the group of Greeks who came to hear of Christ/His teachings ( John 12:19-26 ). ..and for that matter, the woman with the posessed daughter ( Mark 7:25-27 ), as she was Greek. John 7:34-36 also notes that many at one point supposed that it was more than possible that Christ may've gone to teach the Greeks about the Scriptures/who He was when they didn't know where to find him. There'd be no need to assume Christ would teach them solely in the Hebrew since they needed to understand it in their language.
Moreover, If everyone was to know Him only as Yeshua THROUGH the Hebrew rather than being familar in other languages, there would have been no need to write His Name in its other transliterated forms of Greek and Latin on the sign above Him.
John 19:19-20
19 And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
- Hebrew: Yeshua haNotzri Melech haYehudim
- Greek: Iesous ho Nazoraios ho Basileus ton Ioudaion
- Latin: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
Even the disciples seemed to show that they spoke in differing languages...as seen here
John 20:16Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni! (which means Teacher).
If one wishes to be technical, it was not always the case that even the Jews themselves spoke Hebrew all the time. One can go to 2 Kings 18:25-27 and Isaiah 36:10-12 for a clear example when the Israelities asked another to speak to them in Aramaic since they didn't understand Hebrew.
With this in mind, its interesting to see how Stephen---who was apparently bilingual and was often quoting from the Greek Version of the Scriptures---brought up the point about Moses when saying how he was educated in all the ways of the Egyptians when it came to learning.
"Acts 7:22
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaohs daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 23 When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?
27 But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?[a] 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
Exodus 1-2 also gives more info on the matter, as it concerns the background of Moses and how he not only had to know the language of foreigners...but that of the Egyptians themselves. Its why throughout the Exodus Narrative (Exodus 4-14 ), many scholars have made clear that Moses would have had to know how to translate what he knew of God into Egyptian. The same concept can be seen prior to that with the instance of Joseph when it came to his slavery/redemption in Egyptian Slavery (Genesis 37-44). For when he became the most powerful man in Egypt, even he needed an interpreter when it came to his brothers from Cannan ( Genesis 42:22-24 ).
If that was the case historically, it makes no logical sense for anyone - Jew or Gentile - to insist that the name of the Messiah can only be said ONE Way.