Page 72 - Yahwehs Book
P. 72
flowing down from above will stand in one heap." (Joshua 3:10-13)
NT Yahshua: “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the
Jordan.” (Mark 1:9)
Many more parallels could be mentioned. The Israelite leader of the Old Testament who is
commonly known as Joshua led the natural descendants of Abraham into their inheritance. This
serves as a type and shadow of the Son of God who bore the same name, for He leads the spiritual
descendants of Abraham into their inheritance.
This confusion in the rendering of names is not limited to these examples. There is hardly a Biblical
character whose name has not been rendered inconsistently in our English Bibles. Consider the case
of Jacob. Jacob was the father of 12 sons who became the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. In the New
Testament there is a book of the Bible written by a Hebrew Christian named Jacob. His book
intentionally draws comparisons that point back to Jacob and his sons. The book begins with the
following words:
Jacob, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Yahshua Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed
abroad, greetings.
Here is a father in the Christian church, an elder among the body of believers, writing as if to his 12
sons. This is an intentional allusion to Jacob of the Old Testament who also had 12 sons. Yet most
believers never make the connection. Why? Because the most popular English Bibles have rendered
the New Testament believer whose name was Jacob as James. The name of the book he wrote also
bears the name James. People of God, this is Jacob’s book! It is addressed to the 12 tribes.
Tell me which of your English Bible translations has a book in the New Testament bearing the name
of Jacob? Why is it not there? Why render it as James, thereby obscuring the link between Old
Testament and New, between type and anti-type? Why take the same name recorded in the Greek
New Testament and render it in two very different ways? It was quite common for Jewish men to
be named after the forefathers whose names are recorded in the Old Testament. The author of the
book of James was not the only Jewish Christian who bore the name of Jacob. This was also the
name of the brother of John who is similarly called James today.
Following this pattern of being named after Old Testament patriarchs we find that Simon Peter was
Simeon, Judas was Judah, both being named after sons of Jacob. In these names as well, we find that
the shadows of the Old Testament are fulfilled in the New, but the link is lost to most because the
names have been altered. It was Judah, the son of Jacob, who suggested to his brothers that they sell
Joseph into slavery for 20 pieces of silver. In the New Testament it was another man named Judah
who sold the Son of God for 30 pieces of silver. Christians seldom make the connection because in
the New Testament the name is written as Judas instead of Judah.
Genesis 37:26-28
And Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?
Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; for he is our brother, our