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Name of Yeshua Prophesied Ahead of Time

Writer's picture: Asher IntraterAsher Intrater

Sometimes we are asked if the name of Yeshua ( )ישועis actually prophesied in the Tanakh.


It is – in several ways. We start with a beautiful prophecy of the name, by the prophet Zechariah.


Hear now, O Yehoshua the High Priest. You and your companions who are sitting before you are men as a wondrous sign (mophet). For behold I am bringing My servant, the Branch (tzemakh).” (Zechariah 3:8)


The basic idea of this verse is that Yehoshua, the High Priest at the time of Zechariah, was a symbol or sign of the coming Messiah. The poetic name of the Messiah here is Branch (tzemakh). Yehoshua the High Priest is a foreshadowing sign of the coming Messiah.


“Take silver and gold and make crowns; and set them on the head of Yehoshua the son of Yehozadak the High Priest. And say to him, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, ‘Behold this man, his name is Branch (tzemakh), and in his place, He will grow (yi-tzemakh), and build the sanctuary of the Lord.’” (Zechariah 6:11-12)


This man, the High Priest, whose name was Yehoshua, is described here simply: “his name is branch.” What could that mean? There are only two options that come to mind. The first is that his personal name was Tzemakh, as if his friends would call him, “Hi, Tzemakh.” But that makes less sense because his name was Yehoshua.


The other option is that Yehoshua was prophetically carrying the additional name of the Branch, the coming Messiah. That is the obviously more sensible meaning. The branch is the Messiah. This man is a symbol of the Messiah; this man also has the same name as the Messiah. The name of the Messiah is Yehoshua.


Then arose Yeshua the son of Yozadak, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and his brothers, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it.” (Ezra 3:2)



Here we have the same account retold in the book of Ezra. Zerubbabel’s generation were immigrants returning from Babylon. By the time of Ezra there was also a second generation of native Israeli-born “sabras.” The nativeborn generation tends to shorten names, particularly classic biblical style names.


For instance, the biblical name Yehonatan in Israel today is usually called Yonatan.


This is apparently what happened to the name Yehoshua. In the next generation, Yehoshua was shortened to Yeshua. The name Yeshua appears 29 times in the Tanakh. All of them are in the generation after the return from exile (Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah). All of them represent a shortening of the name Yehoshua. Yeshua is Yehoshua.


Let’s summarize:


1. Messiah = Branch (Zechariah 3:8)


2. Branch = Yehoshua (Zechariah 6:12)


3. Yehoshua = Yeshua (Ezra 3:2)


Therefore Messiah = Yeshua


The name of Messiah is Yeshua.

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