Hi again,

...and thank you for all the good wishes for my Jewish well-being... and for my "recovery" from what you think ails me smiley: smile 

As you will find on getting to know me better, my neshamah is alive and well, and so is my fidelity to Torah as Hashem's indestructible word.

UriYosef, I will try to find time to read your article later, but since Sophiee posted part of it already, I can ask you an initial question:

I noticed one of your very thorough charts shows the Hebrew name ישוע / Yeshua from the Tanach is translated consistently into Greek as "iesous", along with יהושוע and הושע.  I checked that bit of info in the Septuagint Greek to verify, and you are correct.  So why do you have such a problem going in the other direction, translating from "iesous" to "Yeshua"?  

Sophiee, why are you convinced that "there is no Hebrew name for Jesus" when you have it right in front of you? ...unless you were not aware that "iesous" is transliterated directly to the English name "Jesus"... 

The slight difference in phonetics was due to Luther's translation which predated the KJV - for obvious reasons he used the German "J" for a "y" sound (verstehen sie, Ja?). Hence "Jesus" which was pronounced "Yesoos", but ended up perma-pressed as "Jesus" into western Bibles from then on.  (a language like Spanish would barely notice the difference since they pronounce "Jesus" as "Heysoos")

As far as denying that "Yeshua" means "salvation", it's counter-productive for anyone who accepts Tanach.  You can't demand that a Hebrew name be exactly the same as the word it is derived from, in order to mean the same thing.  You would have to throw out lots of names in Tanach -- for example Yakov's sons (Gen.29:33-35).

There's "Shim'on", which according to Leah is supposed to mean "Hashem has heard" - ( שמע ה' = שמעון - it's got two extra letters)  -- and Levi, which she said was "attached to me" (ילוה אישי אלי = לוי - but it's missing the "hay" and the letters are mixed up) -- and of course "Yehuda", which is for "I will praise Hashem" ( אודה את ה' = יהודה - but the alef is exchanged for a yud-hay).

There are probably fascinating rabbinic discussions on each change, but their wisdom would be lost on us.  First we need to loosen up from the Greek thinking that dictates such a linear and legalistic understanding of G-d's word as "if it's not written as ישועה it can't possibly mean "salvation".

Regarding male and female genders being interchangeable, even Hashem Himself is addressed by both masculine and feminine pronouns. There are other key words that switch between male and female.  The sages knew enough not to "fix" them because there are no mistakes in Tanach.  But now it's after 3 am over here, and I need to quit.

Feedback welcome - just please be patient about getting answers from me.  thursday-friday I don't usually have time to look at email - Shabbat is a big deal at our house, and it usually takes two days to pull everything together.  (Wish you could all experience an Israeli Shabbat -- a national holiday each and every week!)

Adon ben Tsiyyon, I hope you recover from your disgust at me well enough to comment on the history and purpose of the Masoretic nikud. For a Tanach professor emeritus at HUJI, that's like rolling off a log.  Even my sons learned about it as part of their bar-mitzvah training. 

I'll be back sunday, b"H.  In the meanwhile, Shabbat shalom to everyone. 

Hannah