Analogue 29: The Names & Titles of the Master

ANALOGUE 29: The Names and Titles of the Master

The Apostles before us called Yeshua the Nazarite, the Messiah, which means that Yeshua the Nazarite was the Anointed One. Of his names, the last is the title, the Anointed One (the Christ). The first is the name Yeshua, and the middle is Nazarite. The title Messiah has a double meaning. It is both the Anointed One, and one who has been weighed or measured out. Yeshua is a Hebrew word meaning salvation or restoration, and Nazar refers to the truth. The Nazarite, then, is the Truth who as the Anointed One measures out, and the Nazarite and Yeshua are the measurements.

• An aside on the meanings, measurements and the significance of names. 
• The practice of gematria: interpretation based on numerical values and other semantic dimensions of meaning. 
• In our culture, names are typically labels for creatures and entities without deeper meaning or semantic significance. Semitic names, however, like many Native American names have meanings.
• “Yeshua” is the Semitic name we know in English as “Joshua”. They are related to YWWH and mean “salvation” or “restoration”. The name also has historic significance referring to a figure in ancient Judaism. “Jesus” is the Greek equivalent.
• “Christ” is “Christos” in Greek. It is often taken as the last name of Jesus, or as a title of royalty or religion, but its significance relates to a form of consciousness.
• “Nazar” is a Jewish practice of dedication as well as meaning “truth”.
• The analogue introduces the measuring out and the distribution of Yeshua’s wisdom. 

COMMENTARY

Cultural Cues

This unique analogue is a glimpse into a cultural dimension that is typically absent in western society—the meaning and significance of names and their sacred relationship to numbers. We often name our children by preferences for certain sounds or by historical and familial memory. We use names that are in current fashion or in honor of a relative, giving it to a newborn as part of our family lineage. Other cultures, however, name differently, with names based not simply on historical references but with ones that carry their own deep meanings, either through language or through numerical values and measurements often associated with gematria—the meaning of something based on its numerical value. 

The author here is clarifying for various linguistic audiences (perhaps both Greek and Aramaic) some names and titles and their significance in different communities. He is trying to both explain and to move more deeply into their significance. It may be difficult to follow the logic of this analogue entirely because something of the semantic field to which the names refer may be lost to us, especially through any numerical significance using gematria.

The Christ

In this analogue, not only do we begin to learn the names of Yeshua and his titles, but their meanings, showing how others in the society of his time viewed him. They also give us glimpses into the depth, significance and character of his being. To understand what the author is pointing to, we need to enter into cultural norms different from our own. “Jesus Christ”, for example, the name we typically use in the western Scriptural tradition, usually seems to us more like a first and last name than a name and title. “Jesus” is a first name, so “Christ” must be his last name. If we understand the latter as a title, however, we would typically put a “the” in front of it (the way we name “the Buddha”). A correct use would be “Jesus, the Christ.”

Culturally and historically, “Yeshua” is simply “Joshua” in Hebrew, meaning “YHWH restores”. This was deeply significant for the Jewish people of his day who read the Torah. Yeshua was named for the historical figure Joshua of ancient Judaism and perhaps was also seen as an exemplar of that name, becoming the Savior or Restorer to Life. The Greek equivalent is, of course, “Jesus,” which is in common use today. 

The word “Christ” (from Christos) is the Greek translation of the title “Messiah”, the Hebrew term meaning “Anointed One”. A person anointed by oil in a sacred way for special service was ever-after called an anointed one, or the Anointed. This term, therefore, became a title of importance, signifying the setting apart of an individual for a sacred duty. 

The Consecration

In accordance with the Torah’s instruction, the infant Yeshua was brought to the Temple and consecrated for sacred service in a rite of early initiation where he was anointed and blessed as a first-born redeemer (Exodus 13:12-15, Luke 2: 22-40). More significantly, perhaps, at his later baptism in a rite of initiation by John the Baptizer, he was anointed with oil and with Spirit. Using the medium and metaphor of oil, we could say that he was supersaturated with Spirit: his whole being was touched by the energy and light of the Sacred Spirit. At that initiation, like the Buddha, he too became an enlightened being. His consciousness was filled with light from the fire in the oil of anointing. This appears to be the full spiritual significance of his titles the Christ, the Messiah, or the Anointed One, understood and expressed in the various languages of his day according to their histories and culture. 

Finally, Yeshua was also understood to be nazar. This has multiple meanings. One relates to Nazareth, the town in northern Galilee, where he grew up. He was thus a Nazarite (in the way we might call someone from Dallas, Texas, a Dallasite). But the word appears to have two other meanings of deeper significance than simply the region from which he came. 

in ancient Hebrew custom, Nazar also refers to a setting apart of an individual for divine service in the way that some Christian traditions decide early on that a child will become a priest or nun. Yeshua appears to have had a childhood designation understood by his parents to be just such a child set apart for special service to God—dedicated for Temple rites of worship. The term also appears to be associated with truth as a way of measuring it out (perhaps numerically) in order to determine what the meaning, weight, and value of truth might be. It is difficult to pinpoint the specific historical references that are being used here in Philip, though it seems to be associated with the Aramaic term for truth, nazara. 

The author says that the truth is being measured out or distributed by Yeshua, the Anointed One, in his role as a Nazarite. The measures he takes (or perhaps the offerings he makes) are in relationship to what is needed for the restoration in a person’s soul. This appears to be another way the author is understanding the complexities of the many meanings (cultural, historical and spiritual) for the names and titles associated with Yeshua. He is the Anointed One from Nazareth, set apart for the work of restoring souls back to life. It is truth that he is distributing or gifting to individuals in his own appointed role and sapiential way. His names and titles in this analogue give us insight not only into the significance of his birth, but also his various anointings with their sacred tasks to which he was called in order to act on behalf of YHWH to redeem and restore the world. 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. There is a logic to this complex analogue concerning names, meanings and numbers. Native Americans practiced something similar when naming their children (for example the Algonquin might call a child Ahanu, “the one who laughs”). Does your name have any similar significance? Is this why you received it?
2. Does this interpretation of Yeshua’s names and titles, understood within the cultural framework of his first century Jewish community, help you understand his sacred tradition in a new way? What seems most significant to you? 
3. Of these names and titles, the meaning of “the Christ” is perhaps of deepest importance to us now. Instead of seeing it as a last name, it should be understood to be a title like “the Buddha” (meaning “the Enlightened One”). It is important to understand it as “one who is saturated by Spirit” as the act of anointing suggests. If we are disciples of a Jewish Enlightened One (dare we say a Jewish Buddha?), how might that alter the way you think about him and his work historically? 
4. Think about your own journey. Are you drawn to Yeshua and his teachings? Are you seeking light and enlightenment through him? Do you see him as measuring out truth for you, determining how you can best receive it? Understanding your relationship to Yeshua in terms like these may fundamentally affect how you interact with him in your personal life. Does this change anything for you?  

Notes for Further Reference and Study

1. Gematria is the assignment of a numerical valuation to letters in an alphabet and then determining other meanings from the arrangement of letters by addition (or sometimes subtraction). It was used in ancient Jewish and other Middle Eastern cultures and continues to be used today. The meaning of something is determined mathematically through numbers and not letters, with names becoming codes understood only by those who know the secret numerations. If, for example, you add up the value of the letters using gematria for the word itself, the letters add up to 42, which is a popular numeration for "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything." The number 42 is somehow an answer to that questions, though it remains obscure to anyone unfamiliar to this arcane field. 
2. Sacred Geometry (which is related to gematria) refers to the numerical value or mathematical designs and patterns found in nature. We readily think of the four-leafed clover or the five-petalled rose. Most plant species have a number-pattern of some kind which appears in their leaves and flowers. The human body is also based on patterns of number, such as the five digits of the hands and feet. Many studies have been done to help understand how patterns come to be expressed through numerical relationship within living systems. Fractal geometry in the art of Islam and elsewhere in the modern world is another example of how the sacred comes to be expressed in this beautiful way with numbers, patterns and geometric forms pointing toward sacred meanings. Michael S. Schneider’s A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art and Science (1995) is an excellent way to understand these patterns in a sacred way. 
3. Islamic teaching concerning the divine names and qualities has taken a similar pathway concerning the significance of the names of God and added great richness to this heritage of names and naming. The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God that are chanted and prayed begin with Allah, God, and continue with ar-Rahman, ar-Rahmim, the Merciful, the Compassionate. These same formulations are expressed early in the Psalms, the chanted poetry of the Hebrew Bible, and in Christian worship, so that similar names and titles are used daily in prayer by Jews, Christians and Muslims.  

Notes for the Translation

1. This interesting analogue works with the ancient names and titles of Yeshua, which is his actual name, while the other two are actually titles and not names. 
2. It is not clear how the author of this Gospel is arriving at the various meanings he uses in this text. These may also perhaps refer to Aramaic or even Coptic variations.
3. In the original understanding of the first-century, a person who was nazar was dedicated or consecrated to God in a special way. It may be, then, that such dedication is also understood to be to the truth of things. Everything so consecrated is sacred.