John’s Prologue and the Name

Isaiah sang that the LORD has become his yeshuah יְשׁוּעָה yesh-oo'-aw, and Simeon held that yeshuah in his arms. One thing in this needs to be set right before we go further. We must not read “salvation” as nothing more than an abstract word for deliverance, a thing God does. The standard lexicons define yeshuah in that abstract way. This study reads it as a person who was there in the beginning, and that reading goes beyond what a dictionary can say. It rests on what John says about the beginning.

In the Beginning Was the Word

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the logos λόγος log'-os(Word), and the logos(Word) was toward-together-with God, and the logos(Word) was God. He was in the beginning toward-together-with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John makes three things clear. First, the Word “was” in the beginning. He did not come into being later; He was there. Second, “the logos(Word) was God.” That fits exactly with Isaiah 12:2, where the LORD is my yeshuah. Third, “All things came into being through Him.” The maker of heaven and earth is this Word.

Then John tells what happened to Him.

John 1:14 And the logos(Word) became sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh) and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory — glory as of the only-begotten from the Father — full of charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace) and aletheia ἀλήθεια al-ay'-thi-a(truth).

So the yeshuah of the Old Testament is not an idea of salvation. He is the Person who was present from the beginning, through whom all things were made, and who at last put on flesh and came. Isaiah 12:2 says that the LORD is my yeshuah; John 1:1, that the Word was God and made all things; John 1:14, that this Word became flesh. And when He came, He took the human name Yeshua.

John wrote the same in his first letter.

1 John 1:1-2 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and our hands have touched — concerning the logos(word) of zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life) — the zoe(life) was made manifest, and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal zoe(life), which was with the Father and was made manifest to us —

“That which was from the beginning” is something John and the others heard, saw, looked upon, and touched with their hands. Eternal life “was with the Father and was made manifest to us.” And at the end of the same letter John says who that is.

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us dianoia διάνοια dee-an'-oy-ah(thought) so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true — in His Son Yeshua Messiah; He is the true God and eternal zoe(life).

“He is the true God and eternal zoe(life).”

Why the One Called Salvation Is the Maker

Why should the One who bears the name of salvation be the Word through whom all things were made? The answer lies in the kind of creation God first made.

Genesis 1:31 And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God saw all that He had made, “and behold, it was very good.” The first creation was flawless. Yet “good” speaks of how well a thing is made, not of whether its purpose has already been reached, and those two are not the same.

Think of a potter who shapes a cup for water. He turns it on his wheel, fires it, and is pleased: this is good, it is well made. He is right; the making is complete. But the cup was made for water, and its purpose is fulfilled only when water is poured into it and someone drinks. Finishing the cup and fulfilling its purpose are two different moments.

So it was with the first creation. In its making it was very good and without flaw. In Eden stood the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the command, “in the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). These were there not because the creation was faulty, but because that good creation was made as a foundation, moving toward what would be completed in yeshuah: life without end, where death will be no more (Revelation 21:4). Creation and salvation, then, are one plan in one Person. The One through whom all things were made is the One in whom all things reach their purpose, and so the One called salvation is the Word of creation. That is how this study reads the beginning.

Paul says the same of the Son in his letter to the Colossians.

Colossians 1:16-17 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or exousiai(authorities) — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

“For by Him all things were created,” and “in Him all things hold together.” The One who made all things is also the One who holds them together. He is the beginning of creation and, as the potter’s cup reminds us, the One in whom creation reaches its purpose.

The Name in the Mouth of the Apostles

The rest of the New Testament says the same about His name. Peter spoke to the rulers in Jerusalem.

Acts 4:12 And there is Salvation in no one else, for there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved."

Since the name Yeshua means “The LORD saves,” salvation is not found outside that name. The name is the very way by which salvation comes.

Paul wrote to the believers in Rome.

Romans 10:9; 10:13 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Yeshua and believe in your kardia καρδία kar-dee'-ah(heart, soul-domain) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. … for "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

The words “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” are quoted from the prophet Joel (YLV Joel 3:5, Masoretic verse order).

Joel 3:5 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

Joel says “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD.” Paul, who has just spoken of confessing “the Lord Yeshua,” applies those words to Him. Calling on the name of the LORD and calling on the name of the Lord Yeshua are one act. The equation of Isaiah 12:2 is alive and at work in the New Testament.

And to the believers in Philippi Paul wrote this.

Philippians 2:9-11 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Yeshua every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Yeshua Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The words “every knee will bow” come from a word of the LORD in Isaiah.

Isaiah 45:23 By myself I have sworn, righteousness has gone forth from my mouth, a word that shall not return: that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

In Isaiah the LORD swears by Himself, “to me every knee shall bow.” In Philippians every knee bows “at the name of Yeshua.” What belongs to the LORD is given at the name of Yeshua, and it is all “to the glory of God the Father.”

Hear, O Israel

Israel confesses every day the words of Deuteronomy 6:4.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD one.

The Shema declares that the LORD is one. The LORD, who is one, is the One whom Isaiah called “my salvation (yeshuah),” and the One who came bearing the name Yeshua. He is the Word of creation and of salvation, King and High Priest, and the one name He was given makes known the wondrous deity of God the Father and of God His Son.

So the name is more than a word for deliverance, and the salvation it names was a Person from the beginning. Every time His name is called, the confession inside it is heard: the LORD saves.

The evidence of Chapters 10 to 12 was a matter of form and distribution. The next verse is different in kind. In Genesis 3:15 the text does not leave the gender of the promised one to be inferred from an ending. It names it.