View source for Religion:Yahshuah

{{Short description|Esoteric and allegorical form of the name of Jesus based on the Tetragrammaton, YHWH}}
{{Not to be confused|Yahshua}}
[[File:A Rosicrucian Crucifixion by John Augustus Knapp.jpg|thumb|"A Rosicrucian Crucifixion" showing the five Hebrew letters of the "Pentagrammaton" in the [[Hexagram|hexagram]]]]
The '''pentagrammaton''' ({{lang-el|πενταγράμματον}}) or '''Yahshuah''' ({{lang-he|יהשוה}}) is an allegorical form of the [[Social:Hebrew language|Hebrew]] name of [[Biography:Jesus|Jesus]], constructed from the original form of Jesus to be [[Religion:Yeshua|Yeshua]], a Hebrew Bible form of Joshua.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ilan |first=Tal |title=Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity Part I: Palestine 330 BCE-200 CE (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 91) |publisher=J.C.B. Mohr |year=2002 |location=Tübingen, Germany |pages=129}}</ref> Originally found in the works of [[Biography:Athanasius Kircher|Athanasius Kircher]], Johann Baptist Grossschedel (1619) and other late Renaissance esoteric sources.

The essential idea of the pentagrammaton is of an alphabetic consonantal framework Y-H-Sh-W-H, which can be supplied with vowels in various ways. (Also, the "W" can be converted into a "U" or "V", since the Hebrew letter ו ''waw'' writes either a [w] consonant sound—later on, pronounced [v]—or a long [u] vowel sound: see Mater Lectionis.)

==Renaissance occultism==
[[Image:Pentagrammaton.jpg|frame|right|Occultistic [[Pentagram|pentagram]] showing the five Hebrew letters of the "Pentagrammaton" from the 1897 book "La Clef de la Magie Noire" by Stanislas de Guaita.]]
[[Image:Boehme-heart.jpg|thumb|right|Symbol by early 17th-century [[Philosophy:Mysticism|mystic]] Jakob Böhme with names of Jesus, and a derivation of the pentagrammaton from the Tetragrammaton.]]

The first ones to use the name of Jesus something like "Yahshuah" were [[Philosophy:Renaissance magic|Renaissance occultists]]. In the second half of the 16th century, when knowledge of Biblical Hebrew first began to spread among a significant number of Christians, certain esoterically minded or [[Philosophy:Occult|occult]]istic circles came up with the idea of deriving the Hebrew name of Jesus by adding the Hebrew letter ''shin'' ש into the middle of the Tetragrammaton divine name ''yod-he-waw-he'' יהוה to produce the form ''yod-he-shin-waw-he'' יהשוה.  

This was given a basic [[Social:Latin|Latin]] transliteration JHSVH or IHSVH or IHSUH (since there was no letter "W" or ''sh'' / [š] sound in Latin, and "I" and "J" were then not yet clearly distinguished as letters of the alphabet, nor were "U" and "V"). This could then be supplied with further vowels for pronounceability. By coincidence, the first three letters of this consonantal transcription IHSVH, etc. were identical with the old IHS/JHS [[Religion:Christogram|monogram of the name of Jesus]] (from Greek ''iota-eta-sigma'').

In Renaissance occultist works, this pentagrammaton (or five-letter divine name) was frequently arranged around a mystic [[Pentagram|pentagram]], where each of the five Hebrew letters י ה ש ו ה was placed at one of the points (the letter ''shin'' ש was always placed at the upward-pointing vertex of the pentagram).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Byzant Symbols |url=http://www.byzant.com/Mystical/Symbols/Pentagrammaton.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191122110030/http://www.byzant.com/mystical/symbols/Pentagrammaton.aspx |archive-date=2019-11-22 |access-date=2008-06-06}}</ref> One of the earliest attested examples of this diagram is in the ''[[Unsolved:Calendarium Naturale Magicum Perpetuum|Calendarium Naturale Magicum Perpetuum]]'' or "Magical Calendar" (published 1620 but dated 1582)<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/422762320 |title=Bernard Picart and the first global vision of religion |date=2010 |publisher=Getty Research Institute |isbn=978-0-89236-968-3 |editor-last=Hunt |editor-first=Lynn |location=Los Angeles |page=158 |oclc=422762320 |editor-last2=Jacob |editor-first2=Margaret C. |editor-last3=Mijnhardt |editor-first3=W.W.}}</ref> of either Theodor de Bry (Flemish-born German, 1528–1598) or Matthäus Merian the Elder (Swiss, 1593–1650).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Prinke |first=Rafal T. |title=The Wroclaw codex of the Magical Calendar |url=http://www.levity.com/alchemy/wroclaw.html |website=levity.com}}</ref> The idea of the ''pentagrammaton'' was funneled into modern occultism by 19th-century French writer Eliphas Levi and the influential late 19th-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn favored the consonantal transcription IHShVH or YHShVH, and the pronunciation Yeheshuah.

In Hebrew and Aramaic, the name "Jesus"/"Yeshua" appears as ''yod-shin-waw-`ayin'' יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua and as the longer form of the same name, ''yod-he-waw-shin-`ayin'' יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎‎ "Joshua"/"Yehoshua". The letter ''`ayin'' ע was pronounced as a voiced pharyngeal consonant sound in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic, as opposed to the pronounced [h] sound or a silent Hebrew letter ''he'' ה.

==See also==
*{{Annotated link|Christian Cabala}}
*{{Annotated link|Esoteric Christianity}}
*{{Annotated link|Joshua}}
*{{Annotated link|Magic words}}
*{{Annotated link|Names and titles of Jesus}}
*{{Annotated link|Tetragrammaton}}
*{{Annotated link|Yeshua}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://yahshuah.com/bkjy.html Jesus or Yahshuah?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081102195129/http://www.yahshuah.com/bkjy.html |date=2008-11-02 }}, argument for use of Hebrew name of Yahshuah
* [https://anmfonts.000webhostapp.com/yeshua-yasu-isa.html The correct form of the name of Jesus in several Semitic languages]{{dead link|date=February 2022}}

[[Category:Names of Jesus]]

{{Sourceattribution|Yahshuah}}