yəšûʿāh

Semantic range

1. 1rescue from danger, enemies or death
2. 2victory in battle
3. 3welfare, deliverance in the widest sense

Hebrew salvation is concrete before it is spiritual: being got out of trouble. The Red Sea, the deliverance from Philistines, recovery from illness — all yəšûʿāh. The word does not exclude the eternal, but it refuses to float free of the actual.

The name Yēšûaʿ — Jesus — is built from this root, which is why the angel's instruction is an etymology: "thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Isaiah 12:2–3, sung at the Feast of Tabernacles water ceremony, contains the name twice over: "God is my salvation... with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Nephi quotes the whole passage (2 Nephi 22).

See also

• גֹּאֵלgōʾēl
• σωτηρίαsōtēria
• ἸησοῦςIēsous