I really am all for people exploring and being excited about the Jewish Roots of their faith but there is a serious lack of discernment going on in a great many people who are attracted to the "Hebrew Roots" movement. They just do not study its cultic roots!
Concerning the "Sacred Name" Bible called the Eth Cepher, this is what the head of the “project” has to say about one of the most prominent features of the book that is leading people astray:
"So the first thing that we did (was) we decided we are going to place the Sacred Name in the text. Well, this was easier said than done, because we weren’t quite sure as to how to pronounce the Name. We could read the Hebrew, but remember that the Hebrew has no vowels, it’s all consonants - particularly before the Masoretic Text - all consonants, no vowels. So, you’re looking at this idea of what is the word here, and how do we pronounce it? So we spent three and a half years researching that particular topic. And, I made three trips into Israel for purposes of making this determination. And, it was very interesting what happened, how we discovered the actual pronunciation. There were several people here in the United States whose research indicated that the pronunciation of the Name was YAHUAH- YAHUAH which was the Yod (YAH), Hey (Hoo), Vav - and the vav would be the vowel to the Hey. Yah-hoo-ah ... YAHUAH. And so we sought this out when we were in the Holy Land, and it was confirmed by a woman up in the north part of the Sea of Galilee.
There we were, we were at Ginosar which is at the very northern end of the Sea of Galilee, just up the road from Dalmanutha, the ancient ruins up from Kapharnachum (Capernaum) where the Messiah taught, up from the Mount of Beatitudes. And we’re talking with this woman, her name was Carol, and she said that she was Iroquois; that she came from the one of the Algonquin Nations that were along the Saint Lawrence River. And that the ancient language of the Iroquois actually pronounced the Name of YAHUAH. And she sang to me one of their ancient songs from which they got this name and it was an Ancient Hebrew text. And it was confirmed again in Yerushalayim where we looked at what is this proper pronunciation of the Vav, and in this context it is ‘hoo’."
This is just another of many examples of how the cultish "Hebrew Roots" crowd that are related to the discredited cult of The Worldwide Church of God, founded by Herbert Armstrong. They have purposely rebranded themselves and are trying to make themselves and their heresy mainstream by making themselves look more like “Messianic Jews” when they are not. They have gone out of their way to use pseudo-Hebrew terminology, symbols and traditions while doing so in slightly off and not quite right ways—and while doing so disparaging those who do it authentically. This is especially true for their usage of the Divine Name and the name of Yeshua (Jesus).
I find it greatly disturbing that WNDBooks, under the leadership of Joseph Farah is now publishing (and thus endorsing) this pseudo-scholastic hogwash.
People who do real research should look into who this "Dr. Stephen Pidgeon, PhD." Who is he? What is his scholastic background? What is his “Christian” background? Where did he get his PhD? In what subject?
Here's a link to a transcript featuring this "Director" of the "Cepher Publishing Group" talking about his “translation.” This is the source of the quotation above. Someone with a genuine scholastic background will look at this statements as absolutely misleading. He makes himself out to be some kind of scholar while actually looking quite foolish to someone who actually educated in the subjects he touches on:
https://docs.google.com/viewer…
ALSO. THIS NEXT BIT OF INFO IS PERTINENT TO THIS CONVERSATION, as it is the real documented history of where the aberrant names of Jesus and the Divine Name actually come from.
In case you didn't know the history of Yahshua, YaHusha and YaHuShua and their error, the article linked at the end of this is the real history of the "Hebrew Roots" heretics from the early 1800’s to the present and how they're all connected.
"Koniuchowsky:
By 2002, the Wootens had a falling out not only with Messer, but also with their close ally and MIA co-founder, Koniuchowsky. After the break up with Koniuchowsky, the MIA continued under the Wootens. Meanwhile, Koniuchowsky went on his own path.
In 2003, Koniuchowsky formed a new alliance with another controversial character in the Two-house movement, James Trimm. Since the break-up with Batya Wooten, Koniuchowsky and his followers were no longer calling themselves “Messianic Israelites.” Instead, together with Trimm, they became the “Nazarene Yisraelites.” Koniuchowsky also made another change. Originally a user of the so-called sacred names of “Yahshua” and “Yahweh,” Koniuchowsky switched to the new sacred names:
“Yahushua” and “Yahuwah.””
Link to the article exposing the history of the Hebrew Roots movement:
https://www.wildbranch.org/teachings/articles/One%20Law%20Two%20Sticks.pdf
