Jay-Z: Know-the-ledge (Jesus Can’t Save You!) By Khalil Amani
I recently heard some Christian youth pastor on Worldstarhiphop.com going off on Jay-Z for a lyric in his song “Empire State of Mind.” The lyric is, “Jesus can’t save you! Life starts when the Church ends.” This preacher was livid that Jay-Z would diss Jesus! He cited several scriptures—Isaiah 53, Acts 4:12, John 3:16. (To paraphrase—Jesus was beaten beyond recognition, only one name we must be saved by, God so loved the world that he gave us his son Jesus.)
As of lately, the Jiggaman has been accused of being part of some secret society—a Freemason or the Illuminati. They say he worships the devil. And now that he raps that “Jesus can’t save you,” all of the allegations must be true! Right? Like the Knights Templars of ages gone by, who were accused of devil-worship, Hova is being accused of the same.
So is Jay-Z right for saying, “Jesus can’t save you?” Let’s put our childlike religious beliefs on the backburner for a few minutes and break down a few things and see if Jay-Z’s lyric is blasphemous against Jesus or is he into some esoteric (hidden) knowledge that the masses are oblivious to.
First and foremost, let’s deal with the name Jesus. Acts 4:12 says that “there is only ONE NAME under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved”—Jesus! Is this true? Well, it’s written in the Bible, so it must be true… right? The Bible is perfect, right? The Bible is God’s Divine Word, right? The Bible is the truth, right? The Bible is infallible, right? This is what Christians are taught.
Question? Have you ever met a Chinese man with a Russian name? Well that’s how wrong it is for us to call the Jewish/Hebrew Savior Jesus—“Jesus Christ,” as though Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last name. “Christ” is the English/Christian translation of the Hebrew “messiah,” which means “anointed one.” In Hebrew messiah is “Hammashiah.”
Fact! The man they call Jesus was a Hebrew—a Jew of the tribe of Yehudah (Judah). Fact! The man they call Jesus was not a Christian and never heard such a word! Fact! He spoke Aramaic/Hebrew. Fact! In his native language of Hebrew, there has NEVER been a letter “J” in his alphabet! NEVER! Even today, the letter “J” does not exist in Hebrew or Aramaic. What does this mean? Simply put, his name was not “J”esus! The name “Jesus” is Christian translation of the Hebrew word “Joshua,” which is really “Yahshua” or “Yeshua” or “Yehoshua.” “Yahshua” translates as “Yah is salvation.” Fact! The man Christians calls “Jesus”—his name was Yahshua Hammashiah. If he walked down the street today and you hollered out, “Hey Jesus!” he’d keep walking because the name Jesus is foreign to his ears!
Jesus/Yahshua is “Yah is salvation!” And just who is “Yah?” Yah is the abbreviated name for what scholars call the “Tetragrammaton” or “Four Letter Word,” which are YHWH and commonly believed to be pronounced Yahweh. (It is also noteworthy to understand that there weren’t any vowels in ancient Hebrew, thus YHWH.) Psalms 68:4 says, “Sing unto God. Sing praises to his name: extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH.” The name “Jah” is what Rastafarians call God, but remember, there is no letter “J” in the Hebrew language, the ORGINAL language of the Old Testament. “Y” is replaced by “J,” so it should read “Yah.”
Not only is the letter “J” nonexistent in Hebrew, but it is also the youngest letter of the English alphabet—originating about 500 years ago and deriving from “I” and “Y.” In other words, every “J” in the Bible was originally a “Y.”
In church, they shout “Hallelujah,” which means “Praise be to Yah!” Notice that hallelu-“JAH” is spelled with a “J” but pronounced “YAH.” God’s name is sublimely spoken in hallelujah, yet most Christians never call God Yah or Yahweh. Why is that? Why do they prefer God, Jehovah and Jesus? Religious conditioning! Spiritual ignorance! Brainwashing! Even Jay-Z calls himself “Hova,” the short form of Jehovah. But that was back then. I suspect that Jay-Z now knows that “Jehovah/Hova” is the Christian translation of Yah/Yahweh, which came to fruition through German scholarship. The word “Jehovah” is a 400 year old bastardization of the Tetragrammaton—YHWH/Yahweh! Strictly speaking, it is incorrect!
Do you think Jay-Z knows the truth that I’m spitting and therefore can say that “Jesus can’t save you?” You damn skippy he knows! Whether through secret societies or having his world-view expanded—he has come in contact with a higher understanding of the Divine.
Jesus can’t save you!
The name “Jesus” has never saved black folk from slavery, Jim Crowism, segregation, marginalization, racism, second-class citizenry, and poverty! In fact, God-Yahweh says in Isaiah 45:5 “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me: I girded [protected] thee [Black folk], though thou hast not known me…” As for Jesus as “savior,” Isaiah 43:11 says, “I, even I am the LORD; and besides me there is no savior.” How can Jesus be our savior when God clearly says He’s the only savior?
A Christian will argue that God (Yahweh) and Jesus (Yahshua) are one-and-the-same-person because Jesus says, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). But did Jesus literally mean one personage? Hell-to-the-naw! Why? Because if Yahshua meant that he and God were one person, why did he go to such great lengths to say such things as, “I can of mine own self do nothing… and the Father, which hath sent me… the words which ye hear are not mine, but the Father which sent me… for my Father is greater than I.” (John 5:30, 37; 14:24, 28) That’s pretty goddamned definitive if you ask me!
And by the way—saying GODDAMN is not “taking the Lord’s Name in vain,” because His/Her name is not “God”—Goddamnit!
Yahshua (Jesus) also said, “I come in my Father’s name” (John 5:43). If we accept the literal understanding (like Christians do with God & Jesus as one), the question that must be asked is, “and what name is that? What name does Jesus come in? What is the Father’s name?” If Yahshua comes in Yahweh’s name then it stands to reason that at least part of the son’s name is in the Father’s name, thus “YAH”weh (father) and “YAH”shua (son). Does that make sense to you? It should! But if you’re still not convinced that the son’s name is not “Jesus,” Proverbs 30:4 has a few questions for you! “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? WHAT IS HIS NAME, and WHAT IS HIS SON’S NAME, if thou canst tell?”
Lol! Come on all you smarty-pants! It seems to me that the names of the Father and Son are shrouded in mystery! Are you starting to see that Jay-Z made one of the most profound religious statements on his song? Are you starting to see just how religiously brainwashed you have been in regards to the savior’s real name? Jay-Z did not diss the savior of the world! He dissed the wrongful naming of the savior—he made a religious statement regarding the Church’s pimping of the people by keeping them in spiritual slavery—he is proclaiming that once you free your mind of the Church’s/religion’s false indoctrination, a person is free to live—he is using allegory/riddle to make us think about the demagoguery of the Church, the Body of Christ, the suffering of the meek and the licentiousness of the priesthood! Jay-Z ethers the whole idea of “organized religion” as salvation with one verse—religious commentary so venomous and over-the-heads of most hip-hop heads, brilliantly spat! Only an emotional youth pastor with very little understanding of religious/biblical history would spend the time making a video-blog about something which he knows nothing about!
Jesus has done us wrong!
Many Africans came to the New World via Jesus—the ship! One of the first slave ships was called “Jesus of Lubeck” aka “Good Ship Jesus,” commanded by Sir John Hawkins. (Circa 1564). From the hulls of slave ships to the shores of the New World to the corners of ‘hoods all over America, Jesus has been crammed down our throats ad nauseam! We were given the slave master’s religion, his white Jesus, his pie-in-de-sky-in-de-sweet-bye-n-bye-when-I-die, his jack-leg, bootlicking black preacher and raped of all things Akebulan (African)! Check the history pimpin’!
Again, do I believe Jay-Z knows this? Hell-to-the-yeah! The Jiggaman used to dabble in afrocentrism and Five Percent Nation theology, so he knows more than the average Christian and if he is hooked up in the esoteric—the Freemasons—the Illuminati—at the higher degrees—he knows that the sacred Four Letter Word (YHWH) is the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe.
But don’t get it twisted! Not all Freemasons know this truth you’re reading! Certainly not the “Blue Lodge” (first three degrees) masons who are intentionally deceived! Lol! They don’t know shit! The great Thirty-Third Degree Freemason and author of the seminal work on Freemasonry, Albert Pike, in his 861-page book, Morals and Dogma (published 1871 of which I have a rare copy) writes:
“Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretation. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them. Their true explication is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry. …It is well enough for the masses of those called Masons, to imagine that all is contained in the Blue Degrees [1ST, 2nd, 3rd]; and whoso attempts to undeceive them will labor in vain…” (819).
See? Just because a cat says he’s a Mason doesn’t give him carte blanche to the secrets of the universe! You have to go into the higher degrees and dig deep for these unspoken truths. Jay-Z has scratched the surface and is giving the hip-hop world snippets of unspoken truths. The hip-hop world, in return, thinks he’s into “devil worship” because of the things he speaks and does.
As a “wise man,” I will tell you that Lucifer (the Christian devil) is the “LIGHT BEARER.” Again, Pike writes, “Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer! Son of the morning! It is he who bears the Light!” (321). The Bible also refers to him as “son of the morning” (Isaiah 14:12). “Light,” biblically speaking, means “knowledge” and “freewill.” In this respect, Lucifer is the first to free humanity’s mind and allow us to think freely (Adam & Eve being the first freethinkers), unlike any creature in God’s realm.
Lucifer is also represented as a snake or serpent and this is intentionally done in Jewish mythology as a direct assault on the goddess religions of the Ancient Near East who venerated serpents as “wise,” and a “phallic symbol” (a penis) of procreation. It is not a coincidence that the righteous wise and life-giving serpent of Egyptian, Sumerian and Babylonian mythology comes on the Jewish scene as a deceiver and tempter and originator of “sin.” This was by design! The ancient Jews flip-the-script and made the serpent a bad guy—a religio/political move aimed at steering Israel away from practicing foreign religions (who “worshipped” the serpent as life-giver) and Henotheism (a belief in their god Yahweh, without denying other gods).
In the upper echelons of secret societies, the serpent’s (so-called Lucifer’s) righteous role is restored and the laity (common folk) gets spooked out! Remember! Even Yahshua (Jesus) bought into the mythology of serpents as “wise” when he said, “Be ye therefore WISE as SERPENTS…” (Matthew 10:16). The adepts of Freemasonry get the true knowledge and role of Lucifer. To some, he becomes worshipped. This may be why the ancient Knights Templar and later Freemasonry gets the label as Luciferian worshippers in secret.
Jay-Z may or may not be a Freemason or a member of the Illuminati. He may stand perpendicular to the square—be a travelling man—headed towards the East, in search of “True North” (Darkness) and Light. He may be all these things! But on the question of Jay-Z’s lyric “Jesus can’t save you” he spoke truth—truth that the wise men of all ages have always known—truth that is hidden from the masses and given to a select few. I choose to be the “wise man”—he who is not bound by the sword for speaking truth. I speak freely!
“Faith does not offer the least support for a proof of objective truth. Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.”
—Philosopher Nietzsche
Khalil Amani, Spritual Advisor to Gay Hip-Hop, writes for DJ Kayslay’s “Straight Stuntin Magazine”.
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This is a dope article. The variations between black Christians always intrigued me. You have some believe God & Jesus is one person. You have other that believe we have free will & others that believe in predestination which is Calvinism. We need more articles like this. Whether religious or not, its always good to open up dialogue and see where people are coming from.
And I always find it funny that if Jay is in a secret society, why does everyone know? Defeats the purpose. Plus, a hoax (Taxil hoax) is the reason that people believe they are devil worshipers when the book was making fun of Christians and Masons.
People believe theories more than facts and believe there is no such thing as coincidence.
Interesting take on this subject. I do strongly doubt that Jay-Z is a member of the Freemasons. One can read esoteric books and take lyrics from them, without ever understanding a word of what they say.
I think you’re giving Jay a little too much credit. If that lyric came from Erykah Badu or someone else,then I could see you drawing this conclusion, but not Jay.
Yeah I don’t believe he was as deep in his lyrics in the song as the article is trying to make it out to be. He said what he meant to say, “Jesus can’t save you” and trying to complicate that with all this religious back and forth does not take away from what he said. Faith is in the bible period. You either have it or you don’t. Bringing up things that happened in the past to try and justify your reasoning for not beliveing in the name Jesus is what people with little or no faith do to try and discredit his name and God’s word. People WILL go through things, you never know why things happen. It does not mean that God let it happen. People fail to realize that Satan walks this earth too and he has his workers too out and about trying to destroy people lives and to try and discredit God.
In the second half of the first millennium C.E., Jewish scholars introduced a system of points to represent the missing vowels in the consonantal Hebrew text. When it came to God’s name, instead of inserting the proper vowel signs for it, they put other vowel signs to remind the reader that he should say ’Adho·nai? (meaning “Sovereign Lord”) or ’Elo·him? (meaning “God”).
The Codex Leningrad B 19A, of the 11th century C.E., vowel points the Tetragrammaton to read Yehwah?, Yehwih?, and Yeho·wah?. Ginsburg’s edition of the Masoretic text vowel points the divine name to read Yeho·wah?. (Ge 3:14) Hebrew scholars generally favor “Yahweh” as the most likely pronunciation. They point out that the abbreviated form of the name is Yah (Jah in the Latinized form), as at Psalm 89:8 and in the expression Ha·lelu-Yah? (meaning “Praise Jah, you people!”). (Ps 104:35; 150:1, 6) Also, the forms Yehoh?, Yoh, Yah, and Ya?hu, found in the Hebrew spelling of the names Jehoshaphat, Joshaphat, Shephatiah, and others, can all be derived from Yahweh. Greek transliterations of the name by early Christian writers point in a somewhat similar direction with spellings such as I·a·be? and I·a·ou·e?, which, as pronounced in Greek, resemble Yahweh. Still, there is by no means unanimity among scholars on the subject, some favoring yet other pronunciations, such as “Yahuwa,” “Yahuah,” or “Yehuah.”
Since certainty of pronunciation is not now attainable, there seems to be no reason for abandoning in English the well-known form “Jehovah” in favor of some other suggested pronunciation. If such a change were made, then, to be consistent, changes should be made in the spelling and pronunciation of a host of other names found in the Scriptures: Jeremiah would be changed to Yir·meyah?, Isaiah would become Yesha?·ya?hu, and Jesus would be either Yehoh·shu?a? (as in Hebrew) or I·e·sous? (as in Greek). The purpose of words is to transmit thoughts; in English the name Jehovah identifies the true God, transmitting this thought more satisfactorily today than any of the suggested substitutes.
While it is most if not quite certain that the name was originally pronounced “Yahweh”…The form “JEHOVAH” is of LATE MEDIEVAL ORIGIN; it is a combination of the consonants of the Divine Name and the vowels attached to it by the Masoretes BUT BELONGING TO AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WORD…The word “JEHOVAH” DOES NOT accurately represent ant form of the name ever used in Hebrew…”
(The New Oxoford Annotated Bible)
Albert Pike, in Morals & Dogma (a masonic text writes): It was, therefore, possible for that of the name of the Deity [God?Yahweh] to have been forgotten and lost. It is CERTAIN that the true pronounciation IS NOT that represented by the word JEHOVAH; and therefore that that is not the true name of the Diety (205).
The way I understood it to be pronounced is YahWah. But here is a question for all of you to ponder. Regardless of the correct pronunciation all of the gods that are mentioned have limitations due to the fact that one, they need worship and our energy for them to even exist in the realm they live on. Some also require sacrifice that has nothing to do with the Divine essence of the creator which is the black intelligent matter that lives in space. It would also be safe to assume that the creator is partial to human beings which is why we find our selves in the conditions we are currently in.
We pray a good bit the planet should be in much better shape but instead what is reflected is how we really see ourselves and the world around us. You got to many people not realizing that the answer lies with in and not with out. All of these gods are egotistical and fallacy. The only answers that person needs comes from with in. The creator instilled in all of us the correct wiring to attain this information. We need to solve our own problems because Jesus can not and will not save anybody and either will anybody else for that matter.
Like some others I too believe Jay z is being given too much credit. If the man didnt worship the devil he could come out and say that. Jay z refuses to address the issue either way except to say that he doesnt attend church. Which really isnt an answer at all. While you sound like a reasonable intelligent person how can you argue another mans heart mind or faith. Sorry but I can only go by what does and does not come out of the hova’s own mouth. If he wanted to dispel these rumors he would. When he wanted eveyone to buy his Belvedere he sure took a stand against the makers of Cristal citing racism. Jigga needs no co-signers. And most important of all….The God I believe in does not want to be shrouded in mystery but a shining beacon for us all to cling to in dark times. Despite what we call the almighty (Adonai, Goddess, Elohim, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Holy spirit or just father) the message is the same. That he will be there always to have our back love us and bring us all together. Confusion is a trap to keep our eyes from the simple truth.