Hello, I’m the voice behind Yeshua Daily. My name is Theresa Joy, and I am an independent researcher. I do not have a formal degree or a prestigious scholarly title. What I do have is a deep love for compiling factual information and sharing my findings. Being autistic has given me a unique ability to sit for hours and days at a time, hyper-focusing, comparing, and analyzing data to find the most accurate answers possible. Through this process, I fell in love with the word-for-word, rhythmic beauty of the Scriptures.
Goal and Mission
My goal for the book Teshuvah – Returning to the Ancient Path started with a desire to restore God’s name back into the Bible, and to create a compact, focused book, available eventually as a paperback and ebook, as a ministry project to give away. Reading through the entire Bible can be a struggle for many people. Because of that, I am intentionally filtering out the historical and prophetic timelines to compile a text that contains just the Torah, Proverbs, Matthew, and James.
The book Teshuvah – Returning to the Ancient Path is not meant to replace the whole Bible. Instead, it is designed as a focused tool to help readers go directly to the core instructions of God, the wisdom for daily living, and how to walk faithfully with the Messiah. I plan on releasing a chapter at a time here at Yeshua Daily, chapter-by-chapter, as I work through it.
My Research Process and Sources
The book Teshuvah: Returning to the Ancient Path is an updated and restored edition of The Jewish Publication Society, (JPS) 1917 text, translated and compiled by me. My goal is to carefully update its archaic English and hard-to-understand words while preserving its majestic, rhythmic flow. Translating ancient languages requires navigating difficult intersections where pure literalism clashes with modern English comprehension. My hope is that readers can see the raw beauty of God’s word through a text that balances accuracy with an elegant, poetic cadence. When the literalism of the Hebrew or Greek breaks the sentence flow too severely for a modern reader, a dignified English standard is chosen for the main text.
To ensure the most accurate English word choices, my daily research relies heavily on study tools like Bible Hub and the Sefaria library. These platforms allow me to examine word-by-word language structures, look up original Hebrew and Greek dictionary definitions, and compare multiple textual sources side-by-side. I also cross-reference a variety of biblical scholars, academic commentaries, and papers on ancient textual variants.
Rather than relying on a single perspective, I cross-reference several highly respected historical and modern translations throughout this process. I draw rhythmic inspiration from unique literary works like Everett Fox’s Schocken Bible, while closely analyzing strict word-for-word legal renderings from nineteenth-century texts like the Julia E. Smith and Young’s Literal translations, just to name a few. To remain faithful to the original Hebrew and Greek thought patterns, I constantly consult digital interlinears from Scriptures4all, alongside traditional Jewish commentaries such as Rabbi Avrohom Davis’s Metsudah Chumash. Together, these diverse resources help me carefully weigh the choices between literal word renderings, modern phrases, and poetic flow.
The Translation Priority
My focus for this project is a word-for-word approach, keeping close Hebrew and Greek meaning first, and readability second. I prioritize staying as close to the original grammar as possible, choosing modern English words only when necessary to ensure the text remains clear, readable, and poetic. However, translating ancient languages requires navigating difficult intersections where pure literalism clashes with modern English comprehension. When a hard choice must be made, I evaluate the text; if a repetition or wordplay breaks the poetic flow so severely that it confuses a modern reader, a dignified English standard is chosen, and the literal word/phrase are preserved in the footnotes.
Case Study: Genesis 1:11
The Hebrew of Genesis 1:11 uses the phrase tadshe deshe (תַּדְשֵׁא דֶּשֶׁא). A completely unvarnished word-for-word rendering would be “sprout sprouts” or “grass grass.”
- The Problem: Modern readers do not instinctively understand what “sprout sprouts” means. They might assume it simply means a redundant “grow grow.” In modern English, “sprouts” evokes alfalfa or Brussels sprouts rather than an energetic, cosmic blanket of lush green life popping out of the dirt.
- The Solution: Forcing that direct repetition breaks the sweeping, majestic rhythm of the text. Because my secondary goal is poetic excellence, I opt for the classic, authoritative compromise “bring forth vegetation” (or grass). It remains beautifully accurate to the concept of the earth yielding green life, while the energetic Hebrew wordplay is fully unpacked for you in the bottom footnotes.
Handling the Divine Name
This book takes a reverent, non-dogmatic approach to the Sacred Name of God. In the original Hebrew scrolls, the Creator’s personal name is written using four holy consonants known as the Tetragrammaton: יהוה
This translation does not use modern English hybrid names or force a specific spelling on the reader. Instead, this text acknowledges the four letters in Hebrew as יהוה (YHVH). I deliberately leave the pronunciation up to the individual reader’s conviction and conscience. Whether you choose to read it silently, replace it with the traditional “LORD,” “ADONAI,” or “HASHEM,” or pronounce a specific name you believe it to be, the text preserves the exact placement of the four letters where they originally stand, honoring the truth that God is One.
Sharing Policy
Copyright © 2026 Theresa Joy – Yeshua Daily / Teshuvah: Returning to the Ancient Path. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). You are fully free to copy, print, distribute, transmit, edit, and build upon this text for non-commercial purposes, provided that proper credit is given to the author using the formal citation format: Joy, Theresa. “Teshuvah: Returning to the Ancient Path.” Yeshua Daily, 2026. Any commercial sale, resale, profit, or monetization of this text or its adapted versions is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, if you alter, transform, remix, or edit this text to create a new version, you must release your work under this exact same CC BY-NC-SA license, ensuring it cannot be locked behind a private copyright. When quoting short verses or passages, the abbreviation (Yeshua Daily) may be used for attribution. Thank you for keeping God’s word free and not for profit!
