(true) God

by elatwra 12 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  elatwra

  I was reading Auld Souls post on a different thread and I noticed that in 1st Chronicles the NWT has the word (true) inserted in parenthesis in front of the word God.

  1 Chronicles 15:25-16:6 And David and the older men of Israel and the chiefs of the thousands came to be the ones walking along to bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah from the house of Obed-edom with rejoicing. And it came about when the [true] God helped the Levites while carrying the ark of the covenant of Jehovah that they proceeded to sacrifice seven young bulls and seven rams. And David was dressed in a sleeveless coat of fine fabric, and also all the Levites carrying the Ark and the singers and Chenaniah the chief of the carrying by the singers; but upon David there was an ephod of linen. And all the Israelites were bringing up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah with joyful shouting and with the sounding of the horn and with trumpets and with cymbals, playing aloud on stringed instruments and harps.
  
  And it came about that, when the ark of the covenant of Jehovah came as far as the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, herself looked down through the window and got to see King David skipping about and celebrating; and she began to despise him in her heart.
  
  16 Thus they brought the ark of the [true] God in and placed it inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and they began to present burnt offerings and communion sacrifices before the [true] God. When David finished offering up the burnt offering and the communion sacrifices, he went on to bless the people in the name of Jehovah. Further, he apportioned to all the Israelites, man as well as woman, to each one a round loaf of bread and a date cake and a raisin cake. Then he put before the ark of Jehovah some of the Levites as ministers, both to call to remembrance and to thank and praise Jehovah the God of Israel, Asaph the head, and second to him Zechariah, [and] Jeiel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with instruments of the string type and with harps, and Asaph with the cymbals playing aloud, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with the trumpets constantly before the ark of the covenant of the [true] God.

  That is so strange. i checked the other translations I have and nobody else is doing it. Is that a common occurence in the NWT old testament?
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  Scully

  It is a very common occurence in the New World Translation, which was produced by the WTS for use by JWs.
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  elatwra

  Do you have any idea what is the logic behind it?
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  Arthur

  My guess as to why it was inserted was because the translators felt that the word "true" most surely belonged there; and thus felt justified in placing it there. One reason for this might be the fact that some Bible scholars believe that some of the "faithful men of old" did not worship Yahweh exclusively.

  For example, some Bible scholars have found strange anomalies in the accounts about Abram building an alter at the Oaks or Terebinths of Mamre. Judging from historical facts regarding this region, and from the anomalies found in such accounts, scholars have suggested that Abram was also a worshipper of the Goddess Asherah. There is plenty of archeological findings that show that many Israellites got involved in Asherah worship.

  When the WTS was producing the NWT, they may have decided to "nip this idea in the bud" by inserting the word "true" so that non of the "flock" became confused or tried to promote any "false" ideas.
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  badboy

  SO WAS THERE A FALSE GOD?
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  Narkissos

  This is just the NWT usual rendering of ha-'elohim = (definite) article ha + elohim, meaning "god(s)". Literally, then, "the G/god(s)"

  The actual nuance of this expression varies according to the contexts: sometimes probably carrying a sort of abstract connotation, as in "the Divine," e.g. Ecclesiastes; most of the times hardly distinguishable from the simple 'elohim. The translation "the (true) God" introduces a completely foreign idea to most contexts.
• 

  moggy lover

  There is a sense in which the NWT has attempted to bring out a subtelty behind the original Hebrew wording of the OT and this could be applauded, if it were recognized as a scholarastic usage.

  Evidently there are two ways in which the Heb inscribes the word for "God" You have "Elohim" and you have "Haelohim" The second being the same word but with the word "Ha" meaning "The" added.

  There are at least two views regarding this as subscribed to by scholars:

  1 That the two terms are interchangeable and essentially have no substancial difference in meaning. In other words, their usage is conventional, rather than doctrinal

  2 That the "Ha" added signifies a name, hence :"Elohim" as a name. The Darby translation uses the expression "Elohim God" or even "Jehovah Elohim" [Gen 2:4,5 etc]

  The NWT however saw another reason. They quote the Zorrell and Semkowski Heb Lecicon pg 54, which says: "In the Holy Scriptures especially the one true God, Jahve, is designated with this word Ha Elohim" [See the NWT Reference Edition Pub in 1984, pg 1567] Zorrell and Semkowski translate for an example, Dt 4:35 as: "Jahve is the [one true] God" Unfortunately for the WTS this Lexicon was published in 1940 and others published since have not necessarily endorsed it. For instance the "Theological Wordbook" by Harris, Archer, and Waltke pub in 1980 make no such distinction. [Pg 44]

  Also, the word is used for UNtrue gods 8 times in the OT. Ex 22:20 for instance and so the NWT should have translated the word as "An [untrue] God", but instead leaves the word simply as a plural "gods" .

  Where their attempt can be seen as ennobling the God of the Bible, I rather suspect it is an example of unnecessary pretentiousness on the part of Freddy Franz.

  Cheers
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  carla

  So is Elohim a name for God or a description then? I have heard ministers use it both ways. My jw claims that all the other Hebrew words used for God are not and cannot be used as His name, merely descriptive words for Him. But I have seen this addressed by anti witness authors and they claim otherwise. What do our jwd scholars say?

  As a side note, why put the word 'true' in at all if there is only one God anyway? Why the need to differentiate between a false god and the one God? As I have said before, to me it sounds like jw's need to distinguish between jehovah god and bob god, tom god, and harry god.
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  Dansk

  SO WAS THERE A FALSE GOD?

  Yes! All of them!! Ian
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  Narkissos

  That the "Ha" added signifies a name, hence :"Elohim" as a name.

  That's quite unlikely since names in Hebrew generally don't have the article. Afaik all exceptions can be traced back to common noun usage upstream of the personal name (or toponym, etc.; e.g. ha-ba`al, ha-yarden etc.).

  Of course you must separate the cases where ha-'elohim works as a real plural, meaning "the gods" -- in which case the article has approximately the same meaning as in English. They are obvious when the verb or adjective agrees with the plural, and possible in many other instances.