God's 'name'and the Bible
by Gill 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Gill
Whops! Sorry!
The December 1 st Watchtower is about the' Antichrist'.
My understanding is that the WTBTS put the Name Jehovah in the NT when it was NOT in the original or earliest manuscripts. Please correct me if it's the OT instead.
But I thought this strange, they criticise the removal of God's name and thought nothing of adding it where it had not been originally.
'Adding to the confusion, manuy Bible translators have taken God's name, Jehovah, out of their translations, even though it occurs over 7000 times in the original text! Clearly, attempting to turn the Almighty into not just a mystery but a nameless mystery is an act of gross disrespect for our Creator and his inspired word.'
How do they know for sure what was in THE ORIGINAL manuscripst?
Why use the name 'Jehovah' when the name was written YHWH in the early manuscripts?
Why is adding the name where it wasn't originally written OK and taking it away not OK?
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fullofdoubtnow
The name Jehovah has been in use for centuries, and was in the King James Version of the Old Testament, published long before CT Russell and his followers were ever thought of, though I suppose Yahweh may be a more correct spelling. As for the New Testament, there is no doubt that the wts have added it there. Their argument would be that it is important to use God's name, but as far as I know it wasn't in the original writings, and their arguments in support of inserting it into the NT are spurious, to say the least.
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MidwichCuckoo
I believe the name 'Jehovah' was first used by a Spanish monk, Raymundus Martini, in 1278 (?) - and I believe the Watchtower gives him credit for it too!
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OnTheWayOut
There are no original manuscripts for the NT in existence. The WTS inserts Jehovah based on a couple of premises-
The NT quotes OT scriptures that had the tetragrammaton in them,
so the name should have been there (They say it probably was there)Some scholar in the 1300's (or so) put the name in, so it's okay to do so. His reasoning is that
some older Hebrew manuscripts of the NT put the tetragrammaton in them. They actually mention
this reason somewhere.There must have been a great apostasy after the Apostles died, and the name was removed
from all copies of the NT.WT thinking is absurd. If the writers quoted OT, but did not insert the name, we should write
what they wrote in newer Bibles, never compromising but sticking to their original intent.
They were highlighting a new focus on Jesus, so we are wrong to remove their intent.
Somebody over a thousand years later did it, so it must be okay- come on. Some Hebrews
took the liberty, so we should, too- wrong wrong wrong.
Scholars have stated that there is no way that after these writings circulated for awhile, an
effort to remove the name would have been 100% successful. There would be copies floating
around of original writings with the name intact, and copies without. All the copies are without. -
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greendawn
The Apostles were using the Septuaging version of the Bible which was made by Jews in Alexandria around 200-100 BC and it did not contain the name Yahveh. I don't understand why the JWs insist so much on using the name Jehovah when the most central name in the NT is that of Jesus, why do they have to regress to OT set ups.
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Mikeus
The tetragram is in none of the Greek manuscripts. Out of the thousands available, it doesn't appear once. The whole argument for the Hebrew versions they have found which do indeed use the divine name is actually very incriminating against the WTS. Where the WTS has replaced "kurios" (Greek for Lord) with Jehovah has been biased, as the phrase "Lord Jesus" should read "Jehovah Jesus" as it does in the Hebrew NT manuscripts. The WTS has OMITTED the tetragrammaton around 50 times, in order to uphold their worldview of Jesus as a lesser god.
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LanDi
Hi. I think that we may never get the truth.
I see it as this - the Hebrews wrote without vowels ie: JHVH and YHWH is the translation of the tetragammon. So the WTS say we do not know the spelling of Jehovah let alone the pronounciation - this concludes that without doubt , Jehovah does NOT appear in the Christian Greek Scriptures once as it would be correctly spelt!!!! It doesn't appear ! A child can understand that concept! I was talking to an elder about this - and he walked away from me !!!!!
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Gill
Welcome LanDi!
You are absolutely right but being wrong about something has never stopped the the WTBTS!
What can be more disrespectful than not knowing someone's correct name and so making up something that will just have to do?