Jesus never used the name Jehovah???

Mrs Smith

My hubby and I have been doing a lot of bible reading are we correct by saying that Jesus never once used the name Jehovah? If the name is so important surely Jesus would have used it? The JW's say that Jesus was the greatest teacher and that we should follow His example so why are they using a name that Jesus did not once refer to. Or did He?

Zico

Well, JWs believe he did use the name, but that the name was removed from later Greek manuscripts. Of course, there's no proof of this, and the problem with it is, if Jehovah was removed, what else could have been changed in the bible? It's very unlikely though. Jews didn't like using the name, they avoided it, and since Pharisees would try to find anything against Jesus, surely his use of Jehovah would have been used against Jesus? Yet there's no proof of that happening. Just thinking of one example where Jesus is supposed to have used it in the NWT, when he quotes that Deuteronomy scripture 'You must love Jehovah your God with your whole soul...' in answer to a Pharisee's question 'What is the greatest commandment?' After Jesus' answer, the Pharisees are speechless, and they don't attack the answer because they can't. Since using the name was considered blasphemy by Pharisees, it would have presented them the perfect opportunity, but they didn't take it, and it seems likely to me that it's because Jesus never used the name Jehovah, so there was no opportunity.

poppers

I like your reasoning there, Zico.

carla

How could Jesus have used the word jehovah when it wasn't invented until about the year 1270 by a Catholic monk by the name of Martini?

Any first year hebrew student can tell you that you can add any vowels you want jivivhi, juhuvoh, and so on. The word simply did not exist, Jesus used the word Father. What do you call your father? Just the mark of a cult to use a made up word and insist ones salvation depends upon using it like a magic mantra or something.

jgnat

AND Hebrew was much like Latin is today to the locals. It was used in the Synagogue but not by the common people of the day. Scholars believe Jesus likely gave all his sermons in Aramaic.

To further complicate matters, neither the Hebrew or the Aramaic language or alphabet have a sound for "J". Cheeze, even these days the Germans don't have a sound for "J". How do modern German Witnesses speak aloud YHWH?

If Jesus DID speak "YHWH" aloud, his sentence would have made as much sense to his listeners as:

"Love the kurios your theos with all your heart, soul, and mind" or "Diligo senior vestri deus per totus vestri pectus pectoris , animus , quod mens." (Matthew 22:37)

nvrgnbk

I've always heard it explained in the following way(I'm not saying I buy it):

Of course Jesus didn't use the name Jehovah. That was his father you're talking about. Nobody calls their father by

his name! Instead, he called him Daddy(Abba).

Nvr

Edited to add:

Sorry carla! Didn't mean to steal your thoughts. I should have read your post more thoroughly before posting

mine.

seek2find

Mrs. Smith, It's good to hear that you and Husband have been reading the Bible. I've thought a lot about what you mention about Jesus not using the name Jehovah. I think that is a valid point. One thing that also strikes me is that according to Exodus 6:3, Abraham Isaac and some other faithful men of old didn't even know God by his name but knew him as "God Almighty" This leads me to believe that The divine name was to be used only by the Nation of Israel when they were in the special covenant relationship with God. By the time Jesus came on the seen they had long since fallen out of good standing with him. It seems that If Jesus wanted his disciples to use the Divine name he would surely have used it in Matt. the 6th chapter where he was instructing the disciples how to pray. He didn't but said instead that he should address him as "Father" The witnesses like to say that it's dishonoring to God to refer to him as LORD or God without using his name. But here in America how many people would refer to the President of this nation, when in his personal pressence,as George? No the generaly accepted way to address him is "Mr. President". if a mere man who is a ruler deserves such respect as to not be referred to by his name but as by title of his position should not the Greatest person in the Universe also? I never got the explanation offered by the witnesses of how the divine name was to be "Hallowed" or Sanctified. As Jesus said it should be at Matt 6:9 The New Living Translation says "Let you name be honored" So just as we honor the President by not referring to him by his name, so we honor the father by Referring to him as Father Or LORD. Peace to you and your husband in Christ, seek2find

Narkissos

A good pair of questions to ask a JW, in this order:

1. How do you know the New Testament was correctly transmitted?
2. Why does the NWT substitute "Jehovah" to kurios in over 200 passages of the NT?

To answer those two questions s/he has to develop the exactly opposite arguments about textual criticism:

1. The agreement of the oldest extant Greek manuscripts lead us to quasi-certainty about the original text.
2. All the extant Greek manuscripts; including the oldest, have been corrupted from the original text.

It's fun to watch and almost needless to point out.

All the rest is, to use an unwittingly pleonastic JW phrase, mere "human reasoning": E.g.:

"Jesus would not follow the contemporary Jewish tradition."
-- How do we know? Because of the controversies over issues like the Sabbath and ceremonial cleanness in the Gospels. Why then is there no controversy over the divine name?"..."

funkyderek

No form of the name Jehovah appears anywhere in the New Testament. The translators of the NWT selectively mistranslated the Greek word Kyrios (meaning "Lord") as Jehovah over two hundred times in order to bolster their peculiar theology. It's worth noting that even in the NWT Jesus never uses the Name, except when quoting from the Old Testament. When instructing his followers how to pray, he advised them to refer to God as father, which is consistently how he referred to him.

nvrgnbk

2. All the extant Greek manuscripts; including the oldest, have been corrupted from the original text.

What is your scholarly opinion of the book Misquoting Jesus,Nark?

I've perused it and found it to be eye-opening to say the least.

Would greatly appreciate your input on it, if you're familiar with it.

Nvr

Jesus never used the name Jehovah???

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