God's supposedly chosen earthly organization (WTS/JWS) doesn't pronounce or spell god's name correctly !!!

by Finkelstein 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Finkelstein

  This came up on Terry Walstrom thread topic recently and I thought it would be good to explore this further.

  The JWS are quite boisterous and arrogant that they use the proper name of Jehovah as the divine name of god

  but a little investigation discovers something quite different.

  A Simple Overview of The Divine Name

  1. The Absolute Name as originally given to Moses on Sinai (Exodus 3:14) is AHYH ASR AHYH: "I Will Be Who I Will Be."
  2. "I Am That I Am", while quite valuable, is ultimately a mistranslation. This is a Christian interpretation applied 1000 years after the fact.
  3. Saying "I Will Be" made people very nervous. So "I Will Be" (AHYH) was changed into "He Will Be": YHWH This Name is known as the Tetragrammaton: "The 4 Letter Name." In English you most often see this Name as "Yahweh." The certain original pronunciation has been lost. Over 30 different pronunciations are known to the Kabbalists.
  4. The Tetragrammaton, spelled vertically, is the pictogram of a human being: . This is a visual representation of what it symbolically means to be created in the image of God.
  5. Over the years this discomfort with the Divine Name continued. Soon, people would not pronounce YHWH at all. Whenever they saw YHWH in the Bible, they would either say "The Name" (Ha Shem) or "The Lord" (Adonai).
  6. Originally, Hebrew did not have vowels. Eventually the Hebrews felt it was wise to insert little dots (called vowel points) around the letters to remind the reader of the exact pronunciation.
  7. When they came to YHWH in the text, they added the vowel points for Adonai ("Lord") to remind the reader that the Divine Name was not to be pronounced.
  8. In the Middle Ages, around 1500, translators misunderstood that the vowel points were for "Adonai", not "Yahweh". Thus, they combined the letters of YHWH with the vowels of Adonai. The result was "Jehovah". This is, quite simply, a mistranslation. (NOTE: We are NOT saying that this is evil, or that those who use this name are sinners, nor that everyone in the Jehovah's Witnesses are going to hell. No, No, NO! But the etymological fact is that "Jehovah" is a mistranslation based upon a historical misunderstanding.) Like changing "Betty" into "Botta" by keeping the same consonants but using the wrong vowels.
  9. In our modern Bibles, then, whenever YHWH is found, we usually "translate" it as LORD or Jehovah. Both are wrong, though Jehovah is certainly preferable to LORD.
  10. "God" is a noun. It is a type of Being. "God" is not a name. "Human" is what you are....but you also have a name.
  11. Thus, when catechisms & preachers say "What is God's name? God is God's name" they are also simply wrong.
  12. As you can see, the farther we go in time, the more confusion & ignorance we acquire. At this point, very few of even the ordained clergy understands any of this. Of those who know it, only a small percentage actually cares.
  13. Yet the 3rd Commandment STILL SAYS, "Thou shall not take the Name of YHWH your God in vain, for YHWH will not leave him unpunished who takes His Name in vain."
• 

  Miles

  So if I understand right, you are not to mention the name of God at all?
  
• 

  Village Idiot

  Finkelstein:

  "In our modern Bibles, then, whenever YHWH is found, we usually "translate" it as LORD or Jehovah. Both are wrong, though Jehovah is certainly preferable to LORD."

  It's irrelevant that JeHoVaH is not as accurate a description as it could be. Reason being that you're going to have a 101 different pronunciations in a 101 languages regardless of whether it's YHWH or JHVH. Knowing the right pronunciation will still not be able to stop it from being distorted by other languages' own rules of pronunciation and writing.
• 

  Finkelstein

  These are just bits of information taken off the Web concerning how and possibly what would be a phonetically correct pronunciation of the sacred name of god . It would appear that Jehovah is a Latin version of Yahweh.

  Hebrew Names of God
  Adonai and Adonai Constructs given in the Tanakh
  
  Adonai is the plural of Adon, meaning “Lord, Lord, LORD, master, or owner” (the word Adon derives from a Ugaritic word meaning “lord” or “father”). In the Tanakh, the word Adon can refer to men and angels as well as to the LORD God of Israel (e.g., Exodus 34:23). God is called the “Lord of lords”(Deuteronomy 10:17) and Psalm 8:1 mentions God as “YHVH our Lord.”
  
  The plural form Adonai, like the plural form Elohim, is regularly used with singular verbs and modifiers, so it is best to construe the Name as an “emphatic plural” or “plural of majesty.” When the plural is formed using a singular possessive ending (“my Lords”), it always refers to God, and occurs over 300 times in the Tanakh in this form.
  
  The Masoretes ensured that the sacred Name of the LORD YHVH would not be taken in vain by putting the vowel marks for Adonai under the letters in the running text (ketiv). They did this to remind the reader to pronounce Adonai regardless of the consonants in the text (qere). However, Adon and Adonai also appear as Names of God in the Hebrew Masoretic text, and some of these will be listed here.
  
  
  Adonai and Adonai Constructs
  For each name in the list below, I provide the following information:
  
  The Hebrew text for the name
  The most common English transliteration (in italics)
  A definition for the name, references to the Tanakh, and frequency information
  Additional comments, if applicable.
  Lord
  
  Adon
  
  Adon. [basic form]
  A title variously used to refer to men, angels, and to the true God of Israel, meaning “lord, master, owner.” From the Ugaritic adn meaning "lord" or "father" and the Akkadian adannu, "mighty."
  References: Jos. 3:11, 13; Neh. 7:61; Ps. 12:5; 97:5; 105:21; 114:7; Jer. 22:18; 34:5; Zech. 4:14; 6:5.
  
  The LORD
  
  Adonai
  
  Adonai.
  Lord; God; name used as a substitute for the sacred Tetragrammaton; emphatic form of ’Adon (Isa. 6:1). Occurs 300 times in the Tanakh. The first use appears in Gen. 15:2 where Abram addresses God as “Adonai YHVH.”
  
  The LORD of lords
  
  adonei-ha'adonim
  
  Adonei ha'adonim.
  Lord of lords (Deut. 10:17; Psalm 136:3).
  
  The LORD YHVH
  
  Adonai Adonai
  
  Adonai Adonai.
  Lord YHVH. Lord GOD.
  References: Gen. 15:2, 8; Deut. 3:24; 9:26; Jos. 7:7; Jdg. 6:22; 16:28; 2 Sam. 7:18ff, 22, 28f; 1 Ki. 2:26; 8:53; Ps. 69:7; 71:5, 16; Isa. 3:15; 7:7; etc.; Amos 1:8; 3:7f, 11, 13; 4:2, 5; 5:3; 6:8; 7:1f, 4ff; 8:1, 3, 9, 11; 9:8; Obad. 1:1; Mic. 1:2; Zeph. 1:7.
  
  The LORD YHVH of hosts
  
  Adon Adonai Tseva'ot
  
  Adon Adonai Tseva'ot.
  The Lord GOD of hosts. (Tsava means army or host).
  References: Isa. 1:24; 3:1; 10:16, 33; 19:4; Mal. 3:1.
  
  My Lord
  
  Adoni
  
  Adoni.
  My Lord (Psalm 110:1).
  
  
  
  
  The Lord YHVH
  
  haAdon Adonai
  
  Ha’adon Adonai.
  The Lord God (Ex. 23:17, Ex. 34:23).
  
  Our Lord
  
  Adoneinu
  
  Adoneinu.
  Our Lord (1 Sam. 16:16).
  
  Adoneinu.
  Our Lord. Spelling variant. Often used to refer to leaders (such as King David).
  References: 1 Sam. 25:14, 17; 1 Ki. 1:43, 47; Neh. 10:30; Ps. 8:2, 10.
  

  The Lord of all the earth
  
  Adon kol-ha'arets
  
  Adon kol-ha'arets.
  Lord of all the earth.
  References: Jos. 3:11, 13; Ps. 97:5; Zech. 4:14; 6:5.
  
  
  Psalm 147:5
  Great is our LORD and full of power; His wisdom is beyond reckoning.
  Psalm 147:5
  
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  Let's make an analogy.

  In my town, street signs have names like MAPLE BLVD.

  Now, what happens when somebody asks where you live?

  Don't you supply the vowel sounds when you say, "Maple Boulevard"?

  You automatically do that, just as you'd say "Street" if it was MAPLE ST.

  I live in Ft.Worth, TX.

  I say, "Fort Worth, Texas."

  So far, so good.

  A thousand years from now, if you dug up that street sign, whoever is alive at that time may not be aware what BLVD or ST or FT. or TX means or HOW TO SAY IT.

  So, as in the case of YhWh, they might well guess.

  MAPLE BiLoVud

  FaT Worth, Texas

  ____________

  None of the above is a crisis of any major proportions, of course.

  But, it becomes more serious when it comes to a HOLY NAME which represents the Almighty Living God.

  YaHOO WaHoo

  ______________

  Would you introduce your fiancee's parents to your friends without being absolutely certain of the correct pronunciation? If not--why not?

  What would you think if your wife misspelled your name?

  How about getting letters in the mail with your name wrong?

  Would it annoy you? Why?

  ________________

  The Watchtower Corporation has made T-shirts for all its members to wear day and night since 1931, so to speak, in which it has rolled the dice on the TRUE name. If they are wrong, then their attitude is "Big Fucking Deal".

  Now that is what's going on :)
• 

  Tenacious

  I don't understand how God being the almighty could not have seen this (our modern day) and planned for it so that his name, his proper name, be sanctified just like Jesus said it should.

  The translation of the scriptures or should I say 'the accurate translation of the scriptures' is something that I'm having a hard time reconciling.
• 

  Crazyguy

  The words Adonai and Lord mean the same thing, but what most people don't know is the original word used was Baal the Hebrew word meaning the same as the two previous words. But what's even more telling was the word Elyon was used in almost all the places were we now see the word god. This word means Gods. Once in awhile a word like El or El Shaddai was used to show a specific god or title of a god. Bible scholars will say that the word Elyon the plural word for god is used to show his greatness or power yet this was never a common practice by any one speaking Hebrew to use this technique in any other way.

  So is YHVH or YHWH really the name of god of the bible or was it a title for several gods? Did the Maccabees really make everyone stop writing down gods real name or was this insertion of the YhVh a cover-up for maybe several names of gods being used. For example in Hosea in two verses the writers states that his god is from Egypt. In Malachi this writer describes his god as being a Sun of righteousness with wings (sounds like Amen Ra Egypt's sun god to me).

  In earlier writings the Jews clearly ripped off the writing from and older civilization example, Noah's flood and in the older stories more then one god was present. There is also cases where more modern bible writers blatantly changed or inserted words in the manuscripts to try to change the meaning. So what is then gods real name? Well my research tells me that he was for the Hebrews at first none as El, then he morphed in to Baal Hadad. This god possible took on the attributes of some of the other gods in the Pantheon of El, his 70 created offspring. Noah, Gideon and others had 70 offspring. We also know that the Jews worshipped other gods not included in El's pantheon, solar deities' and gods from Egypt and Babylon, even the bible confirms this.

  Its only after their return home from Babylon does it look as though they started in earnest to worship only one god, but there is some evidence that the god they worshipped during this time was one introduced to them from Persia.

  What about after the 1st century and after the supposed arrival of Christ? Well there is a Jewish temple near Jerusalem called Beth Alpha that was found in the late 1920's. It was thought to have been built around the 6th century and on the floor was a mosaic of the Zodiac and in the middle of this Zodiac is a picture of the Greek sun god Helios. So if I had to guess what gods real name is I would say El, Ra, Enki, Enlil, Marduk, Chronos, Zeus, Jesus, Ahura Mazda, Helios, Isis, Osiris, Dionysus, Mithras, Shaddai, etc. etc. etc.
• 

  wizzstick

  It's strange what you know when you're in, and yet the significance doesn't sink in until you start to wake up.
  
  I knew that Jehovah wasn't the actual name of God, but thought it was an improvement on the more vague LORD and therefore it was 'better'. But whilst I was waking up I did research and realised that Jehovah is a hybrid word. A mixture of two words (consonants of the latin version of the tetragrammaton plus the vowels of Adonai) thus making this a totally made up word!
  
  It's also interesting that in the 60 odd years since the NWT was started, Bible Scholars and academics use 'Jehovah' less and less as Yahweh has gained ground as the more correct version of the tetragrammaton. And they quickly point out that even Yahweh is a best guess.
  
  The penny really dropped when I was trying to think of how best to illustrate this to my mother (should it come up in conversation) and thought up this way of expressing the problem.
  
  Lets say the exact translation of the name of God was unknown from an old language. The closest translation is Robert but an old version created by a catholic hundreds of years ago is William. Which name would one use to get 'closer' to God?
  
  Of course one immediate problem is that God still hasn't made it clear what his name is in modern languages, but surely, at the very least, he would direct his people to use the closest one, Robert?
  
  And there you have the problem in a nutshell for JW's. God has apparently directed his only people on earth to stop using one inaccurate version (LORD) and instead use another inaccurate version (Jehovah) whilst a more accurate version is already known (Yahweh). And the inaccurate version, Jehovah, is what he wants to be used as a witness to all the nations.
  
  Madness!
• 

  Witness My Fury

  Yesterday in the wake of terrys post on YHWH I casually asked my uber dub mother if she knew where the name Jehovah came from, she refused point blank to engage in any conversation she deemed or sensed as being negative (i.e one that doesnt support the JWs) so we never had that conversation.

  "The Truth" sure has a hollow ring to it when it runs away from scrutiny at every occasion me thinks....
• 

  jhine

  Marked.

  Jan