Is God's name absent in the Christian Scriptures?

by Spike Tassel 163 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  donny

  hi donni bit of personal reasoning but thats all it is, none of your conclusions are anything other than personal speculation.

  I agree that my synopsis on why the name is not in the NT is speculation, but so is the insertion of Jehovah 237 times in the NT without one shred of any 1st or 2nd century Greek manuscript to support it. The divine name booklet comments that Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew and most certainly used the name and this is also speculation.

  I do not see how anyone can see that we have scores of very old OT manuscripts that have the tetragrammaton that predate the NT by several centuries, yet believe that Satan succeeded in making sure it was not preserved in the NT. I don't have all the answers to these issues, but I do know that the name was not in the NT because of all the hundreds of 1st/2nd century manuscripts/fragments that exist today and we find more as time goes on.

  I also believe the name should be in the OT translations because the evidence supports that and to replace it with Lord is the same as replacing Lord with Jehovah the NT.

  Donny
• 

  Chalam

  Donny and Isaac, I agree with you both, great points!

  Anyhow, I am still waiting on Jehovah's Witnesses to let me know who's name I can call on to be saved? Jehovah or Jesus? Their NWT says both but it also says there is only one name to be saved by so I am confused!

  All the best,

  Stephen
• 

  possible-san

  Chalam.

  Anyhow, I am still waiting on Jehovah's Witnesses to let me know who's name I can call on to be saved? Jehovah or Jesus? Their NWT says both but it also says there is only one name to be saved by so I am confused!

  I think that the way of explanation like this is insincere, IMO.

  In the Trinity doctrine which you always explain, "Jesus IS Jehovah."
  If so, the meaning "Jesus saves" will be "Jehovah saves."

  After all, when you say "Jesus is Jehovah", that is because you want to deny Jehovah/Yahweh.

  possible
  http://godpresencewithin.web.fc2.com/
• 

  PSacramento

  Possible-san,

  While I can't speak for anyone else, my view of Jesus "beinging" God is simply that all the God is, is manifest in Jesus, they are in perfect union, nothing is done by Jesus without God and nothing is done by God if not THROUGH Jesus, it has nothing to do with denying God or Jesus because you can't have one without the other.
• 

  possible-san

  PSacramento.

  I cannot understand well the thing which you want to say.

  My own belief does not admit that historical Jesus is God.
  Probably it will be what is called "personality cult."
  For me, Jesus is "I AM."
  But it is in symbolic and figurative meaning.
  
  Based on that belief of mine, I am not talking now.
• 

  PSacramento

  Possible-san,

  All that Jesus is, God is and all that God is, Jesus is, to me, that doesn't make him God, it makes him One with God.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  Reniaa- Why reveal your name only to remove it?

  Who removed it? We are discussing the Christian (Greek) scriptures here. It was never there. It was never there. Nobody "removed" it.

  Spike-

  If none of the original writings of the NT have yet been found, it follows that we cannot yet know what language these originals were in, and we cannot know yet whether the divine name was found in them as per se.

  So if you want to question even the written language of the originals, how can you believe anything in any of the scriptures? It is reasonable to believe that the originals were in Greek, but let's go with what you say. Nobody today can see the originals of any scriptures so all we have are mens' words, not God's Words.

  Reniaa- All very nice speculations but none of them are scriptural, there is no scripture saying to no longer use Jehovah's name quite the contrary, And so Jehovah stands as God's name until such a scripture happens. Any speculation on Jesus name or actions somehow replacing this is just reading into the scriptures your own viewpoint, explanations and justification.

  Use the name all you want. But what kind of rafter do you have in your eye when you accuse others of "reading into the scriptures with [their] own viewpoint, explanations and justifications" when you support all the 1914 crap? The name still doesn't belong in the NT.
• 

  possible-san

  PSacramento
  
  I understand your belief.
  However, now, I think that your explanation is not related to "my reply to Chalam."
  Chalam said, "Jehovah or Jesus?."

  But no problem, if they are "One" (Heb, "’echadh") as you say.
• 

  Spike Tassel

  The Christian scriptures actually comprise the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, God's name is properly referred to and included in translations in both the OT and the NT, both directly and indirectly in people's names and in place names. In English, these names are typically derived from the Tetragrammaton and abbreviated variations of it. Any direct use in the NT at this point comes from its use in comparable quotations in the oldest available OT manuscripts. It's as simple as that. This is the faith that I have on this point, and the evidence I use to demonstrate the soundness of it.
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  oompa