Hostility to God's "name"

by AwSnap 46 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  AwSnap

  I was given the Brochure THE DIVINE NAME That will endure forever, and was pointed to page 20 which is entitled "Hostility to God's Name?"

  It says that the word Jehovah was originally in the Hebrew Scriptures but was taken out. Is this true? How could I find facts on this?

  Also, it says that the name Jesus does not accurately represent the original form of God's Son, yet people are completely okay using that name (Jesus).

  Can you argue with me? I'm trying to come up with a good arguement, but I'm having a tough time. Thanks.
• 

  Black Sheep

  Welcome to the forum AwSnap.

  This thread might help

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/178567/1/Does-the-name-Jehovah-actually-exist-in-the-original-Hebrew-language

  Cheers

  Chris
• 

  AwSnap

  Thank you :-)
• 

  Black Sheep

  Before you get too bogged down playing Bible ping pong with members of high control cults, you need to know how cults operate. If you don't, you run the risk of being recruited.

  Google is a valuable tool for this. Try mind control cult for example.

  There are some good videos on youtube too. Try the same search.

  Be careful

  Chris
• 

  Narkissos

  Welcome!

  As far as the Hebrew Scriptures = Old Testament are concerned, the Tetragrammaton was never taken out, it's still there in Hebrew editions; a number of English translations substitute it with LORD but others don't and transliterate it as Yahweh (Jehovah in older versions).

  It is very different with the Greek Scriptures = New Testament where no single manuscript has any occurrence of the Tetragrammaton in any form. There the WT assumes that it was "taken out" in the early 2nd century or so and claims to restore it whereas there is no evidence at all that it was there in the first place (and much evidence to the contrary).

  Mixing up the two issues obfuscates the problem; the practice of substituting LORD to Yhwh in the OT is questionable; the practice of substituting Jehovah to kurios in the NT is even more questionable; but the confusion makes it look like the WT is pursuing the same noble cause in both cases.
• 

  Doug Mason

  In the late 1970s, I wrote a paper on the subject (Randy W made it available at the time). You can read it at:

  http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/Witnessing_the_Name.pdf

  while Yahoo keeps Geocities going. I wrote it long before we had computers and the www, and so much more is now available.

  Another piece I put together is available at

  http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/Translating_with_prejudice.pdf

  I hope they are of some help to you.

  Doug
• 

  WTWizard

  Just goes to show that the monks can and do make major transcription errors, and the witlesses are restoring those errors.
• 

  undercover

  The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever

  I've always loved the irony of the title of this brochure when inside it says:

  "The truth is, nobody knows for sure how the name of God was originally pronounced."

  If the pronunciation (and spelling) haven't endured to now, how can it endure forever?
• 

  Satanus

  The name jehovah is a catholic invention. Funny, how jws glommed onto that name, since they hate the church so much. I believe that the group leader, rutherford, was looking for stuff to differentiate his group from christians. He succeeded very well. Thus, a cult was born.

  S
• 

  Trevor Scott

  "Jehovah" is not God's name. It's just a made up word based on the amalgamation of a couple other words.
  
  Word Origin & History
  Jehovah
  1530, Tyndale's erroneous transliteration of Heb. Tetragramaton YHWH, using vowel points of Adhonai "my lord" (see Yahweh). Used for YHWH (the full name being too sacred for utterance) in four places in the Old Testament in the K.J.V. where the usual translation lord would have been inconvenient; taken as the principal and personal name of God. The vowel substitution was originally made by the Masoretes as a direction to substitute Adhonai for "the ineffable name." European students of Heb. took this literally, which yielded L. JeHoVa (first attested in writings of Galatinus, 1516). Jehovah's Witnesses "member of Watchtower Bible and Tract Society" first attested 1933; the organization founded c.1879 by Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916); the name from Isa. xliii:10.