Hasn’t this been discussed already on a different thread.
So if the Encyclopedia Britannica
Yahweh
the God of the Israelites, his name being revealed to Moses as four Hebrew
CONSONANTS (YHWH) CALLED THE TETRAGRAMMATON. AFTER THE EXILE (6TH CENTURY BC),
and especially from the 3rd century BC on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh
for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal religion through its
proselytizing in the Greco-Roman world, the more common noun Elohim, meaning
"god," tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal
sovereignty of Israel's God over all others. At the same time, the divine name
was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced
vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai ("My
Lord"), which was translated as Kyrios ("Lord") in the
Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
And according to Jeroen Ashton
In 1278 a Spanish monk, Raymundo Martini, wrote the Latin
work PUGIO FIDEI (Dagger of faith). In it he used the name of God, spelling it
Yohoua. Later printings of this work, dated some centuries later, used the
spelling JEHOVA.
Soon after, in 1303, Porchetus de Salvaticis completed a work entitled VICTORIA
PORCHETI AVERSUS IMPIOS HEBRAEOS (Porchetus' Victory against the Ungodly
Hebrews). He spells God's name IOHOUAH, IOHOUA and IHOUAH.
Then, in 1518, Petrus Galatinus, a Catholic priest born in the late 1400's,
published a work entitled DE ARCANIS CATHOLICAE VERITATIS (Concerning Secrets
of the Universal Truth) in which he spelled God's name IEHOUA.
Now, the direct answer to your question: the name "Jehovah" first
appeared in an English BIBLE in 1530,
when William Tyndale published a translation of the Chumash (the first five
books of the Bible). In this, he included the name of God, usually spelled
IEHOUAH, in several verses (Genesis 15:2; Exodus 6:3; 15:3; 17:6; 23:17; 33:19;
34:23; Deuteronomy 3:24. Tyndale also included God's name in Ezekiel 18:23 and
36:23 in his translations that were added at the end of THE NEW TESTAMENT,
Antwerp, 1534), and in a note in this edition he wrote: "Iehovah is God's
name... moreover as oft as thou seist LORD in great letters (except there be
any error in the printing) is is in Hebrew Iehovah." (Please note as I
told you previously, there was no "J" in English at this time; the J
is a product of a stylized I; thus giving us the current Jehovah rather than
the Old English Iehovah. The "u" used in the above names is also a
reminder that there was no "v" in Old English, as you can read David
in the original King James version was written "Dauid".)
In 1534 Martin Luther published his complete translation of the Bible in
German, based on the original languages. While he used the German
"Herr" (Lord or Sir) for the Tetragrammaton, in a sermon which he
delivered in 1526 on Jeremiah 23:1-8, he said, "The name Jehovah, Lord,
belongs exclusively to the true God."
Subsequently,
Jehovah was used not only in the "Authorized" King James Version of
1611, but the Spanish VALERA version of 1602, the Portuguese ALMEIDA version of
1681, the German ELBERFELDER version of 1871, and the American Standard Version
of 1901. It appears that the Jerusalem Bible was the first one to used Yahweh
instead of Lord and Jehovah.
The Masoretic, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to
reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the
name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai ("Lord",
editor) or Elohim ("God", editor). Thus, the
artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) (emphasis ours, ed.) came into
being. Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation
periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th century’s biblical
scholars again began to use the form Yahweh. Early Christian writers, such as
Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used a form like Yahweh, and this
pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was never really lost. Other Greek
transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh.
Hence forth the name kept by the Watchtower, and by 1931
it was used to distinguish Jehovah’s Witnesses from the International Bible
Student Association. I believe that’s the point for JW’s to bring back the
rightful name of God in modern language,
but as you Stated, time will tell if they had it right. But I think that’s why
they have faith that it’s close enough to use that name instead as an informal
apathy like GOD.
I don’t know if you
understand the concept of modern language, but Jesus wasn’t spelled that
way either.
Mark 14:18-21 English Standard Version (ESV)
18 And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly,
I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 They
began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” 20 He
said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish
with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been
better for that man if he had not been born.”
