To me, if you are a Christian, I would ask 'Why would you be more interested in God's proper name which is so very subjective and not be interested in the one name that God put above all others?' The one name that you need for salvation.
Just saying
The Divine Name in the NT: Some Reflections
by Let go of fear 54 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Phizzy
The form "Jehovah" is hardly a translation, even less a transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, it arose by using the vowels of Adonai, I believe.
As I said above, I don't think this is important one way or the other, except to the JW Org.
It is my opinion that there is no one "Name of God" in the sense that my name may be Charles or Thomas.
In the time that Yahweh or Yehowah, or whatever anyone's preferred pronunciation is, arose as a significant god, before being adopted as one of the gods of Israel , long before they were Monotheistic, names were used to describe the god's particular qualities rather than merely for use in identifying the particular god.
Names were generally used this way with people too, hence Edom, Abraham etc.
It would seem that Jesus felt no need to identify the one true god by anything more than expressions like "Our Heavenly Father", no doubt reflecting the practice and thought of his time.
Why would En Sof, the divine source of all created things in Jewish thought, need a "personal" name ?
And if indeed En Sof had one, would it be right and respectful to use it ?
Surely Jesus' example is the right one ?
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FayeDunaway
Lgof, the clincher for me was finding out that a monk used the vowels of Elohim and Adonai to supplement the consonants YHWH to create the name jehovah. It really is a made up name, not just a translation or pronunciation. -
Terry
The evidence is evidence.
You either have evidence or you don't have evidence.
If you have it, you cite it--if you don't have it, you must make a choice requiring personal integrity.
Do you manufacture your own personal preference into shape and try bending the facts to support it----OR----do you wait on more evidence and go along with the consensus by experts?
The Watchtower religion is dishonest intellectually and factually. The belief system is corrupt and counterfeit. The basic reason for this is the dishonest manipulation of available evidence.
Jehovah's Witnesses are way outside mainstream scholarship. They ignore what they do NOT like because it doesn't fit their pet beliefs.
The corruption of their character is evident by the dishonest way they partially quote 'experts' to support their theology.
So, why do Ex-JW's follow down the same path?
Because it is the only thing they know. It is a procedure they've absorbed into their own reasoning.
Leave brain surgery to brain surgeons. Don't go drilling holes in your own head or practice on the head of others. Trepanning was attempted by primitive man with the same dire results.
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Giordano
Let go of fear WELCOME to this forum! -
Giordano
Allow me to add that every religion has corrupted it's base material to accommodate it's made up dogma.
Can one read the book of Leviticus without laughing out loud at the absurdities it contains?
The JW's use of Jehovah has failed miserably it is both off putting for most people as it is not associated with God hence the Society couples Jehovah God by way of definition.
On a personal level I was always embarrassed to identify myself as a Jehovah's Witness.
Christian Witnesses would have been a better choice of a name.
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FayeDunaway
Yeah me too giordano...it's not that I disliked the name jehovah (actually I think it's a beautiful name, I just don't use it anymore for the reason I stated above)... And it's not that I dont like the name Witnesses. But the two together is overkill!! Like 'hey get a mouthful of this, we're crazy!!' -
Terry
This previous post might be of some use . . .
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/156150002/bart-ehrman-answers-my-question
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Phizzy
Thanks for the link Terry. I like Earnest's comments in the last post on that Thread. -
Let go of fear
@TTWSYF: I'm not sure what you mean by God's name being "subjective." If you mean that there is no certainty in how it was originally pronounced, then I completely agree (this also applies to the name of "Jesus" as well as many other Biblical names).
@Giordano: Thank you for the kind welcome!
@All: Quite honestly, I'm not interested in debating the pronunciation of the name (there are plenty of other postings regarding this). I'm specifically interested in discussing the possibility of the tetragram having been in the original NT manuscripts. My belief (based on spending much time researching many sources) is that YHWH was rendered in the original NT scripts as Hebrew characters (see the LXX of the time), although probably not nearly as frequently as the NWT uses it. I also believe that due to A) the NT writers Jewish upbringing and B) the lack of a Greek equivalent to the FULL divine name, the early Christian congregations most likely did not pronounce it as liberally as the Watchtower believes that they did. It is on these points that I'd like to focus the discussion.