Yehowah, the divine name known by the Watchtower, but not used.

by nibbled 32 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  HintOfLime

  If we knew how the supposed Hebrew divine name was pronounced, there would be no debate.

  We don't. If the pronunciation of his name was important, why did god fuck it up by communicating his name in a language without clear vowel points? Doesn't that seem a bit obvious if you are an all-knowing master of communication with your creation?

  Assuming God has some sense of foresight and isn’t completely stupid in these things… maybe pronunciation just wasn’t that important, or just maybe ... the bible is a book authored by people in the bronze age and is a bit silly at times.

  - Lime
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  Phizzy

  Dear Nibbled, I thank you for not snapping my head off, but may I just explain my motives ? I do not have an agenda, I am not pushing the "religion of no god" nor any religion.

  I do not believe there is no god, as rightly expressed above by another poster, I simply see no true evidence for a god.

  I am open to looking at any evidence offered, the same with an Afterlife, I rather wish there was one, I am at the "one foot in the grave" stage of life after all, but I have seen no evidence for an Afterlife. (by evidence I mean stuff that will stand the scrutiny of experts and doubters)

  I simply wished to express the point of view that the pronunciation of YHWH was not important, though I do see how silly the WT usage of "Jehovah" is, and any attention drawn to that is again good for JW's to chew over, they are so fond of "At least we use god's name", when in fact they do not.

  I do not mind if people wish to believe, but I prefer now to lead an evidence based life, and many leaving JW's may wish to see that as a possibility, as an answer to their other perpetual question "but where shall I go ?"

  There are many happy, fulfilled non-theists out here in the real world.

  If this thread was only contributed to by believers the lurking J.W may feel , as I did when I first left, that the only choice is another belief system, it is not.
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  nibbled

  @HintOfLime you know, it's funny. I don't know quite how to interact so that it doesn't become a debate. For instance, that "Y" predates "J" by more than 2,000 years is simply fact. (This part of the discussion was on another thread.) So I offered what I knew of linguistics and research for those interested, but ended up in a debate about "J". The sound for "J" didn't even exist until after the letter came to evolve from the I.

  I don't think that he requires that we know how to pronounce it, otherwise he'd have ensure we knew how. He's not a Catch 22 kind of god. However, that we know how to pronounce it comes from the names which bore his name that were passed down through all these generations. They evolved over time (studies of etymology I find fasincating!) but those evolutions have been passed down, so that going back to the start and with the various data points we're able to put together what is and is not likely.

  I had wanted to share. (Although, frankly, I was stupid of me to post the email here. That was the "are you kidding me?!?" moment with my parents when I found that the name that came to be out of all my research was not only known by the Watchtower but printed in the reference bible and is searchable on the WOL, and that they've known all along! Of course, I couldn't search for it until I knew it, but I'm not bitter about the journey that brought me through to the answer, I'm upset that the hid it behind "Jehovah" which is wrong on so many levels, besides being blasphemous and the description of two gods of ancient Babylon.)

  Also, just a note about "the bronze age". Most people don't realize that that's a terrible way of referring to it. There were many cultures who overlapped. Cultures were defined by Iron or Bronze, etc, but that wasn't a distinct age. They overlapped. They lived in the same age.

  @Phizzy We should become pals. I can send you a PM. I'm a believer but am non-religious. I very much hope to encourage those leaving the WT not to enter into someother "where". It's not "where" but "who" that matters—At least that's what Dave Matthews always says.

  Apologies. I was grumpy last night. I'll try to keep my smile going.