New WT...Revised...The Name Jehovah

by Legacy 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  yadda yadda 2

  Exactly. The Tetragrammaton was God's old covenant name, identifying himself as the God of his covenant people, the Jews.

  But when that old arrangement ended and all humans regardless of race, both Jews and Gentiles, could have a personal relationship with God as their father, God saw fit to allow his old testament name identifying himself as the God of the Jews to disappear!

  That's why Paul in his famous sermon at the Areopagus never referred to this one universal God as YHWH at Acts 17(nor in fact in any other place in his epistles). God was no longer to be identified as a Jewish God by a Jewish name anymore.

  The Watchtower religion, which is basically a quasi-Judeo cult, starkly misses this point, choosing instead to continually hark back to the OT on everything.
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  Calebs Airplane

  QUESTION FOR LURKERS:

  When you pronounce the name JEHOVAH, are you doing so because it is the most CORRECT form of pronouncing his name or are you merely following "traditions of men" because that is the POPULAR thing to do?

  Before you answer, read these 3 quotes from the Watchtower magazine:

  "MANY religious people treasure their own beliefs and traditions. But what happens if these teachings are not in harmony with what is found in God’s Word, the Bible? Jesus showed the danger of following man-made traditions when he said to the religious leaders of his day: “You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.” - WT Feb 1, 2009 p. 9

  “[…] the translating Committee says: “While inclining to view the pronunciation “Yah-weh” as the more correct way, we have retained the form ‘Jehovah’ because of people’s familiarity with it since the 14 th century.” -WT Dc 1, 1950 p.474

  “Some scholars prefer to pronounce the name Jah’veh or Jah’weh, but today Jehovah is the most popular way of pronouncing the name.” - WT April 15, 1957 p. 230

  (ouch)
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  Phizzy

  JW's should shout "OUCH !!!!" Caleb.

  Great post. The expression "Hoist on their own petard" comes to mind.
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  Pistoff

  "Yeah so this imaginary friend of mine told me his name, and it is...I am what I am....or I will be whatever I want to be....or I am that I am...."

  We can only wonder and guess at what redactors in 400-700 BCE gleaned from centuries old oral traditions about what to name an ancient tribal deity.

  Jehovah is certainly a pronunciation the ancients never used.

  The question I am interested in is why did YHWH fall out of use.

  I think it is tied in with the overall move in the levant to monotheism; after all, if there is only one god, why does he need a personal name to distinguish him from all other gods?
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  jamclark

  As posted above, it comes down to convenience, that and JWorg tradition. After all, who would be first to admit of them not using accurate knowledge? Or put forth "new light" that has been light since 1930s of the sacred name.

  This new translation would have been an excellent time to use the Hebrew name, and not a created name starting with a J sound (which was not used until about the 1500s). Sadly, they cling to Rutherford's naming and not shine brighter as Yahuah's Witnesses. Well first they need to clean their mess of pedophiles, shunning, secret Shepherd the Flock book, etc.

  But, with the misprint in Numbers chapter 35ish as I recall, who knows?