The name Jesus means Salvation from JEHOVAH or JEHOVAH is salvation. Jesus as beloved and honored and exalted as he is, is only a fellow creature.
What Name Does the New Testament Emphasize - Jehovah or Jesus?
by Vanderhoven7 263 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Riley
IN the Old Testament there seems to be two Yahweh’s . One visible and having contact with humans and one being invisible and all powerful.
The authors of the New Testament are calling Jesus things like “ the word of the lord “ or “ the glory of the lord”. These are all just terms making reference to the visiible Yahweh of the Old Testament. The reason LORD is quoted and applied both to Jesus and god is basically they thought of as different yet the same manifestation of the same being.
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JW GoneBad
"The name Jesus means Salvation from JEHOVAH or JEHOVAH is salvation."
Repetition is the teacher of retention! This apparently needs to be repeated: The word 'Jehovah' was invented...concocted in the 13th century...long after the Bible was completed in the 1st century...it has no connection or association with the Bible nor with our Lord and Savior...The Christ...The Messiah...Jesus!
In other words the name Jesus cannot be found in the word Jehovah nor can the word Jehovah be found in the name Jesus...the two are centuries apart...capiche!
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BelisemDeBelimakom
The Bible Unfiltered by Michael S. Heiser
Chapter 13 - What's In a Name?
“I am that I am”—God’s response when Moses asks for his name is famous for both its simplicity and its mystery (Exod 3:14 LEB). What exactly does it mean?
In Hebrew, God says ehyeh asher ehyeh (“I am that I am”). The verb form for “I am” is ehyeh. If you’ve studied a language, you know that verbs—action words—have grammatical person and number. With most languages, “number” refers to singular or plural; “person” refers to the subject of the verb. When I taught biblical languages, I would explain it this way: I am number one (first person). You are second fiddle (second person). Everyone else (he, she, or they) is a third party (third person).
In this sentence, the name of God, ehyeh, is a first-person, singular form of the verb “to be” (hayah). It’s a statement of self-existence—and, therefore, a denial of being created by any higher power or force.
Yet, the consonants used in ehyeh are not exactly the same as those found in the name of God in thousands of other places in the Hebrew Old Testament: y-h-w-h. These four consonants are known as the sacred Tetragrammaton (meaning “four letters”). Out of reverence, Israelites didn’t pronounce the name. In writing, they eventually provided the consonants with vowels for a different Hebrew word—adonay or “Lord.”1 English translations represent the sacred name with “LORD” in small capital letters. That actually isn’t a translation of the four consonants, though. It’s a reverential substitute for a word that was not spoken.
If ehyeh is the name God gives in Exodus 3:14, where does yhwh come from? For an answer, we need to take a closer look at the Hebrew’s meaning and the forms it can take. Ehyeh and yhwh come from the same verb, hayah (meaning “to be”). Ehyeh is the first-person form of the verb and is typically translated as “I am.” That same root word also appears as hawah, a standard spelling in texts older than the earliest manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament.2 The name yhwh is the third-person form of hawah.
All this suggests that yhwh should be pronounced yihweh, which would mean “he is” (since it’s in the third person). But that’s problematic. Elsewhere in the Bible, the divine name is shortened to two consonants (yh; e.g., Exod 15:2), and Hebrew scribes always added an “a” vowel to it (yah). So if the first half of the name is yah, it wouldn’t seem yihweh is the right option. That’s why scholars prefer yahweh as the spelling of the divine name. But, as you might guess, that’s disputed, too.
To unravel the debate over the mystery behind God’s name, we have to dive deeper into the original language. Stick with me here—even if you don’t know Hebrew, the possibilities present intriguing options for interpretation.
The most straightforward explanation is a technical one: Yahweh is a third-person form in what’s called the imperfect conjugation of the Hiphil stem. It sounds complicated, but this conjugation basically accounts for the added “y” and the yah spelling of the shorter name. Since the Hiphil stem is used to indicate the subject’s role as a cause for something else, the meaning of the divine name yahweh would be something like “he causes to be” or “he brings into existence.” This would denote God as the one who is creator.
But here’s the rub: There are no examples of this form of the verb hayah/hawah in all known ancient Hebrew writing samples except for the Old Testament. For that reason, some scholars don’t like this explanation.3 They want at least one parallel. For several linguistic reasons, they prefer to understand y-h-w-h simply as “he is” (yihweh) without regard to the shorter yah spelling 4.
In the end, both possibilities are workable. One (yihweh) maintains the idea that God is uncreated; he just is. The other (yahweh) proposes that the God of Israel is the one who brings all things into being. He is and he is the creator. Both are powerful theological statements.
Notes:
- The divine name should not be pronounced “Jehovah” (or “Yehovah” or “Yahovah”). “Jehovah” is a German spelling. In German, the letter “j” is pronounced like the English “y.” The pronunciation and spelling of Jehovah arose in the Middle Ages as a misreading of Hebrew scribal practices. The scribes refused to pronounce the divine name out of reverence. When they had to write it, they used the four consonants (yhwh) but swapped in the vowels from the word adonay (“lord”) to indicate that adonay should be said aloud, not any variation using the consonants yhwh. The resulting combination of yahovah or yehovah is an artificial word—a misunderstanding that resulted from combining consonants and vowels that were not meant to be read together.
- The Hebrew letters waw (“w”) and yod (“y”) came to be interchangeable in the spellings of some words.
- See Ernst Jenni, “Yahweh,” TLOT 522.
- In very ancient Hebrew and Aramaic, the yi- prefix derived from the ya- prefix. See Paul Joüon and Takamitsu Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, rev. Eng. ed. (Roma: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2006), 118 [§41e]. It is possible that this is what has happened with the divine name.
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slimboyfat
In his own time, the name Jesus was pronounced Yahoshua, and the divine name was pronounced Yaho. So every time the first Christians said the name Jesus (Yaho-shua) it reminded them that Jesus demonstrated by his words and his life that salvation is from Yaho. (See Acts 4:9-12)
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GodBeliever
"But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man death came, by a Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to our God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is clear that this excludes the Father who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all."
1 Corinthians 15:20-28"Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking actual words of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:11"Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation."
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
"just as You gave Him authority over all mankind, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life."
John 17:2
"But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom."
Luke 12:31-32
"And He said to her, “What do you desire?” She *said to Him, “Say that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine shall sit, one at Your right, and one at Your left.” He *said to them, “My cup you shall drink; but to sit at My right and at My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”
Matthew 20:21, 23
"Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” saying, “We give You thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign."
Revelation 11:15, 17"Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:6"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."
John 5:22-24"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:38, 40You need to understand the reason why the new testament emphasizes the name of Jesus.
The kingdom of the new world was given to Jesus, he and his church had to advertise that kingdom.
It's Jehovah's will that things are done this way so His name will be glorified.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:16-18
"The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works. And whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
John 14:10, 13 NASB2020
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punkofnice
Fishster - The name Jesus means Salvation from JEHOVAH or JEHOVAH is salvation.
This was my immediate thought.....at first. Then I did some further research and it gets more complicated on Wiki and other places. (Google is your friend and all that jazz).
I'm not sure if Jesus or Jehovah ever existed or exist. Not sure, mind. I'm not discounting their existence totally. Otherwise I wouldn't visit our Cathedral for Evensong every now and then. I am however, sceptical. Although, I think the name Jehovah is a bit of a red herring on the basis of what JW gone bad commented.
So. Going back to the original question for this thread,
What Name Does the New Testament Emphasize - Jehovah or Jesus?
I'd answer Jesus. If the name Yahweh or Jehovah or one of those sort of names has to be hidden in the name, that doesn't cut it for me.
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Sea Breeze
@ GodBeliever
When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also
be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all."
1 Corinthians 15:20-28Christians are not disputing the fact that Jesus will one day subject himself to the Father. The reason that you feel compelled to cite verses like this is because a template has been installed in your head by your WT trainers. Like a trained seal you and every other JW continually try to frame this topic as an either or scenario. But, it is not an either or scenario, it is a both scenario. Regardless of the countless times that the Bible and Christians present a portrait of Jesus as BOTH God and Man, JW's are trained to ignore this and just keep on arguing a point that no Christian has a problem with.
Allow me to explain to you the biblical and Christian view.
Jesus, the son of Mary is just as human as you or I. As such, God is obviously greater than he is. If the body is all there is to Jesus, then that would be the end of the discussion. Jesus is not God - and the bible contradicts itself.
However the WT has taught a view that is foreign to not only the bible, but ancient peoples themselves. It is a heresy.... a very important one.
God has explained how we are made. We are constituted of three parts - soul body & spirit.
The bible writers assume that the reader understands that fact. The view that we are only a body and that the soul is just our bad breath and your spirit is simply electricity - is a belief that is found in the modern worldview of Materialistic Naturalism, not the bible. Several false philosophies of the 18th and 19th centuries laid the groundwork in which Materialism could later take root and grow. The WT bought into this.
The WT is a hybrid worldview. While believing in a First Cause, they deny that we ourselves are anything other than a body when it comes to personhood.. Yet God says that, like him, we are a tri-partite being:
1 Thessalonians 5:23 - And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.In language, personal pronouns denote personhood. He, she, I, they, etc. The bible assumes that the reader understands this 3rd grade grammar. For example:
Rev. 6 - I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
See all the personal pronouns? They are disembodied PERSONS who can think, speak, remember, complain and be comforted.
The bible is full of examples like this:
1Co_5:3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early
I have many more biblical examples of the personhood of the the soul and spirit if you would like to see them. These should suffice to show that in the bible your body, soul and spirit are all characterized as YOU, AND NOT AN IT like the WT tries to present.
This understanding very quickly clears up the supposed mystery. Jesus' body is the son of Mary, making him fully man. The spirit of Jesus was supplied by God himself. "God is a spirit". God is indivisible being omnipresent So, Jesus is fully God as well.
This is why the bible calls him God's only-begotten (begotten means out of his essence) son. Angels were created but Jesus came out from the essence of the Father. This was a onetime, single solitary never-to-be-repeated event for all eternity.
The bible teaches that Jesus is both God and Man at the same time. This is why Jesus (physical son of Mary) could say that the Father is greater than I am, and later proclaim that he possessed ALL POWER IN HEAVEN AND EARTH.
This chart illustrates how Jesus is both fully Man and fully God:
Understand Now? -
slimboyfat
Hardly hidden, Jews were obviously aware that when saying the name Yehoshua, they were saying the divine name too, and the praise was to God through his Son. (See Matt 1:21)
Revelation 3:12 is proof that the early Christians knew the name of Jesus’ God.
The idea that you can count up each name as some sort of competition between them misses the point that all attention and praise for Jesus is “the to the glory of God the Father”. (Phil 2:11) So if you’re keeping count then the tally for Jehovah is all the direct references to Jehovah God plus the references to Jesus.
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slimboyfat
The reason that you feel compelled to cite verses like this is because a template has been installed in your head by your WT trainers. Like a trained seal you and every other JW continually …
You lost the argument right there.
Allow me to explain to you the biblical and Christian view …
Yeah, no thanks. Your attitude leaves a lot to be desired.
I’m interested in what the New Testament says for its own sake. Having considered it a lot, I have come to the view that Jesus himself would have been astounded that others equated him with God. His earliest followers viewed him as a messenger from God in terms that clearly differentiated him from God himself. This is so plain in the texts themselves that no scholars without a theological commitment to the idea conclude there is anything like a Trinitarian dogma to be found in the New Testament,
