Should they use the sacred name of God? YHWH

by Sirona 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Joker:
    Are you speaking from a position of ignorance, regarding religion's use of the Tetragrammaton?

    Since I left the Jw's, nearly two years ago, I've been to a variety of denominations.
    The majority of those that I've attended use the name Jehovah or Yahweh freely.

    As for Jesus name (Greek) it is more accurate to use the name Yahshuah (Hebrew).

    Linguistically, the "Yah" parts of both names is the most likely accurate translation, hence debunking the idea that "Jehovah" and "Yeshuah" (see Insight volume) are accurate renditions.

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    fjtoth: Of course I meant from the BIBLE Hebrew text, that is the final Hebrew premasoretic text as was fixed when the Bible canon was adopted by early rabbinical judaism in the century or so following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by Titus.

    The partial removal you speak about, although adding very different things (cabbages and carrots as we usually say in French), is in fact very partial: adding such unrelated features as the original writer of Job's poetical dialogues wanting to appear non-Israelite or the Elohistic revision of the original Psalter, it hardly amounts to 5 % of all occurrences of the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible.

    What remains is the point I already made: monotheistic judaism (from Ezra-Nehemiah's time on) felt very uneasy with the name Yhwh as a vestige of the ancient polytheistic religion of Israel, when Yhwh was only one god among many.

  • seedy3
    seedy3

    Well they shouldn't feel insulted or anything else about the use of the name, it does not originate with the hebrews anyway, they stole the name from the Canaanites who had YHWH/YHVH as a lesser god to El, YHWH was the brother to Baal. He was God of the desert and war, some groups spoke of him also as the god of the mountains. He was not the Almighty, but when the hebrews had traveled in the desert for so many years, funny how the god of the desert/war took on the qualities of the Almight El of Canaanite lore.

    Seedy

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    Littletoe: Where have you found the spelling Yahshuah? I knew of Yoshua' or Yehoshua' as the basis of the Greek Ièsous...

    Btw, happy birthday to you (sorry I am at least one day late)!

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    Seedy: any evidence for Yhwh as Baal's brother? The only evidence I've seen thus far is of Yhwh as an alternative name for Baal (see the "JEHOVAH" thread).

  • Will Power
    Will Power

    Thank you Seedy for showing where the "EL" really came from. - take it one step further to the "Beth El"

    I wish those who harp on pagan roots would look at their own.

    Jesus said "hallowed be thy name" I that that to mean - not to be used willy nilly, as in to prove who YOU are like a fraternity.

    And, anyone using the word Father to describe their god should consider themselves a child - not a "friend"

    will

  • Dansk
    Dansk

    According to http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08329a.htm "the word Jehovah dates only from the year 1520 (cf. Hastings, "Dictionary of the Bible", II, 1899, p. 199: Gesenius-Buhl, "Handwörterbuch", 13th ed., 1899, p. 311). Drusius (loc. cit., 344) represents Peter Galatinus as the inventor of the word Jehovah, and Fagius as it propagator in the world of scholars and commentators. But the writers of the sixteenth century, Catholic and Protestant (e.g. Cajetan and Théodore de Bèze),are perfectly familiar with the word. Galatinus himself ("Areana cathol. veritatis", I, Bari, 1516, a, p. 77) represents the form as known and received in his time. Besides, Drusius (loc. cit., 351) discovered it in Porchetus, a theologian of the fourteenth century. Finally, the word is found even in the "Pugio fidei" of Raymund Martin, a work written about 1270 (ed. Paris, 1651, pt. III, dist.ii, cap. iii, p. 448, and Note, p. 745). Probably the introduction of the name Jehovah antedates even R. Martin."The word seems to come via the German monasteries where YHWH was written JHVH (J is Y in German and W becomes V). Because of the ban from Leviticus 24:16: "And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying let him die" - there was a ban in Biblical Times from pronouncing the tetragrammaton, and the word Adonai, (=Lord) was read whenever YHWH was in the text. In the late Middle Agecs the vowels of AdOnAi were added (in Germany( to the Tetragrammaton JHVH to make JaHoVaH = Jahovah, later Anglicised to Jehovah.

    As an Elohim (composite male and female) God of YH (Yah, Yahu, Yaa, Yaw or Yahw) and the Goddess HWH - we get the composite name Yahweh (YH'HWH or YHWH).

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Narkisson:I asked
    I've seen it spelt Yahshua, too, but the pronunciation is the same.
    I'll try to look out a substantiative source for you, but my time is limited at the moment.

    Many Christians hold that [Jehovah = Yahweh = I AM = the Angel of God = Jesus = The Son of God = The Word] and that "The Father" is another character entirely, remaining unnamed like the Holy Spirit.

  • Will Power
    Will Power

    Does anyone have a comment on the "Strong's Concordance" translation of the base word?

    hovah = mischief

    as in god of....

    word # 1943

    Will

  • Amazing
    Amazing

    Hi Sirona,

    Jews do not have an aversion to the divine name as claimed by the Watchtower ... at least not the orthodox and conservative Jews in my family ... they simply don't know how it was originally pronounced, and out of respect they don't use some invented substitute ... however ... I can't say this is true of all Jews ... historically, some Jews also developed a superstition about saying the divine name, as they feared improper use could cause them to violate the 2nd Commandment regarding the taking God's name in vain.

    Yet, what JWs really miss is that ALL name recognition was transferreed from the Father to the Son, such that an apostle stated 'not another name under heaven has been given among men by which we must get saved.' That is, the name of Jesus Christ. So, regardless of whether or how Jews might pronounce the divine name, Christians, genuine Christians that is, are committed to the name of Jesus Christ.

    The Watchtower cannot get around that argument ... they can only avoid and dismiss it. - Jim W.

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