"Jehovah in the New Testament"

OHappyDay

Sincere pardons if this is posted here elsewhere and previously.

I received a copy of "Jehovah in the New Testament" from www.tetragrammaton.org.

The booklet's argument is that whereas "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" belongs in the Old Testament, because it is clearly there in the ancient texts, it does not belong in the New Testament.

Because there is not one ancient Greek New Testament manuscript that has "Jehovah" in the text, only "Lord."

This is so obvious and irrefutable that it is silly for the New World Translation to continue on with this theological mistake. Besides, in many passages where "Jehovah" appears in the NWT New Testament, it is simply jarring, out of place, and/or misleading.

Actually, use of "Jehovah" in the New Testament distorts the meaning of the words of the apostles, and confuses the fact that "men ought to honor the Son as they do the Father." (John 5:23) In the Jehovah's Witnesses' New Testament, the salvific mission of Jesus Christ is totally obscured. Jehovah's Witnesses do not really honor "Jesus [as] Lord!" (Philippians 2:11) because they only see Jehovah.

It's a great little booklet!

Satanus

And so, since they do not give all honor to jesus, as prescribed, they are not really christians, but rather a judaic sect. They spend more time in the ot, building their theology from there, instead of on jesus' simple message. By mutilating the nt, they also show their disrespect for it.

SS who is not a christian, but has little problem w jesus

robhic

This is so obvious and irrefutable that it is silly for the New World Translation to continue on with this theological mistake. Besides, in many passages where "Jehovah" appears in the NWT New Testament, it is simply jarring, out of place, and/or misleading.

Ah, but they have good authority to have changed it. In their own words:

The Watchtower March 1, 1991 p. 28:

God's Personal Name

At Luke 4:18, according to the New World Translation, Jesus applied to himself a prophecy in Isaiah, saying: "Jehovah's spirit is upon me." (Isaiah 61:1) Many object to the use of the name Jehovah here. It is, however, just one of the more than 200 places where that name appears in the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, the so-called New Testament. True, no early surviving Greek manuscript of the "New Testament" contains the personal name of God. But the name was included in the New World Translation for sound reasons, not merely on a whim. And others have followed a similar course. In the German language alone, at least 11 versions use "Jehovah" (or the transliteration of the Hebrew, "Yahweh") in the text of the "New Testament," while four translators add the name in parentheses after "Lord." More than 70 German translations use it in footnotes or commentaries.

See? It's not just a whim, they did it for sound reasons! What are those reasons you may ask? Some German translators did it. And, as you say, there are other places in the NT where substituting the name jehovah for Lord or God completely changes the meaning of the passage. They don't address that point. Mat 4:7 using jehovah instead of Lord screws the whole meaning up.

PLUS ...... no matter how you spin it, it is still changing the Bible -- the word of jehovah! Sounds like blasphemy to me.

But it wasn't just a whim...

Robert

OHappyDay

The WT explanation is mere weasel words. The NWT claims to be a literal translation of the Greek New Testament text. So it is irrelevant that a few German, English, or whatever versions use "Jehovah" or its equivalent in the New Testament.

God's Word in the New Testament was inscribed originally in Greek, so that is the text that matters. Not one of the thousands of existing ancient Greek manuuscripts uses "Jehovah," only "Lord" or "the Lord."

And those versions that employ "Jehovah" in the NT usually do so very sparingly, as in NT quotations from the OT where the Tetragrammaton is found.

But the NWT translator(s) just put in Jehovah wherever they thought it should be, or in consultation with certain Hebrew translations of the Greek text, most of these of recent origin (as compared to the ancient Greek texts).

El blanko

The very spirit and emphasis of the New Testament writings honour Jesus Christ above any other name. That simple fact only really struck home about 6 months ago fully. I had suspected, but chose to ignore, due to my former indoctrination by the WTBS.

Crazy eh

Well, when I speak to two friends who support the society still, they both talk 80% of the time about Jehovah and maybe 20% of the time about Jesus. How ungrateful by not refering to God's gift to men a little more eh?

They argue that Jesus always honoured God in speech. Well that may be so in places, but mans obligation as a Christian is to honour Jesus before God. Well, that's the way I read it.

TrailBlazer04

"They argue that Jesus always honoured God in speech. Well that may be so in places, but mans obligation as a Christian is to honour Jesus before God. Well, that's the way I read it."

Uh...what about the part about "he who honors the Son, honors the Father"??? They've reduced Christ to a lesser god (small "g"). Doesn't that make them polytheists rather than monotheists?

Just something I've wondered about and haven't ever been able to get a straight answer.

TB

Farkel

Jehovah appears nowhere in the NT. Even Jesus didn't use that name in his so-called "model prayer."

One will not begin to understand the dub religion until one finally figures out this religion is an Old Testament religion, with a little New Testament tossed in for credibility. This is a key to understanding the true nature of this Cult.

Farkel

boa

Farkel said:

One will not begin to understand the dub religion until one finally figures out this religion is an Old Testament religion, with a little New Testament tossed in for credibility.

As I have learned at this late date, the assumption one bases one's belief system on will colour and distort 'truth'.

Thus, get to the point where you assume something is the 'truth', and you will do anything to make it keep that label.

On the other hand, let the so-called truth stand or fall on its own ....heh heh 'merits'....and it is so much more like the quote above.

The translator(s) (Fred Franz) and publishers of the NWT might want to hope that the bible is just another human creation rather than actually God's Word cuz he might not like the changes they've done to it!

boa

OHappyDay

Jehovah appears nowhere in the NT. Even Jesus didn't use that name in his so-called "model prayer."

That Jesus didn't use it has got to be the most serious case against the JWs.

Rather, Jesus used substitutions for God's Name, such as "Father," "the Power," etc., much like modern Jews use substitutes like "Hashem" and "Adonai."

When Jesus said that he manifested his Father's "name," he must have meant that he did so symbolically by his acts, rather than literally by using the Tetragrammaton. The New Testament gives much evidence of Jesus' manifesting the traits of his Father, but absolutely no instance of his use of the name "Jehovah."

"Jehovah in the New Testament"

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