How many times does "Jehovah" spuriously appear in the NT?

by AuldSoul 32 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  AuldSoul

  We've all heard it, I'm sure. "Well, the NWT has restored the name Jehovah where it should have been to start with." Ever wanted to slap that smugness with an unarguable fact? Sure, you probably shot back, "Including a lot of times in the NT where it didn't belong in the first place!"

  But then they smugly reply, "Where the context makes it clear that the name should go. Only where the context makes it clear."

  Have you ever wondered how many times the NWT sticks the name Jehovah into the NT? I did. I also found out, and ran across some choice rebuttal texts for the "Only where the context indicates..." sidestep they routinely employ.

  Matthew	18
  Mark	9
  Luke	36
  John	5
  Acts	52
  Romans	19
  1 Corinthians	15
  2 Corinthians	10
  Galatians	1
  Ephesians	6
  Colossians	6
  1 Thessalonians	4
  2 Thessalonians	3
  2 Timothy	4
  Hebrews	12
  James	13
  1 Peter	3
  2 Peter	6
  Jude	3
  Revelation	12
  TOTAL	237

  Acts 16:11-15 — Therefore we put out to sea from Tro'as and came with a straight run to Sam'o·thrace, but on the following day to Ne·ap'o·lis, and from there to Phi·lip'pi, a colony, which is the principal city of the district of Mac·e·do'ni·a. We continued in this city, spending some days. And on the sabbath day we went forth outside the gate beside a river, where we were thinking there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women that had assembled. And a certain woman named Lyd'i·a, a seller of purple, of the city of Thy·a·ti'ra and a worshiper of God, was listening, and Jehovah opened her heart wide to pay attention to the things being spoken by Paul. Now when she and her household got baptized, she said with entreaty: “If YOU men have judged me to be faithful to Jehovah, enter into my house and stay.” And she just made us come.

  Why would she have used the divine name? Why would Paul, foremost of the students of Gamaliel, have used the divine name? Also, how could they POSSIBLY have judged her faithful to God from that one brief encounter. And how is it that she got baptized after ONE session of teaching, I thought it took months and becoming a publisher and being regular at the meetings and a prayer of dedication...but I digress. The context does not indicate the insertion of Jehovah into this text. The next example is conveniently located just a few short verses farther on.

  Acts 16:25-34 — But about the middle of the night Paul and Silas were praying and praising God with song; yes, the prisoners were hearing them. Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations of the jail were shaken. Moreover, all the doors were instantly opened, and the bonds of all were loosened. The jailer, being awakened out of sleep and seeing the prison doors were open, drew his sword and was about to do away with himself, imagining that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying: “Do not hurt yourself, for we are all here!” So he asked for lights and leaped in and, seized with trembling, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And he brought them outside and said: “Sirs, what must I do to get saved?” They said: “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will get saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of Jehovah to him together with all those in his house. And he took them along in that hour of the night and bathed their stripes; and, one and all, he and his were baptized without delay. And he brought them into his house and set a table before them, and he rejoiced greatly with all his household now that he had believed God.

  Why, here we have a jailer who was not a Jew and Paul and Silas spoke "the word of Jehovah" to him? Why would they do that? Why would they not speak the gospel of Christ to him? That is what Paul later said he did. Once again, I will digress to the issue of baptism...after one conversation he and all his were baptized without delay.

  I think the sheer number of times the name was added back in is impressive.

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  Warlock

  Auld:

  If I remember correctly, the "Divine Name" brochure says that Jehovah's name does not appear anywhere in the Greek Septuigent, so they have inserted it where they think it should go.

  Warlock
• 

  under_believer

  What amuses me is how few Witnesses, including elders, even realize that this was done to the NWT. I have asserted this fact on a couple of occasions and been questioned on it by elders, at which point I direct them to the Divine Name brochure which freely admits this practice.
• 

  james_woods

  This is an astounding dishonesty, and probably my hottest of hot buttons about Franz and the society. It never has ceased to amaze me how arrogantly they feel free to modify scripture, while at the same time claiming to believe it is God's special word and the only inspired instruction for mankind.

  When I was a young pioneer, one of the sisters ran into a college professor who pointed out this mistranslation. I got assigned the job of researching the issue and going back with her to "prove him wrong". I really thought I was going to find some perfect original text of the NT that really had the name in it, and could show that evil Christendom had rubbed out the "holy name". No such luck, sherlock!

  Needless to say, this was my first realization that the Society was not telling us the truth. It was in 1969 - and I did not have long to wait to see a lot more of their lies.
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  Leolaia

  There is zero manuscript evidence of the name in the text of the NT. The "restoration" is done on the basis of a theory that it was there in the first place, and it strays beyond translation into interpretation and modification of the text. In many instances, the insertion is done to prevent OT passages referring to Yahweh from being applied to Jesus. Unless the reader understands that "Jehovah is Jesus", this insertion can destroy the logical argument in the text itself.

  Also comical is the insertion of "Jehovah" in Jude 14-15. This is a quotation from 1 Enoch 1:9 where no name occurs in the original text, nor even the word "Lord" (instead it is simply "he"). The kurios in Jude was instead created by the author (for understandably literary reasons), yet the Society claims that they limit themselves to inserting "Jehovah" in the NT in cases where the OT is being quoted.

  *** Rbi8 pp. 1564-1565 1D The Divine Name in the Christian Greek Scriptures ***

  To know where the divine name was replaced by the Greek words Ky´ri·os and The·os´ we have determined where the inspired Christian writers have quoted verses, passages and expressions from the Hebrew Scriptures and then we have referred back to the Hebrew text to ascertain whether the divine name appears there. In this way we determined the identity to give Ky´ri·os and The·os´ and the personality with which to clothe them.

  To avoid overstepping the bounds of a translator into the field of exegesis, we have been most cautious about rendering the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures, always carefully considering the Hebrew Scriptures as a background.
• 

  AK - Jeff

  Interesting thread Auld -

  The scriptures you point to - as well as the ones that Leo mentioned are good examples of how they did precisely what they said they did not wish to do;

  To avoid overstepping the bounds of a translator into the field of exegesis, we have been most cautious about rendering the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures, always carefully considering the Hebrew Scriptures as a background.

  What of this text;

  18

  Nevertheless, a certain one will say: "You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith apart from the works, and I shall show you my faith by my works." 19 You believe there is one God, do you? You are doing quite well. And yet the demons believe and shudder. 20 But do you care to know, O empty man, that faith apart from works is inactive? 21 Was not Abraham our father declared righteous by works after he had offered up Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 You behold that [his] faith worked along with his works and by [his] works [his] faith was perfected, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says: "Abraham put faith in Jehovah, and it was counted to him as righteousness," and he came to be called "Jehovah’s friend." James 2:18-23

  The cited scriptures for cross ref in the NWT refer to 2 Chronicles 20:7 and Isaiah 41:8. In looking at those texts in the NWT I see that the Divine Name is not mentioned there. I do not have the reference materials in front of me to determine YHWH was used in the OT in these verses - but I assume the WTS would have translated it 'Jehovah' if it had.

  Jeff
• 

  Narkissos

  Warlock

  If I remember correctly, the "Divine Name" brochure says that Jehovah's name does not appear anywhere in the Greek Septuigent, so they have inserted it where they think it should go.

  I think you meant the Greek New Testament. Some of the oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint (LXX), which is the (main) Greek version of the Old Testament, do have the Tetragrammaton in ancient Hebrew letters within the Greek text -- a mark of reverence for the "sacred name," but meaningless to the Greek reader. Although this curiosity occurs in what happens to be the oldest extant LXX manuscripts (the oldest ones we happen to have), it was most likely not original to most parts of the LXX whose syntax often implies the use of the nouns kurios (Lord) and theos (God). The Hebrew Tetragrammaton was rather introduced into the LXX by a specific revision.

  Whatever the case, it is absolutely clear that Paul's quotations/allusions in Romans 10 and 14 did use the word kurios. In the first case (10:13) Joel is quoted as a prooftext of Paul's thesis in v. 9, "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord (kurios) and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved". This is true (to Paul) because "the same Lord is Lord (kurios) of all and is generous to all who call on him", "For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord (kurios) shall be saved." If the text would read YHWH instead of kurios it would absolutely not prove his point, and Paul would have had no reason to quote it. As a result the NWT makes absolutely no sense here.
  In chapter 14 it is even more obvious inasmuch as Paul plays on the noun kurios and the related verb kurieuô. V. 8-9 read: "If we live, we live to the Lord (kurios), and if we die, we die to the Lord (kurios); so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's (kurios). For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord (kurieuô) of both the dead and the living." If kurios is substituted with "Jehovah" (as in the NWT) the use of kurieuô rests on nothing and there is no argument.

  Most JWs do not realise that because they are used to quote isolated verses instead of trying to understand the logic of the argument.
• 

  trevor

  The Name Over Every Name

  In keeping with the Watchtower Society’s belief that Jehovah is the name to call on for salvation, they have inserted this name at every opportunity. They claim that all Bibles should bear this name as frequently, but other translators have tried to hide the name. They claim that they alone are upholding the divine name.

  On closer examination a different picture emerges. The foreword of their Bible explains that the divine name appears many times in the Hebrew Scriptures, but fails to appear in the Greek text. It has been replaced with “Kyri,os” meaning Lord and “The.os” meaning God. They claim they have been authorised to restore the divine name.

  If we accept this explanation, though other scholars disagree with this assumption, we must ask how the Society knows where to replace, for example, the word Lord with Jehovah? They say they do this by always using the name Jehovah when the Greek scripture appears to be a quotation from a Hebrew scripture where the divine name was used. This at first seems reasonable but they have been overzealous and not stuck to this rule.

  The original translators were aware that “The Lord” throughout the New Testament referred to Jesus, the exception being where the term “The Lord God” was used. In many instances where the context of the chapter being read makes it clear beyond question that “The Lord” is a reference to Jesus, the Watchtower Society have substituted the word Jehovah. This has made it possible to produce a Bible, which shifts the emphasis away from Jesus as Lord and places the name Jehovah in this position. From the many instances of this I have selected just a few to show how this has been done:

  “ If on your lips is the confession, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and in your heart the faith that God raised him from the dead, then you will find salvation. …Scripture says ‘Everyone who had faith in him will be saved from shame’ - everyone: there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the Lord is Lord of all, and is rich enough for the need of all who invoke him. For everyone, as it says again - Everyone who invokes the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13 – NE)

  “For if you publicly declare that ‘Word in your own mouth,’ that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…For the scripture says: “ None that rests his faith on him will be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for there is the same Lord over all, who is rich to all those calling upon him. For everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13 – NWT)

  ….

  “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord. This is why Christ died and came to life again, to establish his Lordship over dead and living.” (Romans 14:8,9 – NE)

  “…for both if we live, we live to Jehovah, and if we die, we die to Jehovah. Therefore both if we live and if we die, we belong to Jehovah. For to this end Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.” (Romans 14:8,9 – NWT)

  ….

  “My judge is the Lord. So pass no premature judgment; wait until the Lord comes.” (1 Corinthians 4:4,5 – NE)

  “…he that examines me is Jehovah. Hence we do not judge anything before the due time, until the Lord comes.” (1 Corinthians 4:4,5 – NWT)

  In the verse below the name “Jehovah” is used again. Throughout this chapter the Apostle Paul is talking of the Lord’s evening meal. He quotes the words of Jesus and refers to him as Lord Jesus. In the preceding eight verses Jesus is referred to as Lord five times. Why is the Lord rendered as Jehovah in verse 32? Reading any other Bible the whole chapter makes sense and the idea of adding the divine name is deliberately misleading.

  “However when we are judged we are disciplined by Jehovah.” (1 Corinthians 11:32 – NWT

  To the Israelites, which included Jews, the Lord was Jehovah. They were still looking to him for salvation through the law covenant. Paul was trying to show them that the Lord was now addressed by the name Jesus. This was The Sacred Secret. Until then Israelites believed that they could gain salvation by calling on Jehovah. The Christian belief was that now both Jews and Greeks, in fact “everyone” who calls on the name of Jesus could be saved. The Witnesses have stumbled on this. They say they recognize Jesus as Lord, but where the word Lord appears in the Bible, wherever possible they change it for the name Jehovah. This was the mistake the Jews were making at the very time. Talking of Israel’s lack of faith in Jesus, Paul went on to say:

  “They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone’ mentioned in scripture: here I am laying in Zion a stumbling stone a rock to trip them up; but he who has faith in him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 9:32,33 – NE)

  The Witnesses have stumbled on this. The Witnesses believe that Jesus is the rock mass but fail to realize that they are partially rejecting him. Paul says that it is faith in Jesus’ name that is the requirement for Christians. The Witnesses say works of faith in Jehovah’s name are needed. It is this issue that separates the Jehovah’s Witnesses from all other Christian sects. It is their claim that this further proves that they alone are the only true Christian movement on earth today. The following scripture, though obviously not written with Witnesses in mind, does sum up their position.

  “Brothers, my deepest desire and my prayer to God is for their salvation. To their zeal for God I can testify; but it is an ill-informed zeal. For they ignore God’s way of righteousness, and try to set up their own, and therefore they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness. For Christ ends the law and brings righteousness for everyone who has faith.” (Romans 10: 1-3 - NE)

  The Witnesses have been led to believe that belonging to a Society, which claims to be Israel restored - a new nation, is the way to righteousness, that calling on the name of Jehovah, just as the original nation did, is the way to salvation. They can show this in their Bible. Can they show it in any other bible?

  Taken from the book -Opening the Door to Jehovah’s Witnesses By Trevor Willis
• 

  Forscher

  That has been one of my problems with the NWT for quite some time. They do make a plausible, though very circumstancial case that the NT writers may have used the divine name. That is all fine and good. What is so dishonest about what they do is that they take that case and then use it to justify departing from the manuscripts we have and place the name where they want it based on theory. That just doesn't cut it in my opinion.
  Forscher
• 

  Forscher

  By the way