by TerryWalstrom 66 Replies latest watchtower bible
no Jehovah in the dead sea scrolls either.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it is in there.
A few years back, the Dead Sea Scrolls did a "tour" of various US cities. JWs around here got together in groups to get discounted tickets to fawn over seeing "Jehovah's name" in the documents.
They of course ignored the other 98% of the exhibit and spent their time, slack-jawed, nearly drooling, over those few pieces.
no Jehovah in the dead sea scrolls either.
Sir82: Actually, I'm pretty sure it is in there.
Ummm...no. If you read Ehrman's response to Terry question, you would realize that 'Jehovah' does not appear at all in the original Hebrew text. 'Jehovah' is a made up word.
The tetragrammaton appears in the dead Sea scrolls, but not the word 'Jehovah'.
Well, there's no English words at all in the DSS!
I took a short cut - I found it quicker to write "they were standing slack-jawed looking at the name Jehovah" instead of "they were standing slack-jawed looking at the 4 Hebrew consonants which, over the course of centuries, came to be transliterated into English by the name Jehovah".
So using simple logic, if pronouncing the divine name was central to god's purpose, if the sanctification or vindication of his name is central to everything. If god is all powerful and is able to preserve his word over all these Millenia. Why the *!?^ do we not know how to pronounce it? Why do we have to guess and invent?
It really don't add up. But you knew that.
How could Jehovah be in the Dead Sea Scrolls ?
The Scrolls are for the most part, written in Hebrew, but there are many written in Aramaic. Aramaic was the common language of the Jews of Palestine for the last two centuries B.C. and of the first two centuries A.D. The discovery of the Scrolls has greatly enhanced our knowledge of these two languages. In addition, there are a few texts written in Greek.
Jehovah is derived from Latin which I described in my earlier post .
I await with interest Bart's reply to your last observation Terry.
Should be revealing !
Good stuff
Stop and think about it.
Christian means identifying oneself with the MESSIANIC identity of Jesus.
Jehovah's Witness is to attest to something else entirely.
The name JESUS encompasses Christianity while the name Jehovah is to harken toward a different ethos.
Thanks for starting this discussion with Ehrman.
Great post! I couldn't read it all becuase the edges were cut off. ( my phone perhaps??)
Freemindfade,
I feel your pain. The gulf in thinking/reasoning is so huge between faders and Xdubs, vs JWs, that conversations with any intellectual stimulation or honesty are nearly impossible.
Will you ," learn to love Jehovah"?!?!? WTF does that even mean?!?! NOTHING!! It's impossible to educate a mind that is closed. It's simply not worth the effort! That's why I come here and "cheat" on my spouse, intellectually speaking.
DD
