perhaps this article will help you know for yourself:— http://www.tetragrammaton.org/godsnameabsent.htm
Is God's name absent in the Christian Scriptures?
by Spike Tassel 163 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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isaacaustin
No, it is present in the name of Jesus.
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PSacramento
With the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, God manifested himself completely in his Son, Jesus Christ.
When Jesus taught to pray he said, "Our Father", when Jesus prayed he said "Father" or "Abba", when he was dying on the cross he didn't say any "name" dod he?
In Jesus we have the fullness of God FINALLY revealed to Us.
Those who believe that the Name of God carries some "great weight" need to remember that it is what the name STANDS for and not what the name MIGHT be that counts.
Even more so since we have NO IDEA what the name was, how it was pronounced or anything else for that matter, other than 4 Consonants.
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Mary
Scholar, why do you continuously try and twist things to say something they don't mean? No matter how much you try and claim that the NWT is justified in inserting the name "Jehovah" into the Christian Scriptures, the bottom line is, the WTS is guilty of "adding to the scriptures" because the Tetragrammaton was not there in the original writings. It's that simple.
I am not saying this to try and promote the Trinity, because I do not believe that Jesus was God. The Tetragrammaton was most likely omitted from the NT for a couple of reasons:
1) My understanding is that there is no direct translation for the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew to the Greek language (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this). This is why the word "Lord" was used in it's place.
2) Jesus and the Jews of his day did not use God's name in everyday use the way Witnesses today do, for the simple reason that one of the Ten Commandments was: Do not use the Lord's name in a worthless way. Using the name Yahweh (or however they actually pronounced it) in the same way you used the name 'Noah' 'Jacob' or 'Joseph' would have been greatly disrespectful to God, and this is why the Jews did not use it----it was considered the holiest name in the universe.
What about Queen Elizabeth? Even though everyone knows what her name is, the only person who probably actually calls her by her first name is her husband. Everyone else would address her either as "mother" "grandma" (for family members) or "Your Majesty". To call her by her first name would be highly offensive and totally lacking in decorum.
As per usual, Witness apologetics such as yourself strain the gnat and swallow the camel. You go to the ends of the earth to try and 'prove' that the name 'Jehovah' was used by the early Christians when in fact it wasn't. The earliest Christians were all Jews and they would have followed the centuries old tradition of not pronouncing God's name. Plus, the translation "Jehovah" is such a poor rendition of the Tetragrammaton that the Jews today view it as a joke.
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Narkissos
ST: As you can imagine this topic has been discussed every other month on this forum... so perhaps you could start by reading some older threads and then see if you have anything significant to add (other than links to websites that have been linked to many times before).
Here is a fairly recent one although it starts with a slightly different issue: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/174104/1/Nehemia-Gordon-and-the-pronunciation-of-the-tetragrammaton
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isaacaustin
1) My understanding is that there is no direct translation for the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew to the Greek language (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this). This is why the word "Lord" was used in it's place.
Correct...I think the 'phoenetic' translation is 'pipi'
2) Jesus and the Jews of his day did not use God's name in everyday use the way Witnesses today do, for the simple reason that one of the Ten Commandments was: Do not use the Lord's name in a worthless way. Using the name Yahweh (or however they actually pronounced it) in the same way you used the name 'Noah' 'Jacob' or 'Joseph' would have been greatly disrespectful to God, and this is why the Jews did not use it----it was considered the holiest name in the universe.
Correct. To prove your point mary...let's take one of the supposed 'Jehovah' scriptures:
Matt 22
34 After the Pharisees heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they came together in one group. 35 And one of them, versed in the Law, asked, testing him: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them: 42 “What do YOU think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him: “David’s.” 43 He said to them: “How, then, is it that David by inspiration calls him ‘Lord,’ saying, 44 ‘Jehovah said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet”’? 45 If, therefore, David calls him ‘Lord,’ how is he his son?” 46 And nobody was able to say a word in reply to him, nor did anyone dare from that day on to question him any further.
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
Had Jesus uttered the Divine name in verse 37 as the NWT claims the relgious leaders would not have kept quiet but would have jumped on him for the use of the name.
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PSacramento
One would think that, if a name was so vital, so important and so meaningful, as is the name of God, that people woudl WANT to pronunce it correctly and what the correct name of God...
Anyways, I was at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit here at the Royal Ontario Museum and I was there with a few friends and such, along with us were a couple of our Jewish friends, including one of the Rabbincal teachers here in Toronto, we spoke about the name of God and it was an interesting debate, to say the least.
The Rabbi was a tad older than us (in his 70's), he and his son helped me get an interesting perspective on the tetragrammaton, "All we have is speculation, we reallt don't know his Name, we can specualte and try to guess, but why? If and When God wants His Name know to us (again), we will know for sure, I am ok with God and Lord within their correct context".
I tend to agree with him.
I alos mentioned hwo some people use Yahweh and Yaushua instead of "God" and Jesus, he called them pretensious a-holes that, unless one is speaking Hebrew, should understand the difference between Translation and "honoring" a Name.
I always like him :)
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Spike Tassel
As Isaac points out in his Post 1775 above, "No, it is present in the name of Jesus." This is because Jesus [in Modern English] < IHCOUC [in Koiné Greek] < Yehôwshû(w)‘a [which is Strong's Hebrew transliteration at entry #3091 with the gloss Jehovah-saved].
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isaacaustin
No Spike Tassal, it is because Jesus is God.
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Spike Tassel
Isaac's "pipi" actually is the Greek ΠΙΠΙ, which is a "spoof" of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, and not a phonetic at all. In other manuscripts, some actual rendition of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton is used, as various scans seen elsewhere attest.