I know this has been a often discussed topic. But I just can't understand the WT's take on this. They freely admit that we DO NOT KNOW HOW GOD'S NAME WAS PRONOUNCED. See the divine name brochure page 7 which states:
"The truth is, nobody knows for sure how the name of God was originally pronounced. Why not? Well, the first language used in writing the Bible was Hebrew, and when the Hebrew language was written down, the writers wrote only consonants—not vowels. Hence, when the inspired writers wrote God’s name, they naturally did the same thing and wrote only the consonants."
This in itself is true yet does not give the entire truth and they are hiding the facts. There are more reasons why we do not know what God's name really was. Why? Translators hit the Jewish combination YHWH and weren't sure what it translated as. So they stuck in the vowels from the Hebrew word for Lord (adonai). Combining IHVH (another form of YHWH) with AOAI creates IAHOVAHI and the IA becomes IE out of tradition. So we've got IEHOVAHI.
The divine name brochure, in a VERY brief paragraph DOES refer to this in very little detail. It says on page 8: "When it came to God’s name, instead of putting the proper vowel signs around it, in most cases they put other vowel signs to remind the reader that he should say ’Adho?nai′. From this came the spelling Iehouah, and, eventually, Jehovah became the accepted pronunciation of the divine name in English. This retains the essential elements of God’s name from the Hebrew original."
Now since we DO NOT know the original spelling AND pronunciation of God's name, would he require that we used a man made name? For example, if my name was Dan and someone said that the ONLY way to know him is to use his name, and his name is Nad, could that be true? My name is NOT Nad. If someone called me that I would know that they DID NOT know me.
When Jesus taught us to pray to God, did he tell us to use that name? Or did he tell us to use something else? Matthew 6:9 is very clear that we are NOT to pray to "Jehovah". We are to pray to..."Our Father". If my son was to use my personal name when talking to me, I'd see it as a sign of disrespect. So even if God's name WAS pronounced Jehovah, would it not show more respect and show a more personal relationship with him to call him "Father"?
And yet...JWs INSIST that you MUST use this man made name of "Jehovah" in order to please God. In fact, they say it is a PROOF that they have the true religion. Because translators do not desire to insert a man made name into the Bible and instead more closely follow the evidence that we have, the WT calls them evil.
Shame on you, JWs...shame on you.