YHWH and the English Translation

allyouneedislove

So I was doing research on YHWH in the Hebrew scriptures. I see that the WT admits that Yahweh is a more accurate Hebrew pronunciation of YHWH.

But, is Jehovah an acceptable way to translate Yahweh into english? If not, what is the best way to translate YHWH into English?

Freeminds.org says the following:

The Watchtower counter-argument, which holds some weight, is that it does not matter how you pronounce the name, since in every language the pronunciation of the same name will differ, sometimes far from the original, but that you use the name. The name "Jesus" is cited as an example, as is "Joshua" and "Jeremiah." since in Hebrew these names were pronounced more like "Yeshua," "Yehoshua" and "Yermiyahu." They argue that we do not fail to say "Jesus" just because it was not the way his name was actually pronounced. They charge those who do not use "Jehovah" with being inconsistent, since these same ones use the name of Jesus. So far, the Watchtower argumentation is logical.

So, if the Bible is going to have an English translation of YHWH in it, would the best choice be Jehovah (from Yahweh)?

And...spare me any TROLL statements. I've been posting on here for a while now. I'm just trying to find truth for myself.

Witness My Fury

Google is your friend...(maybe):

WIKI

Try researching the Bible itself before getting too bogged down with these kind of specifics though eh.

Karen Armstrongs' The Bible - A Biography is a highly recommended read that will aid you in that.

Leolaia

I personally don't feel it's as big a deal as some people make it out to be. "Geezus" indeed has little phonetic similarity with Y e shua`. The main issue with "Jehovah" imo is that it turns a bisyllabic name into a trisyllabic one and the vowels (drawn from a separate source) have no historical relationship with the vowels that were in the original name; at least the modifications from Y e shua`to "Jesus" can be traced as the name passed from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English. But again I don't think its really a big deal. I prefer using "Yahweh" because it is more authentic; "Jahveh" might be the expected form had the name been romanized the same way as other Hebrew names into English. But this particular name was already aberrant in the MS tradition since the MT gives only a Qere reading for the niqqud and the LXX and Vulgate generally translated the name (via a replacement) or used Hebrew characters (in the case of some early Greek MSS) instead of transliterating it.

james_woods

Not nearly as big a deal as falsifying places where it does or does not belong in the bible.

It is remarkable the the WTBTS actually admits that the english Jehovah is not authentic, though.

allyouneedislove

@james_woods

you said:

It is remarkable the the WTBTS actually admits that the english Jehovah is not authentic, though.

I did see in the reference NWT that they admit Yahweh is more accurate. However, isn't Yahweh what the name would be in HEBREW, and not English? I can see the reasoning of translating it to english if that is the case.

TJ Curioso

I read somewhere that YAHWEH is the aramaic form of the divine name, not the hebrew form. Some people say too that Jesus means HORSE (from the greek), and is not the correct transliteration from hebrew to greek or latin.

ldrnomo

Why should I care?

My Father had a name "Joseph" I don't know if I ever used his name when talking to or talking about him.

Bobcat

For those interested, there is an interesting write up on this page on why "Yahweh" has meaning in the Hebrew.

http://www.eliyah.com/yahweh.html

I agree that there is really better things to argue about. And for what its worth," Jehovah" and the Romanized "J" is consistent if you are going to try to create consistency with the many KJV users, which is what WT claims.

At the same time, I think the WT position is disingenious. They argue that it doesn't really matter as long as you use the name. But try using "Yahweh" in the KH or with other Witnesses in conversation. You will find out they don't really believe their own explanation.

On the insertion of the Name in the NT: They would have been more honest if they had encased the Name in double brackets [[Name]]. The NWT says they use these for "interpolations," which is what this amounts to, since there is no manuscript evidence or any ancient arguements suggesting that the Name was taken out of the NT. All their arguements for putting it in are interpretations of indirect evidence.

But even if you accept the idea of putting the Name in where OT quotes are made, the dishonesty is apparent. NWT puts the Name in the NT 237 times. But only about 80 of those times are quotes from the OT. The rest are simply where THEY figured it should be. Roughly 2/3s of the times are falsely riding on the 'OT quote' explanation.

Bubblegum Apotheosis

Rolf Furuli wrote this message back in 1999 on one of the AOL Boards.

" As to pronunciation, I thought for many years that something close to
Yahweh was likely. But after reading G. W. Buchanan, "Some Unfinished
Business With the Dead Sea
Scrolls," Revue de Qumran, 1988, 13:49-52 I changed my mind, and believe
that a pronunciation close to Yahowah is more likely. I recommend this
article.

Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli,
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo"

Greg Stafford in his "Jehovah's Witnesses Defended Volume 3

I have underlined part of Brother Stafford's foot notes on Page 4, the foot notes defining what "Transliteration" is:

6
"A word is transliterated if its letters in one language are represented "in the
corresponding characters of another alphabet" (Webster's II, New Riverside University
Dictionary, page 1227). For example, the name represented by the Greek letters Ihsou"
is "transliterated" into English as Iesous. This is not, however, the English form of the
name, but the Greek form represented in the English "corresponding characters."
"Jesus" is the Modern English or Anglicized form of the Greek name which was first
transliterated from Greek into the corresponding Latin form, Iesus. A word is
"Anglicized" if it is made to "become English or similar to English in form,
pronunciation, idiom or character"

http://www.elihubooks.com/data/topical_index/000/000/151/JWD3_Chap_1_COMPLETE.pdf

Pages 40 to 49 of Greg Staffords "JWD 3rd Edition", address this discussion of the Divine Name. Greg poses some interesting questions, cites plenty of sources along with his own reasoning, I enjoyed reading his book JWD 3, and have never heard anyone counter with certainty why "Yahweh" is a more proper pronuciation than "Jehovah", we are bringing Hebrew names (Yahweh Samaritian) and trying to aproximate their meaning, sound to the best of a scholar's skill. The KJV, Reina Nueva used "Jehovah" Jehova", Is this debate about proper pronuciation going on in Spanish(Yes, the new "Nueva Reina removed YHWH) or Arabic, Farsi even Korean? Do the Chinese scholars debate "Yesu" for Jesus?

Why would we use the Samaritian Transliteration of the Hebrew God YHWH? There is no evidence to demand "Yahweh" dervived from a possible third Century B.C.E. Samaritian transliteration, Samaritians were not friends of the Jews, had their own place of Worship (John 4), I don't understand why some scholars prefer to cling to the name Yahweh. If you find a better argument than Brother Staffords reasonable coverage for the "lay person" of why we should use the name "Yahweh" over "Jehovah", please share with me.

Bubblegum Apotheosis

Rolf Furuli wrote this message back in 1999 on one of the AOL Boards.

" As to pronunciation, I thought for many years that something close to
Yahweh was likely. But after reading G. W. Buchanan, "Some Unfinished
Business With the Dead Sea
Scrolls," Revue de Qumran, 1988, 13:49-52 I changed my mind, and believe
that a pronunciation close to Yahowah is more likely. I recommend this
article.

Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli,
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo"

Greg Stafford in his "Jehovah's Witnesses Defended Volume 3

I have underlined part of Brother Stafford's foot notes on Page 4, the foot notes defining what "Transliteration" is:

6
"A word is transliterated if its letters in one language are represented "in the
corresponding characters of another alphabet" (Webster's II, New Riverside University
Dictionary, page 1227). For example, the name represented by the Greek letters Ihsou"
is "transliterated" into English as Iesous. This is not, however, the English form of the
name, but the Greek form represented in the English "corresponding characters."
"Jesus" is the Modern English or Anglicized form of the Greek name which was first
transliterated from Greek into the corresponding Latin form, Iesus. A word is
"Anglicized" if it is made to "become English or similar to English in form,
pronunciation, idiom or character"

http://www.elihubooks.com/data/topical_index/000/000/151/JWD3_Chap_1_COMPLETE.pdf

Pages 40 to 49 of Greg Staffords "JWD 3rd Edition", address this discussion of the Divine Name. Greg poses some interesting questions, cites plenty of sources along with his own reasoning, I enjoyed reading his book JWD 3, and have never heard anyone counter with certainty why "Yahweh" is a more proper pronuciation than "Jehovah", we are bring Hebrew (Yahweh Samaritian) names in our English Langauge. Is this debate about proper pronuciation going on in Spanish or Arabic, Farsi even Korean? Do the Chinese scholars debate "Yesu" for Jesus?

Why would we use the Samaritian Transliteration of the Hebrew God YHWH? There is no evidence to demand "Yahweh" dervived from a possible third Century B.C.E. Samaritian transliteration, Samaritians were not friends of the Jews, had their own place of Worship (John 4), I don't understand why some scholars prefer to cling to the name Yahweh. If you find a better argument than Brother Staffords reasonable coverage for the "lay person" of why we should use the name "Yahweh" over "Jehovah", please share with me.

YHWH and the English Translation

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