The first intro paragraph for today’s WT study (May 15 th , 2013 pg. 24) reads as follows:
“BY AND LARGE, Christendom’s churches have distanced themselves from God’s name. For example, the Revised Standard Version states in its preface: “The use of any proper name for the one and only God…is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.”
The paragraph, as do many quotes in WT literature, does not reveal the entire cited source. While I do not own a RSV Bible, I was, however, able to find the quote within the “To the Reader” preface in my NRSV Bible. Perhaps someone can confirm if the quote is the same in the RSV one but here is the last portion of the paragraph containing the quote in its entirety:
“Although the American Standard Version (1901) had used “Jehovah” to render the Tetragrammaton (the sound of Y being represented by J and the sound of W by V, as in Latin), for two reasons the Committees that produced the RSV and the NRSV returned to the more familiar usage of the King James Version. (1) The word “Jehovah” does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew. (2) The use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom the true God had to be distinguished, began to be discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.”
It seems that the WT writers forgot to include most of the relevant information. Not surprising…