WT admitted "Jehovah" is not God's name... (page 2)

Turd Ferguson

I guess I pretty much repeated what you said InquiryMan. I must have missed your post when I read it the 1st time. Sorry for the repeat : )

factfinder

It does not bother me that Jehovah is not the correct way to say God's name in Hebrew.

Nobody complains about using the names Jesus, Moses, David or Abraham, for instance.

We know the Hebrew pronunciations of these: Yehoshua (Joshua), Moshe, Daveed, Ahvrahm. But we all use the English pronounciation.

At some point in time the Jews felt it best not to write out God's name so it would not be marred, desecrated, thrown out or erased. So it began to be written with the vowels of elohim & Adonay.

In time the original pronounciation went into misuse, and thus was lost.

In the case of "Jehovah" though, it isn't a matter of it being the english version of the Hebrew YHWH, like JHVH, with the Y having a J sound or W having a V sound. It is a matter of it being completly the wrong word, even the number of sylables being in question. Because adonay and elohim were never intended to be an indication of the vowel point for YHWH. Those words were instead written under YHWH somtimes to remind the reader to substitute elohim or adonay not combine it with YHWH. Which would result in a made up word with no basis for being anything other than jibberish. Unless you believe that somehow by doing things compleatly wrong they got it right simply by random chance?

AndDontCallMeShirley

We know the Hebrew pronunciations of these: Yehoshua (Joshua), Moshe, Daveed, Ahvrahm. But we all use the English pronounciation.

.

The difference is, WT has made what is essentially a hard-and-fast rule regarding what form of god's name can be used in the Org. I know of JWs who were blacklisted as apostates simply because, after doing thorough research, they felt more comfortable using the form "Yahweh" instead of "Jehovah". Even WT admits Yahweh is most likely the more correct form, so why isn't WT using it? Answer: tradition.

WT has no basis for being dogmatic about whatever form a JW prefers to use, but in true WT fashion, it has unilaterally decided on the 'official' rendering to the exclusion of any other choices. For as much as WT condemns the Catholic Church for just about everything it does, it also has no trepidation about relying on the CC for support whenever WT hypocritically requires it in order to prop up it's own theology:

.

w80 2/1 p. 11 The Divine Name in Later Times THE NAME “JEHOVAH” BECOMES WIDELY KNOWN

Interestingly, Raymundus Martini, a Spanish monk of the Dominican order, first rendered the divine name as “Jehova.” This form appeared in his book Pugeo Fidei, published in 1270 C.E.—over 700 years ago.

.

is An American Translation (by Smith and Goodspeed) with a slight variation of using “Yahweh” instead of “Jehovah.”

“The word ‘Jehovah’ does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew,” says the Preface of the Revised Standard Version. But what word does “accurately represent” the divine name in Hebrew? Some prefer “Yahweh,” others “Yehwah,” others “Jave,” and so on. The problem is that when writing ancient Hebrew only consonants were used, and even experts admit that it is a matter of conjecture as to which vowels made up the complete divine name.

.

W 12-1-1950, pp. 472-473

"Thank you for this opportunity to present some facts to you and to the public. We do not say that “Jehovah” is the correct pronunciation of God’s name. For that matter, neither is “Jesus” the correct pronunciation of Christ’s name. But according to the Aramaic language which Christ and his apostles spoke, his name was pronounced “Yeshu′a” (the a representing a gutteral ending). But “Jesus” is only our colloquial way of pronouncing his name, and we do not find fault with you for using it instead of Yeshu′a. However, if you call it shallow scholarship for the Committee to use the word Jehovah in the New World Translation, then you will have to admit that it is due to the shallow scholarship of the Roman Catholic clergy of the thirteenth century, for in that century the word historically appears among them."

.

Regardless of what god's name actually is, the elephant in the room on this subject is this: if god's name is so important that everyone is supposed to know what it is in order to please him and be saved, then why did he not see fit to preserve its correct rendering in his very own book??!

(I'm not saying I believe in god or the Bible...just using the information it contains to expose the absurdity of it all).

AndDontCallMeShirley

About the 13th century the term "Jehovah" appeared when Christian scholars took the consonants of "Yahweh" and pronounced it with the vowels of "Adonai." This resulted in the sound "Yahowah," which has a Latinized spelling of "Jehovah." The first recorded use of this spelling was made by a Spanish Dominican monk, Raymundus Martini, in 1270.

Interestingly, this fact is admitted in much Jehovah's Witness literature, such as their Aid to Bible Understanding (p. 885). This is surprising because Jehovah's Witnesses loathe the Catholic Church and have done everything in their power to strip their church of traces of Catholicism. Despite this, their group's very name contains a Catholic "invention," the name "Jehovah."

Jehovah's Witnesses blast orthodox Christendom for "hiding the name of God" by replacing "Jehovah" with "the Lord" whenever "Jehovah" appears in Scripture. They charge this is a Jewish "superstition" that dishonors God (which it does not). Yet their own organization has a name that was invented as a result of the same thinking that produced use of "the Lord."

----

*** rs p. 202 Jehovah’s Witnesses ***

How old is the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses?

"According to the Bible, the line of witnesses of Jehovah reaches back to faithful Abel"

Qu: how could there be witnesses of "Jehovah" beginning with Abel if that name wasn't fabricated until the 13th century a.d.?

factfinder

@Turd Ferguson and AndDontCallMeShirley (ok Leslie!)-

Thank you! You both bring out good points I had not thought of.

And yes, a very good question- if God's name is so important for us to call on for salvation why did he allow its true pronounciation to be lost?

Splash

*** rs p. 202 Jehovah’s Witnesses *** How old is the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses?"
"According to the Bible, the line of witnesses of Jehovah reaches back to faithful Abel"

More clever word-smithing from the wt.

This question is about the beliefs, the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, which go back to to the late 1800's.
The answer centres (textually and literally) on the word 'witnesses', something altogether different.

Splash

designs

The continuing fallacy and superstition of all these Desert Religions is that if you say some damn incantation or name the heavens open and a giant hand reaches down and pats you on the head. Jesus, Jehovah, Allah.

Its unbelievable, its 2014, when are humans going to be done with this crap.

Some Catholic educated professor won a primary in Virginia over the incumbent Jewish Congressman and he thanks God for his victory. Its believeable.

Faithful Witness

They are stuck with this pronunciation, since they named their religion after it.

I also have become convinced that JW's are not actually referring to God, when they use the name "Jehovah."

They worship the name of their organization.

LostGeneration

The absurdity is in the absolute insistence in using the name, despite evidence to the contrary. Its like it is their 'lucky charm'.

If the Hebrew desert God is up there, he'd undoubtedly be ignoring the nincompoops who continue to insist on calling him by the wrong name.

WT admitted "Jehovah" is not God's name...

Share this