by purrpurr 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Why? This I never understood, the publications say that gods name translated from Hebrew is yaweh. So why not use that name? Why add a whole bunch of letters and vowels that change the sound of the name completely? I've often thought surely we would gain greater respect on the ministry if we used a name that is historically and verbally accurate?
If I changed my name to meow meow rather than purr purr, it wouldn't be the same name would it???
Well.. they think it's Yahweh but no one is certain about which vowels should between the consonants. But that applies to the name Jehovah as well. It's all just peoples guesswork.
I always thought that about the word 'Amen' everyone says at the end of a prayer. We go through 3 translations to arrive at the English rendition.
Why not just speak Hebrew?
the publications say that gods name translated from Hebrew is yaweh. So why not use that name?
Actually, WT goes further and admits that the true pronunciation of YHWH has been lost forever, but likely it could have been Yahweh (doesn't say much for god, does it? Couldn't even preserve his own name in his own book?).
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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."
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*** w50 12/1 pp. 472-473 An Open Letter to the Catholic Monsignor ***
".... We do not say that "Jehovah" is the correct pronunciation of God’s name...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... the Spanish Dominican friar Raymundus Martini wrote his Pugio, about 1278, and used the name Jehovah."
So why does WT use "Jehovah" instead of the more accurate "Yahweh"? Tradition !!
Insight vol. 2 p. 5, Jehovah
"Jehovah" is the best known English pronunciation of the divine name, although "Yahweh" is favored by most Hebrew scholars
"why Jehovah's witnesses? not yaweh witnesses?"
Dumb question.
Why not Yehoshua instead of Jesus.
The games churchoids play.
Which ever way it is said .... still sounds dumbass.
How about an invisible name for an invisible god!
DocHouse: "why Jehovah's witnesses? not yaweh witnesses?" Dumb question.
No, actually it's a very good question.
And I see you've offered nothing in the way of an intellectual explanation as to why it's a dumb question but simply retreated to the position of the weak by attacking the questioner instead of actually addressing the question.
DocHouse- are you a Jehovah's Witness?
and why do sooo many jw's in the lesser-developed countries insist on using the word jah ? does the WTS approve of this?
Christians use the name Jesus, go figure....
I think it should be niether. It should be "The Lord's Witnesses" for 2 reasons:
1. It's YHWH's fault that he didn't act to preserve the pronunciation of his name. If his name ever was in the NT, it's his fault that he allowed copyists to tamper with it by allowing them to replace his name with "Lord". He permitted his name to be lost to history and replaced with "Lord". Therefore, "The Lord's Witnesses".
2. According to the NT christians are to be witnesses of Jesus. Jesus is lord, therefore christians are the lord's witnesses. In other words, the name "The Lord's Witnesses" covers both the role of being witnesses of YHWH and being witnesses of Jesus because both YHWH and Jesus are lords. (Maybe it should be "The Lords' Witnesses" with the apostraphy after the s)
Read Shirley's piece- Jesus and the (J's).....
