Watchtower short changes the Tetragrammaton

by IslandWoman 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  IslandWoman

  The Society has encouraged its followers to honor God's Name as expressed in the Tetragrammaton.

  Appendix 1A of the Watchtower's Reference Bible approves the use of the form "Jehovah" because it preserves that all important Tetragrammaton:

  "...the New World Translation continues to use the form "Jehovah" because of people's familiarity with it for centuries. Moreover, it preserves, equally with other forms, the four letters of the divine name, YHWH or JHVH."

  The name "Jehovah" in English does preserve the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, but the Society's publications in other languages DO NOT!

  The Watchtower publication "The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever" on page 8 lists the Divine Name in a variety of languages many of which do not include all four letters of God's name! Some of these are:

  Spanish - Jehova`

  Swedish - Jehova

  Tongan - Jihova

  Hungarian - Jehova

  Swahili - Yehova

  The Watchtower has chosen to bow to the dictates of man-made languages rather than to preserve God's name in its entirety. Apparently, as long as the Tetragrammaton is preserved in the English language, the mother tongue of Brooklyn, that is enough!

  Last Sunday's Watchtower article summarized quite well how "short changing" Jehovah is viewed by him. May 1, 2002 page 11:

  Judah's priests serving at the temple in Jerusalem during Malachi's time were not offering Jehovah the best sacrifices. Malachi 1:6-8 says: "'A son, for his part, honors a father; and a servant, his grand master. So if I am a father, where is the honor to me? And if I am a grand master, where is the fear of me?' Jehovah of armies has said to you, O priests who are despising my name." "In what way have we despised your name?" asked the priest. "By presenting upon my altar polluted bread," Jehovah replied. "In what way have we polluted you?" the priests asked. So Jehovah told them: "By your saying: 'The table of Jehovah is something to be despised.'" Those priest showed that they despised Jehovah's table each time they presented a defective sacrifice, saying; "it is nothing bad." (bolding mine)

  For many brothers and sisters around the world their "sacrifice of praise" is polluted, defective.

  They are not holding sacred the name of God, represented by the four-letter Tetragrammaton. They are taught by the Society that to conform to the traditions of their language is more important and that offering to God a "defective" sacrifice of praise "is nothing bad"!

  Linda
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  dungbeetle

  ((((((((((((((( IW )))))))))))))))))

  I was thinking the whole time during this friggin' study about how Rutherford wussed up and wimped out before teh government, trying to keep his scrwny backside out of jail.

  Other Witnesses were being murdered for Watchtower's belief system ALL AROUND THE WORLD while our dear Rutherflawed wouldn't so much agree to a little disconfort behind bars.

  And while he gave the WORLD the impression that he was proud to be punished for God's Word <gag> <choke> look at the shenanigans he was pulling behind the scens.

  What WOULD Malachi say....

  RUN WATCHTOWER RUN THE TAXMAN COMETH....
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  IslandWoman

  Old Hippie,

  the Society did not invent the spelling in Spanish, as some here perhaps think, but they took the traditional spelling and pronounciation and used it, built on it, because it was known.

  I agree with you. That was really my point. They accepted the traditional spelling, whether or not it included the complete four-letter Tetragrammaton, putting tradition before accuracy. It must be remembered that after 1931 the JW religion built itself on their claim of reverence for God's name and its sanctification.

  It seems though, when it came to writing God's name, they easily accepted what the world accepted as good enough: an incomplete Tetragrammaton. They may have felt this was an unimportant detail, which is really laughable since JWs are taught that in their service to God, even seemingly unimportant details are important!

  Linda
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  IslandWoman

  Hi Waiting,

  But really, as "God's Only Channel to Mankind" - why tinker with God's personal name - which is the Tetragrammaton - no matter what language? The WTBTS obviously allows brothers to rot in jail for decades for God's name sake. Allow thousands of Malawi brothers to be raped, burned, beaten, killed for God's righteous name...........why does the WTBTS then not be consistent for God's name sake?

  Well said! When my "little girls" were in elementary school I carefully followed the Watchtower's guidance. Their teachers knew we were JWs and at my request when holiday school activities came up my girls were given non-holiday school activities. When everybody in class was coloring a halloween pumpkin my daughter was coloring a "generic" fall scene; this is certainly a small thing but I bring it up as an example of how we were taught to be so very careful. Everything, everything was to be as perfect as we could make it, no worldly stuff for us!

  Yet, the Society had no problems with accepting and then promulgating a form of God's name which in reality was deformed, not the true Tetragrammaton that we were told was so all important.

  Always enjoy your comments.

  Linda
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  SpiderMonkey

  In Spanish, the 'h' is non-existant, the ''v' is pronounced like 'b' and the 'j' before 'e' and 'i' is pronounced like the German 'ch' ('achtung'), so it's quite a different pronounciation - 'ch-e-o-ba'. But the point is, that the Society did not invent the spelling in Spanish, as some here perhaps think, but they took the traditional spelling and pronounciation and used it, built on it, because it was known. Is it not rather egocentric to think that the English - or American - spelling and pronounciation should be the 100 % correct one, and be used as guideline for all the world's people to follow, when in fact some of these other pronounciations and spellings are from the mediterranean area and thus far closer to the original languages?

  Old Hippie: I don't know much Hebrew, it's true. Er, OK, I only know a few words & letters that the WTS taught me way back when ;j But consider: If the he in the tetragrammaton is pronounced, in Hebrew, similar to the hard H in English, then the "Spanish tetragrammaton" would be something like (including your point about the Spanish che) "Che Jota Ve Jota," or if similar to a silent H, "Che Hache Ve Hache." I don't know Hebrew, so I don't know which would be more correct, but if the WTS was so very interested in preserving the tetragrammaton in English (despite the silent H at the end), then why notpreserve it in every other language to the extent possible? I would think the correct translation of those characters would be CH H V H, because the H's would be silent, while a Spanish word ended with a hard H would be woefully awkward to pronounce... My point is that, whatever the specific pronunciation of "Chehovah" would be in Spanish, or even "Chejovaj" the spelling would preserve the 4 all-important letters, and the specific pronunciation you ended up with wouldn't be skin off anyone's back, since no one even knows the pronunciation of the vowels in Hebrew in the first place! And their stated purpose (in English) was to preserve those 4 letters; I think the WTS just didn't bother to do a better job of this.

  I admit that's an awkward explanation of what I mean, and I also admit that I'm no Spanish scholar either! I don't remember whether *any* word in Spanish was ever spelled with an H at the end; perhaps that's simply never done, in which case one could argue that they threw it out so as not to appear stupid ;) But once again, that would indicate to me that they cared more about expediency, and the opinion of men, than honoring god's name.

  Mis dos pesos,

  SpiderMonkey