by Room 215 19 Replies latest jw friends
Matty I was hardly referring to you, I can enjoy a good laugh as much as the next guy...I laughed at yours, it was funny.
Im talking about the trash-like way some posters come up with twisted pronuniciations and spellings of "Jehovah" as if his name were a joke or something. That's disrespectful.
According to my Jewish friends the commandment reads best thusly, "You shall not use the name of Yahweh your God for vain purposes." That would, in my book, include the casual use of the divine name in conversation, which is why the Jews didn't use it in common speech. Secondly, the divine "name" is a title describing ATTRIBUTES of God, and making God's "Name" known means making the ATTRIBUTES of God known. There's only one God, why does he need a name in the conventional sense of the word?
Room215,
You have hit the nail squarely upon the head. When it comes to the Divine Name, less is certainly more and NOTHING is the ultimate. The actual God in whom we live and move and have our being has never identified himself by name. A name is a label. A label is a limit. And a limited God isn't God at all.
"The God you can name is not the eternal God." -- Lao Tzu
Francois
Witnesses love the exclusivity of the name, and they feel they are the only ones using it as it really should be used!
I believe that the JW's use the divine name almost like a brand. They use it to distinguish themselves from other faiths and believe that by using it they are proven to be the one true organization. The best way to honor God is not by constantly reciting his name but acting in an honorable way.
that's funny matty: when i was little our bookstudy conductor's name was harry and my little sister thought he was jehovah!
katie
YHWH = Jehovah
Anybody ever wonder why God needs a name? The more I think about it the sillier it seems that the "God of Israel" needs a moniker for us underlings to repeat. OBTW, considering all the languages He is responsible for generating, which rendering of the big "Jah" is the correct one?
Sheeze, this just seems so trite!!
Carmel
215, this is something I've noticed too, for a long time. The jws really, in my view, totally overuse the name. Some of them invoke it so often that it gets ridiculous. It's exactly as you said, Jehovah this, Jehovah that. I have always felt that, since something more rare is considered more precious, it would be good for them to tone it down drastically. After all, in the Gospels, Jesus is not recorded as saying it unless he was quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures. Perhaps he did use it at other times, but I think it's noteworthy that he used "my Father" a lot more. And, Jehovah is our Father too, so why not use his name less, thus making it more sacred........
Don't you just cringe at those congregation prayers where in every sentence the brother leading will use the name "Jehovah"? It's as if he's reminding God who his name is!
And what about the speakers who think using a visual aid is to write the name "Jehovah" at the top of the blackboard!
Overuse? Of course it is!
