NWT reasons, excuses, and assertions for inserting the Tetragrammaton (JEHOVAH)

by TerryWalstrom 11 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Earnest
    Earnest

    jhine, the Watchtower has never taught that any of the extant manuscripts of the Christian Greek scriptures contain the tetragrammaton. But none of the Christian Greek scriptures go back to the first hundred years which is why this fragment of Mark is of interest. However, there are parts of the Old Testament translated into Greek which still contain the tetragrammaton and that is one of the reasons Jehovah's Witnesses maintain it was likely in New Testament manuscripts about the same time.

    It does seem in some manuscripts that it was written to bring attention to the name, possibly to warn the reader about pronouncing it. But in others the name is written in Greek as iaw (yahu) which gives no such indication. Further, even in those cases where it may be written to alert the reader, one needs to bear in mind the many different strains of belief in first century Judaism and whether the early Christians would have been bound by the traditions of the Pharisees and priestly class.

  • jhine
    jhine

    Phizzy , I do not blame the Witnesses who told me this , but they were certainly under the impression that it was true .

    Ernest that is all I can say , they had been given that idea somewhere . I did some some digging after after I posted and quickly came across this

    "Early Jewish writings indicate that the Jewish Christians used the divine name in their writings ".

    The article , from the Watchtower Online Library , goes on to quote from The Tosefta " The books of the Evangelists and the books of the minim they do not save from the fire.But they are allowed to burn where they are ............they and the references to the Divine Name which are in them "

    There is then another quote from Rabbi José the Galilean about the Divine Name being cut out of the Christian Writings and the rest burnt .

    The paragraph ends " Thus there is strong evidence that the Jews living in the second century CE believed that Christians used Jehovah's name in their writings "

    I have not been able yet to check out these quotes , but the W T certainly seems to want to push the idea that the Divine Name was in the first NT writings

    Jan

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit