Why does Christendom remove Gods name Jehovah from their bibles?

Question

Doesn't this confuse people?

Answer 1

There is no "j" sound in Hebrew, but there is one in English. "Jehovah" is English and is found in older English Bibles. Forms similar to "Jehovah" are found in Bibles in other languages.



Many modern translators do not follow the example of Jesus, who said that he made his Father's name known. In fact, Jesus taught Christians to pray that God's *name* would be "hallowed" or sanctified.



It seems that Christendom does not want to follow the example of Christ. While some say that "Yahweh" is closer to the Hebrew -- but this is not certain -- they don't use that form either.



But it is arrogance on the part of any man to remove God's own name from God's own Word, when it is plainly there in the original text.



Does it confuse people? Yes, but probably intentionally so, for those who want to push a particular theological position.

Answer 2

hmmm makes me laugh when people says there wasn't a J sound in Hebrews. There are so many names in the bible that starts with a J. Jacob, Jesus, John, to name but a few. Jehovahs name would have sound as though it had an i in front of it instead of a J.



Some feel that Jehovah's name is to sacred to use so they don't include it in their translations.

Answer 3

Well, I don't know if someone already posted it or not, but its still a fun letter regardless.



In response to a person who inquired about this [the exclusion of “Jehovah” from the NIV], Edwin H. Palmer, Th.D., Executive Secretary for the NIV's committee wrote:



"Here is why we did not: You are right that Jehovah is a distinctive name for God and ideally we should have used it. But we put 2 1/4 million dollars into this translation and a sure way of throwing that down the drain is to translate, for example, Psalm 23 as, 'Yahweh is my shepherd.' Immediately, we would have translated for nothing. Nobody would have used it. Oh, maybe you and a handful [of] others. But a Christian has to be also wise and practical. We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition. It is far better to get two million to read it - that is how many have bought it to day - and to follow the King James, than to have two thousand buy it and have the correct translation of Yahweh...It was a hard decision, and many of our translators agree with you."



lol oops, he was a little too open wasn't he? ;)



So for your question:



"Why does Christendom remove Gods name Jehovah from their bibles?"



The answers are mainly:



1. Money

2. Tradition



Extra:



Why we really do know how to pronounce God's name and why it does not involve 14th century monks in any way whatsoever (strawman anyone?)

http://divinenamepics.xanga.com/655741828/item/



Book by Dr. Firpo Carr, who spend 14 years of his life researching the God's name:

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Sacred-Name-Firpo-Carr/dp/0963129333



And a site for those who blaspheme God's name by associating it with the words "mischief" and "ruin":

http://web.archive.org/web/20040205193855/hector3000.future.easyspace.com/jehovah.htm



Oh and just for even more fun, here is a 65 page essay by Howard Mazzaferro explaining why Jorge above is 100% wrong:

http://www.quotedstatements.com/thelordandthetetragrammaton.pdf



Aga'pe

Answer 4

Considering who Christendom REALLY serves, why would they want anyone to know God's personal name or anything about him?



So they put a title in place of the divine name. They hope most people will not give it a second thought or a first one for that matter. For centuries, they have gotten away with not educating the people at all. Why start now?



If it were not for Jehovah's Witnesses showing people the truth of Bible matters, they would never learn anything. At the very least, we cause questions to be asked. The answers they then find, are not in Christendom's clergy.



Jehovah is the God Jesus prayed to as well as worshiped. Christendom does not want anyone to ask who did Jesus pray to all the time?

Answer 5

The Christian translations that do that -- replace God's name with Lord -- are "keeping faith," so to speak, with the rabbinical customs of the 1st and 2nd century Jews, who did not like to pronounce YHWH when reading scripture, and said "Lord" instead.



The name "Yehovah" arose because the Masoretic versions of the Hebrew scriptures used the vowel diacriticals for "Adonai" (Lord) along with the consonants for YHWH. This was supposed to remind non-Hebrew Jews that they should not utter God's name when reading scripture, but say "Lord" instead. "Jehovah" is a Germanic spelling of "Yehovah."

Answer 6

Jesus Says:  LET them be. Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.. . .(Matthew 15:14)





Christendom's Religious leaders who accept evolution are saying, in effect: “Jehovah is not seeing us. Jehovah has left the land.” Because of embracing this philosophy, they feel no accountability to him. Indeed, their conception of God is clouded by their belief in a mysterious, unexplainable Trinity of gods. In line with this viewpoint, they would like to do away with the very name of the one true God, Jehovah, making no mention at all of the name and studiously removing it from their Bible translations. They fear to go contrary to the popular worldly teaching of evolution.



Aptly, Jehovah says through another prophet: “For the reason that this people have come near with their mouth, and they have glorified me merely with their lips, and they have removed their heart itself far away from me, and their fear toward me becomes men’s commandment that is being taught, therefore here I am, the One that will act wonderfully again with this people, in a wonderful manner and with something wonderful; and the wisdom of their wise men must perish, and the very understanding of their discreet men will conceal itself.” (Isaiah 29:13, 14) At the latest, the God-dishonoring theory of evolution and those professed Christians who embrace it will meet up with that accounting in the day of Jehovah’s burning anger.—Zephaniah 3:8.

Answer 7

One thing I will agree with you Jehovah's Witnesses is this , I think the churches where trying to hide God from the people , remember they used to burn people for having a bible.

Answer 8

In short, it's because they are part of Babylon the Great (world empire of false religion) that is set up by Satan in his system. He has set this system of false worship up to deceive people & detract them from serving the true God Yahweh/Jehovah in truth.

He's very crafty, clever & extremely successful at deceiving people. I mean, what better way of deceiving people than getting them to think their worship is acceptable? .... very clever indeed.



However, those who search for Jehovah with a meek heart will find him. The scriptures show that he draws such-like ones toward him & Satan is incensed at this.



For those who say there's no 'J' in Hebrew or other lame excuses.... why do they accept Jesus name when it's Yeshua in Hebrew?

If they accept Jesus then they should accept Jehovah too.



Also, why not use the name Yahweh in their worship if the 'J' is bothering them so much? The truth is, some people don't want to use his name at all but use excuses ... when God himself wants us to use his name

Answer 9

Do you know why in the African language translations Jehovah is used all the time?

Christians seem to be a manipulative lot.

Answer 10

(Jehovah)

occurs 4 times in 4 verses in the KJV

Page 1 / 1 (Exd 6:3 - Isa 26:4)





Exd 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

Psa 83:18 That [men] may know that thou, whose name alone [is] JEHOVAH, [art] the most high over all the earth.

Isa 12:2 Behold, God [is] my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH [is] my strength and [my] song; he also is become my salvation.

Isa 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH [is] everlasting strength:

Answer 11

Take a look at Blue letter Bible, look under Psalms 83:18, King James Bible, in the Strong's Lexicon Concordance H3068 it gives all areas in the Hebrew scriptures where Yehovah-Jehovah in english, was changed to LORD & GOD all in captial letters. it also has an explaintion of how & why the Hebrews due to fear of saying the name out loud or for superstition, just click on H3068 for info.



This is free for anyone one to look. the ones that ridicule(Psalms 1:1,4-6) won't take a look, they rather wallow in their ignorance & be blind(2 Co 4:4) But it is there for all to see, all that care for the truth that is!

Answer 12

(Jeremiah 23:27) 27 They are thinking of making my people forget my name by means of their dreams that they keep relating each one to the other, just as their fathers forgot my name by means of Ba′al.



(Judges 3:7) 7 So the sons of Israel did what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, and they were forgetful of Jehovah their God and went serving the Ba′als and the sacred poles.



Jesus says..(John 17:25-26) .. Righteous Father, the world has, indeed, not come to know you; but I have come to know you, and these have come to know that you sent me forth. 26 And I have made your name known to them and will make it known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in union with them.”

Answer 13

This is a false claim. Translators did not remove the name…it was not there for them to remove, yet the NWT adds “Jehovah” to the Greek Scriptures 237 times. If you have a copy of “The Divine Name that will Endure Forever,” look on page 23. Apart from the word “Hallelujah” in Revelation, no ancient Greek manuscripts (out of over 13,000 available) contain the tetragram. Evidence from the first century Christian writings reveal that the apostolic Christians themselves replaced the tetragram with their own form of abbreviations, referred to as “nomina sacra.” These symbols were produced by the Jerusalem church from prior to 70 A.D. up to 100 A.D., (not sometime during the second or third century, as the WTS asserts).



On page 5 of the Divine Name, it says, “Hence, translating the Bible is a weighty responsibility. If someone deliberately changes or omits part of the contents of the Bible, he is tampering with the inspired Word…” On page 23, “…no ancient Greek manuscripts that we possess today of the books from Matthew to Revelation contains God’s name in full.” Finally, page 27: “One translation that boldly restores God’s name with good authority is the New World Translation…has restored God’s name every time that a portion of the Hebrew Scriptures containing it is quoted in the Greek Scriptures.” “EVERY TIME…”



Please take out your NWT and read Isaiah 8:12-13 (p. 897 in the small 1984 version). “YOU men must not say, ‘A conspiracy!” respecting all that of which this people keep saying, ‘A conspiracy!’ and the object of their fear YOU men must not fear, nor must YOU tremble at it.” Jehovah of armies—he is the One whom YOU should treat as holy, and he should be the object of YOUR fear, and he should be the One causing YOU to tremble.” Look on that page at the marginal cross-references. Do you see where this passage is cross-referenced to 1 Peter 3:14? Please turn there. The two verses from Isaiah correspond to 1 Peter 3:14-15, where the scripture from Isaiah is being quoted: “But even if YOU should suffer for the sake of righteousness, YOU are happy. However, the object of their fear do not YOU fear, neither become agitated. But sanctify the Christ as [LORD] in your hearts…” (emphasis added, because if the NWT actually inserted the Divine Name every time a portion of the Hebrew Scriptures containing it is quoted in the Greek Scriptures, it would also appear in this verse). Also, 1 Peter 2:3, “provided YOU have tasted that the Lord is kind” is a quotation from Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that Jehovah is good.” Again, the NWT fails to insert Jehovah into this passage, although they dishonestly claim to have restored it every time.



If you ask me, inconsistencies in translation are a major cause of confusion, but the WTBS’ doctrine prevents them from being consistent. How would these passages read if the Watchtower Society was consistent in translation? What would it do to the backbone of their doctrine? In this case, they have obviously altered the text of the Bible to fit their theology rather than altering their theology to fit the Bible.

Answer 14

It is absolutely confusing to most people since they have been taught that God's name is Jesus!

Also, the removal could possibly be, because those who are trying to teach the masses, don't know who the True God really is themselves.

Answer 15

With all of your 7days a week indoctrination process at the kingdom hall, until now, you still don't know what is 'fear and trembling'??

As I said before, one of the JW should pick up the leaflets that prints the sacred name of the Lord thrown at the garbage in the subway stations in New York; have them recycled and off course let he/she earns an FSR credit.

Answer 16

Actually it was Christendom (or more specifically, a semi-literate monk) who came up with that version of the Divine Name.



The Name was originally removed from the Old Testament by Jews who were superstitious and afraid of transgressing the First Commandment.



The Name was never present in the New Testament. Out of the thousands of NT manuscripts, not a single one contains the Name. Even the Watchtower Society admits this in its Insight on the Scriptures volume. See vol. 2, p. 9: "the extant manuscript copies of the original text of the Christian Greek Scriptures do not contain the divine name in its full form."



But this work takes pains to rationalize why the Name does not appear in the NT manuscripts. Basically it asserts that the manuscripts were corrupted and that the Watchtower translators "restored" the Name in its New World Translation.



This is a bold assertion. If--as the Watchtower says--EVERY NT manuscript in existence has been corrupted by removing the Name, then what other corruptions have taken place?



Also, if Jesus and his disciples were going around 1st Century Judea using the Name like it's going out of style, why is there no Scriptural evidence of the inevitable reaction by the Jews and their leaders? It simply doesn't add up.



The only reasonable conclusion is that, for whatever reason, it is highly unlikely that the original NT manuscripts contained the Name.



==========================



To briefly address statements by so-called JWs on this forum regarding the Name in the NT: the simple, unassailable fact is that of the THOUSANDS of extant NT manuscripts, NOT ONE contains the name. Zero, zilch, nada.



All the appeals to authority in the world won't make it appear. Religions love to add to the Bible. They've done it for centuries. The Watchtower/JW faith is no different in this respect. It would be more honest to simply admit this and move on. Just my 2 pesos.

Answer 17

Christianity did not remove any name from the scriptures. The word Jehovah was made up. Jehovah witness added Jehovah to their books. The Jews never uttered Gods name, they never even wrote it, because it is too holy for utterance. Even today, they will write G_D and not spell it out. All the first Christians were Jews, they would never have written something like that. Look back to the 1840s and later to find when that all started. Pax Christi

Answer 18

I know the original reason was the translators thought it was too sacred to write unless they washed up to their elbows before writing it.....But today with typwriters and internet why not put God's name back in his book?

I know why.

In the mix up they have confused Jesus as God.."LORD and Lord" are very similar..So now they give all glory to the sent one...and not the one who sent him.

They consider the Lord as The Almighty God.



And clearly in the first commandment God said to have no other gods before him...and although Jesus is a mighty god...small caps...he is not The Almighty God..Large caps.



Jehovah had no beginning..Jesus had a beginning .

Answer 19

I think because they were trying to make people think that this "God" of theirs was different to all other gods so he doesn't have a name. So, it's just a marketing strategy.

Answer 20

most people who are bible illiterate think the name jehovah is the name of the father, because either they didnt understand the first chapter of the book of john or believe what ever they hear!!!,the fathers name is elohim or theos, all the other names you hear are names of jesus christ, but most people dont know who god really is

Answer 21

answer: Haa is correct. "Jehovah" isn't the name of G-d. There is no "J" and no "W" in Hebrew.



YVHV is the original and there are no vowel signs in the Torah. The full name was lost long ago. Yahweh is a guess. Jehovah is an even worse guess of the name of G-d.



Jews don't even try to determine the actual name

Answer 22

“Jehova” in an inaccurate Romanization of the Tetragrammaton, and in fact it is impossible to truly Romanize his name. The current most accurate attempt is “Yahweh,” but a more accurate transliteration is Yod Heh Vah Heh.

Answer 23

I guess if it's not there, they figure why add it.

Answer 24

Jehovah isn't G-d's name. There isn't a "j" sound in Hebrew.