Question for Jehovah Witness'. Should we discard the New Testament or the WTS as unreliable?

Question

If the name Jehovah is so important, then why is it never used in the entire Greek New Testament? If men edited out the proper name of God, "YHWH", when they copied the New Testament, as only the WTS claims, thereby altering God's word, then how can we have confidence in ANY of the New Testament? Should we discard the New Testament or the WTS as unreliable?

Answer 1

Greetings,



First, this question is logically flawed. It operates under the false assumption that there are NT manuscripts which are unchanged. Any belief in a totally unchanged Bible text goes against ALL the evidence.



Only some "KJV-only" people believe that God preserved the Bible word-for-word, and they cannot logically maintain this position since even the KJV differs from its Hebrew and Greek text. EVERY Bible translation in existence must choose between various text readings and make a determination as to what word(s) were lost or added. When this is done using sound textual principles we have a very accurate text and versions which are generally in agreement.



While God did not preserve the copyists from making any mistakes, He did limit the degree of variation so that the *doctrinal* content of the NT was not affected (except for several well known spurious verses added by Trinitarians in the 10th cent.).





The NWT inserts the Name Jehovah in the NT because textual and translation principles demand it. Many other translators have acknowledged these principles and placed Jehovah "Jehovah" in the NT, and most other translators have acknowledged these principles because they have capitalized LORD in the NT which ALWAYS denotes Jehovah (Mt.22:44; Ac.2:34).



First, a translator's prime concern is with transmitting the meaning of the original writer. So if the original writer directly quoted from the O.T. the absolute semantic equivalence of KURIOS in the target language must be "Jehovah" (e.g.; Mk.12:25-36; Ac.2:21, 33-34; Rm.10:13) (see Girdlestone's Synonyms of the OT; 43).



"In the NT, likewise, KURIOS, when used as a name of God...most usually corresponds to hwhy Jehovah, and in this sense is applied." --A Greek and English Lexicon to the NT, by J. Parkhurst



Second,, there are the occurrences of the tautological "Lord God" (KURIOS hO THEOS) which provide strong evidence indicating the original N.T. text used the divine name. This is proved by the LXX where "Lord God" everywhere signals where "Jehovah God" was replaced. (Mt.4:7,10; Mk.12:29,30; Lk.1:16,32,68; Ac 2:39; Rev.4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7 &etc.).



Another reason would be if the context demanded that the word KURIOS be understood to mean "Jehovah." A good example of this is 1Cor. 2:16. We would have a nonsensical meaning or an outright contradiction if we did not somehow identify Jehovah as the "Lord" who's mind we don't know as contrasted with the Lord who's mind we do have. (Cf: Mk.11:9; 12:35-36; Ac.2:34; 3:19,20; 4:26,29,30; 2Tim.1:18).



In these places "Lord" is textually accurate, though factually incorrect. Recognizing this, several versions make use of capitalization in Mat.22:44, Mk.12:36, and Ac.2:34: "LORD"!--KJV,JPS.



Such principles cover all the places where the NWT and others have restored Jehovah to the text of the N.T.





Next, other scholars besides Witnesses have recognized the evidence that the extant Greek N.T. manuscripts were altered and the Divine Name was removed in the second or third centuries.



First, it is a fact that the Divine Name Jehovah appeared in the Greek translation of the O.T. (LXX) through the first century C.E. This proves without a doubt that copyists of the 2nd century replaced the Divine Name in the LXX with "KURIOS." By logical deduction, and the evidence outlined above, we can safely conclude the same thing occurred for the N.T. texts.



Professor George Howard observed: "The writers of the New Testament included without doubt the Tetragrammaton in their quotations".--Biblical Archeology Review, 3/1978, p.14.



Notice the further quotes from George Howard's "The Tetragram And The New Testament," Journal of Biblical Literature 96/1 (1977) 63-83:



"Toward the end of the first century Gentile Christians, lacking a motive for retaining the Hebrew name for God, substituted the words [kyrios] and [theos] for the Tetragram....Thus somewhere around the beginning of the second century the use of surrogates must have crowded out the Tetragram in both Testaments. Before long the divine name was lost to the Gentile church altogether except insofar as it was reflected in the contracted surrogates."





For the Christian, the most important evidence is the evidence from Scripture:



God made it clear that Jehovah would be his Eternal Name (Ex. 3:15, Mic. 4:5; Jer.23:27).



Christ specifically stated that his determination was to make Jehovah's name known to Christians (Jn. 17:6, 26. Not inserting that NAME in the NT would be a failure to follow Christ–a denial of being Christian.



All these facts give corroborating evidence to every reasonable person that Jehovah must have been included in the original N.T. books.



Leaving the most holy name unrestored in the N.T. would be falling into the purpose of those who hate that Name. These are the same ones who have removed the divine name from the O.T., thereby receiving God's condemnation (Rev.21:19).



Yours,



BAR-ANERGES

Answer 2

You may be surprised to discover that we agree with you that "The Bible is clear that God did not institute a religious organization to save mankind, but rather an individual – Jesus Christ— Who paid the price for sin so that those who place their faith and trust in Him alone can be forgiven and have eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; 1 John 5:11-13; Romans 10:9). No religious organization can intercede between you and Jehovah God, because the Bible declares that the Lord Jesus Christ is to be the ONLY mediator between mankind and God (1 Timothy 2:5)." Excellent. Now, ask yourself: How do I learn about God, Jesus and the Bible? Is it through your church? Is it supplemented by reading church publications? Then can you see the futility of your question?

Answer 3

Many modern scholars and Bible translators advocate following the tradition of eliminating the distinctive name of God. They not only claim that its uncertain pronunciation justifies such a course but also hold that the supremacy and uniqueness of the true God make unnecessary his having a particular name. Such a view receives no support from the inspired Scriptures, either those of pre-Christian times or those of the Christian Greek Scriptures.

The Tetragrammaton occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text printed in Biblia Hebraica and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. In the Hebrew Scriptures the New World Translation contains the divine name 6,973 times, because the translators took into account, among other things, the fact that in some places the scribes had replaced the divine name with ʼAdho‧nai′ or ʼElo‧him′. (See NW appendix, pp. 1561, 1562.) The very frequency of the appearance of the name attests to its importance to the Bible’s Author, whose name it is. Its use throughout the Scriptures far outnumbers that of any of the titles, such as “Sovereign Lord” or “God,” applied to him.

Noteworthy, also, is the importance given to names themselves in the Hebrew Scriptures and among Semitic peoples. Professor G. T. Manley points out: “A study of the word ‘name’ in the O[ld] T[estament] reveals how much it means in Hebrew. The name is no mere label, but is significant of the real personality of him to whom it belongs. . . . When a person puts his ‘name’ upon a thing or another person the latter comes under his influence and protection.”—New Bible Dictionary, edited by J. D. Douglas, 1985, p. 430; compare Everyman’s Talmud, by A. Cohen, 1949, p. 24; Ge 27:36; 1Sa 25:25; Ps 20:1; Pr 22:1; see NAME.

Answer 4

Jesus Christ himself made Jehovah's name known (John 17:26). So God's name is in the Gospel accounts.All those that call upon the name of Jehovah will get away safely (Romans 10:13,14). And this was a quote from Joel 2:32. There are a lot of quotes from the Hebrew scriptures in the Greek scriptures. So God's name is in the Greek scriptures.

Answer 5

You asked and I quote:

"Question for Jehovah Witness'. Should we discard the New Testament or the WTS as unreliable?"



What needs to be discarded as unreliable is the ignorance you're spouting off as being factual.



The position of God's name is unshakable in the Hebrew Scriptures, the "Old Testament." Although the Jews eventually stopped pronouncing it, their religious beliefs prevented them from removing the name when they made copies of older manuscripts of the Bible. Hence, the Hebrew Scriptures contain God's name more often than any other name.



With the Christian Greek Scriptures, the "New Testament," the situation is different. Manuscripts of the book of Revelation (the last book of the Bible) have God's name in its abbreviated form, "Jah," (in the word "Hallelujah"). But apart from that, no ancient Greek manuscript that we possess today of the books from Matthew to Revelation contains God's name in full. Does that mean that the name should not be there? That would be surprising in view of the fact that Jesus' followers recognized the importance of God's name, and Jesus taught us to pray for God's name to be sanctified. So what happened?



To understand this, one has to remember that the manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures that we possess today are not, I repeat ARE NOT the originals. The actual books written by Matthew, Luke and the other Bible writers were well used and quickly wore out. Hence, COPIES were made, and when those wore out, FURTHER COPIES were made OF THOSE COPIES. This is what we would expect, since the copies were usually made to be used, NOT preserved.



There are THOUSANDS of copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures in existence today, but most of them were made during or after the fourth century of our Common Era. This suggests a possibility: Did something happen to the text of the Christian Greek Scriptures BEFORE the fourth century that resulted in the omission of God's name? The FACTS (which you and MANY are in IGNORANCE of) prove that something did.



The Name Was There:

We can be sure that the apostle Matthew included God's name in his Gospel. Why? Because he wrote it originally in Hebrew. In the fourth century, Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate, reported: "Matthew, who is also Levi, and who from a publican came to be an apostle, first of all composed a Gospel of Christ in Judaea in the Hebrew language . . . Who translated it after that in Greek is not sufficiently ascertained. Moreover, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea."



Since Matthew wrote in Hebrew, it is inconceivable that he did not use God's name, especially when quoting from parts of the "Old Testament" that contained the name. However, other writers of the second part of the Bible wrote for a worldwide audience in the international language of that time, Greek. Hence, they did not quote from the original Hebrew writings but from the Septuagint Greek version. And even Matthew's Gospel was eventually translated into Greek. Would God's name have appeared in these Greek writings?



Well, some very old fragments of the Septuagint Version that actually existed in Jesus' day HAVE survived down to our day, and it is noteworthy that the personal name of God APPEARED IN THEM.



If you (or anyone else for that matter) would like to come out from under the blanket of ignorance and learn the Truth regarding this, feel free to carefully read and research the information within the article of the following Bible based brochure (Jehovah's Witnesses have ALREADY done this and are well educated to the FACTS)... Or you can choose to remain in ignorance and believe whatever yo so desire. Doesn't matter to we who KNOW the Truth (John 8:31, 32)... Capeesh?



http://bit.ly/odYq0

{The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever / God's Name and the "New Testament"}





Ciao

Answer 6

A long time ago the name of God (Jehovah) was considered to sacred to speak. You should use the Translation of the Holy Scriptures witch you can get if you ask a Jehovah's Witness. Also people don't like to use the name of Jehovah because it links them to Witness's so they take the name out. Or they don't tell people thats God's name. And yes Fiddling Drool we did leave the name of God in the Bible(NT version).





Plus (just to let you know) I am one!

Answer 7

For people who are challenging God's name, for me the most simple answer is the Lord's Prayer.

This is how Jesus taught the disciples to pray: and He prayed the same prayer.

Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your NAME (Do you know his name?) Your kingdom come, your will be done, ON EARTH as it is in heaven. God's will is for the Earth to return to a paradise condition and to fulfill His purpose for it. The desert will blossom like a rose. Nothing he created was in vain. It will be how He intended it to be The earth remains to time indefinite. No more crying, no pain, no fear.and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. .

Answer 8

Do you think that the guys who removed God's name from the OT 7,000 times during translation would have decided to leave it in the NT???



I don't think so either.





Apart from removing the Tetragrammaton, can any major alterations be found between the dead sea scrolls and the OT as found in our Bibles?



No. So we can reliably assume the same is true with the NT.

Answer 9

JW's are a blashemous bunch and don't really care what the Bible has to say about anything. They worship the Watchtower only.