Jehovah’s Witnesses abuse God’s Divine Name!
INTRODUCTION
A. In order to have "Jehovah" in the New World Translation, they must claim
the Bible has been altered and corrupted. They destroy the reliability of the
manuscripts of the Bible.
Jehovah’s Witnesses falsely claim that Bibles remove
YHWH (Tetragrammaton) from the Old Testament. The
truth is, they have added the divine name in the New
Testament where it is never found in the original Greek
"Yahweh"
(The Tetragrammaton) manuscripts, and blamed the Bible as being corrupted
from the original where YHWH was once found.
YHWH
B.
One of the first things that JW new converts learn from the Watchtower
organization is the lie that all Bibles are corrupt because they remove the
Tetragrammaton from the Old Testament.
1. What most JW’s don’t know is that they are the one’s who are truly guilty of
adding to the word of God because the New World Translation (the JW
sectarian paraphrase they call a Bible), actually adds the word "Jehovah" in the
New Testament 237 times where it is never found.
I.
THE PROGRESSIVE USE OF GOD’S NAME IN THE BIBLE.
A. El Shaddai was God’s prime name to the Patriarchs.
1. YHWH was God’s prime name to the Jews.
1) Ex 6:2-3: "God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am YHWH;
and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty [El
Shaddai], but by My name, YHWH, I did not make Myself known to
them."
B. Jesus is God’s prime name for Christians.
1. Acts 4:12: "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name
under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
1) Zech 14:9: “And the Jehovah will be king over all the earth; in that day
the Jehovah will be the only one, and His name the only name.”
2) Jesus is the only name proving He is Jehovah.
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3) This would have been a good time to use YHWH in Acts 4:12.
Term
Before Moses
El Shaddai:
Ex 6:2-3
Used by Patriarchs
YHWH:
Ex 6:2-3
Never used by
Patriarchs
Jesus:
Acts 4:12
Moses to Cross
Cross till end
Used 7000 times by
Jews
Never used in NT
Never used in OT
Used 900 times in NT
II. YHWH – NOT REMOVED FROM SOME OLD TESTAMENT BIBLES
A. It is impossible to remove YHWH from the Old Testament, because it is
found in every original Hebrew Manuscript. (However, YHWH is never
found in any manuscript of the New Testament.)
1. The American Standard Version and Young's Literal Translation, always
uses Jehovah when the Tetragrammaton is found in the Hebrew.
2. Reputable Bibles like the King James Version and the New American
Standard version do not remove the divine name from the Old Testament.
1) The King James Version uses "Jehovah" many times (Ex 6:2; Ps 83:18;
Isa 12:2; 26:4).
2) In the "Principles of Translation" section in the introduction of the New
American Standard version, it says:
The Proper Name of God in the Old Testament:
In the Scriptures, the name of God is most significant and understandably
so. It is inconceivable to think of spiritual matters without a proper
designation for the Supreme Deity. Thus the most common name for the
deity is God, a translation of the original . One of the titles
for God is Lord, a translation of . There is yet another name
for which is particularly assigned to God as His special or proper name,
that is, the four letters YHWH (Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 42:8). This
name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the
great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore, it has been consistently
translated Lord. The only exception to this translation of YHWH is when
it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, .
In that case it is regularly translated God in order to avoid confusion. It is
known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh,
however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation.
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3) If we were given the choice, we would merely insert YHWH every time it
is used in the Hebrew Old Testament. If that is what the Holy Spirit chose
to use, it is good enough for us!
III. JEHOVAH WITNESSES MISSPELL YHWH!
A. As the introduction to the New American Standard confirms, the proper
way of spelling YHWH in the English language would be Yahweh, not
Jehovah.
1. Dr. George Howard, who is quoted as proof that Matthew was written in
Hebrew also said the proper pronunciation of YHWH was "YaHWeH" and
that this is the accepted one by the vast majority of scholars.
1) Jehovah was popularized by a catholic monk who lived in the 12th century
AD.
2) In fact "Jehovah" was never used before this!
2. Take a look at the obvious error of spelling it Jehovah as Jehovah’s
Witnesses demand it.
1) We will not quibble with the three vowel guesses, but two of the four
consonants are wrong! What a silly blind organization the Watchtower is.
Y
H
W
H
J
E
H
O
V
A
H
WRONG
GUESS
RIGHT
GUESS
WRONG
GUESS
RIGHT
Notice that the spelling Yahweh at least has all four consonants correct!
Y
H
W
H
Y
A
H
W
E
H
RIGHT
GUESS
RIGHT
RIGHT
GUESS
RIGHT
When you point this out to Jehovah’s Witnesses, they say "the spelling doesn’t matter!
IV. JEHOVAH WITNESSES ADD JEHOVAH INTO THE NEW TESTAMENT!
A. The New World Translation adds "Jehovah" into the New Testament 237
times, where there is absolutely no ancient manuscript evidence of any kind
to support it.
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1. Even the Watchtower admits this to be true!
1) "No ancient Greek manuscript that we possess today of the books from
Matthew to Revelation contains God's name in full." (The Divine Name
That Will Endure Forever, Watchtower booklet).
2. While the Hebrew Old Testament does contain YHWH many times, the
Greek New Testament NEVER uses the name of God YHWH.
1) In words JW’s would understand: "Jehovah is never found in the New
Testament, but was added by the Watchtower society."
3. Jehovah’s Witnesses actually teach that the gospel of Matthew was
originally written in Hebrew and that this original Hebrew copy of Matthew
(the one written by Matthew’s own hand) did contain YHWH.
1) The problem is, no one has ever found any evidence of a Hebrew
Matthew original, and this still doesn’t explain why the Jew world
Translation adds Jehovah in the books Paul wrote.
V. WAS THE ORIGINAL GOSPEL OF MATTHEW WRITTEN IN HEBREW?
A. The best and only argument JW’s can come up with for inserting Jehovah
into the New Testament is that the Gospel of Matthew, unlike the other 26
books of the New Testament, was written in Hebrew.
1. Even if Matthew was written originally in Hebrew, it would still mean
Jehovah’s Witnesses change the other 26 New Testament books that were
originally written in Greek.
1) But with brazen deception they think if the Holy Spirit wrote one NT
book in Hebrew that contained YHWH, this justifies changing the Holy
Spirit’s choice of not using YHWH, but LORD, in the other 26 books.
2. But the most important fact to note is that Jehovah’s Witnesses admit that
the other 26 books of the New Testament were written in Greek where the
Hebrew "YHWH" would not be used.
1) It is one thing to falsely argue that Matthew was written in Hebrew, then
later corrupted when translated into Greek by removing YHWH, but quite
another to explain why YHWH is never found in the other 26 New
Testament books.
B. Anyone who has studied the writings of the "Apostolic Fathers" knows that
they are quite unreliable.
1. It is most likely that they thought a Hebrew translation of the original Greek
text of Matthew into Hebrew was the original. They were mistaken.
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1) It is also possible that Matthew produced both a Hebrew and a Greek
Original, except for the fact that we have no textual manuscript evidence
in the way of ancient fragments to support a Hebrew original of Matthew.
2. There has never been found any copies of a Hebrew Matthew, all were
written in Greek, just like the other 26 books.
1) In fact of the 5000 oldest manuscripts of the Bible NONE use YHWH in
the New Testament.
3. The only scholars who JW’s can quote as believing in a Hebrew Matthew,
are Bible trashers and modernists who entirely deny the inspiration of the
Bible.
1) So the Watchtower organization is "in agreement with" those who try to
ultimately destroy anyone's faith in the Bible.
2) You see, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the entire New Testament has been
corrupted.
CONCLUSION
1.
Jehovah’s Witnesses would have us believe that YHWH was removed 100%
from the New Testament, but never removed once from the Old Testament
manuscripts.
1. The truth is that JW’s are guilty of adding the Divine name into the New
Testament where it is never found.
1) The expression, "Jehovah’s Witnesses" did not exist prior to it becoming a
kind of corporate trademark name of the salesmen of the Watchtower book
selling company after 1930 AD. For 2000 years the followers of Christ have
called themselves "Christians", never "Yahweh's" or "Jehovah's Witnesses."
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