The Hebrew letters yod, he, vav, that represent the four-letter name of our God are called the Tetragrammaton. When Christians use it, we don’t generally translate it into English but rather, transliterate it, use words or letters that most closely correspond to the original word. For English, that would be YHWH. The Tetragrammaton first appears in Genesis 2:4 and occurs approximately 6,828 times in the Old Testament. In scripture, names most often describe something about the name holder. Jacob meant “supplanter” or “one who follows after.” The name “Abraham” means “father of many” or “father of a multitude.” The same is true of what is often referred to as the divine name, YHWH. In Exodus 3, Moses asks God His name, and in 3:14, His response is “I Am that I am” or “I Am Who I Am.” He is the eternal self-existent One. Some individuals or groups try to find unique ways of using the Tetragrammaton to appear to others as though they have some “special knowledge” or to claim an understanding of God’s name that had been a secret until they arrived on the scene to reveal it. Panentheist Richard Rohr gives a 6-minute teaching on the divine name, which he claims he learned from a scientist who is also a Jewish Rabbi. According to his story, the rabbi told the audience that, for centuries, Jewish tradition held that they were not to speak the Lord’s name, for doing so would be breaking the commandment against taking the Lord’s name. He went on to explain that the name is to be correctly said by inhaling and exhaling YEH…WEH. This works well for Richard Rohr’s contemplative prayer ideas. But are the claims of the scientist/rabbi true? We sent the video to Dr. Thomas Howe who responded:
This is interesting, but it has nothing to do with the actual text. The Rabbi with whom Rohr was talking was perhaps explaining a Jewish tradition, but his views were not universally held by ancient Jews. There were many views about the interpretation of the commandment, just as there are today. Rohr simply unquestionably assumes that his source is true of all Jews, ancient and modern.
One problem is, on the one hand, he was told never to speak the divine name, and then the Rabbi says this is how you were to speak the divine name. Ancient Hebrew certainly had vowel sounds, since not to have vowel sounds one cannot speak. In the ancient language, there were no marks that represented the vowel sounds. Syriac and Aramaic were the same, written consonants without vowel marks. The points that are now used in modern Hebrew Bibles were developed by the Masoretes beginning around 600 AD. The vowel sounds for pronouncing the divine name have been lost precisely because the divine name was never written with vowel points. This was to prevent pronunciation. In the modern Hebrew Bibles, the tetragrammaton is pointed differently in different passages. Consequently, there are conflicting views even today about how the name should be pronounced. In many of the existing manuscripts, the divine name was written in Paleo-Hebrew script (
) even though the surrounding text was written in the Aramaic square script יהוה which is used in the modern Hebrew Bibles. This was to alert the reader not to pronounce the name. So, when reading, one would not pronounce the divine name but substitute the word ‘Adon’ (a long o sound) or Adonay. The Shema would be read, “Hear Israel, Adonay our God, Adonay is one,” rather than “Hear Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is one.”
Many commentators today are like the Corinthians, always seeking some new thing in order to make a name for themselves.
While we were working on the issue with Richard Rohr, one of our supporters sent us a link to “Who Is God?” on JW.org, asking us how they should engage JWs about the information contained in this particular video study. This person is meeting with Jehovah’s Witnesses and would like to share the gospel but is unsure how to respond to the Watchtower’s claims about the divine name and to their assertion of the overriding importance of having and using THE correct name, which of course is the particular one they ascribe to. We explained that the New World Translation is part of a genre of translations classified as Sacred Name Bibles. There are over a dozen translations in the Sacred Name Movement. In Peter Unseth’s paper, “Sacred Name Bible Translations in English: a Fast Growing Phenomenon,” he notes:
Since 1960, over a dozen translations of the Bible have been produced in English with the explicit goal of restoring the original Hebrew forms of the divine names, consistently using forms such as “Yahweh” and “Yeshua” in both the Old and New Testaments (in contrast to ASV’s use of “Jehovah” in the Old Testament alone).
While most of the Sacred Name Translations give fairly lengthy explanations for the word they choose to translate the Tetragrammaton YHWH, they most often choose “Yahweh” or “Yahveh.” Considering that there is no “J” in the Hebrew language, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s choice to choose the appellation Jehovah in their translation took a rather peculiar route. Even though they admit “Jehovah” is not the most correct choice for the substitution, that is the word they choose to translate the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, in their own Bible for their own congregant’s use. On page 28 of the 1969 edition of The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures they write:
While inclining to view the pronunciation “Yah-weh” as the more correct way, we have retained the form “Jehovah” because of people’s familiarity with it since the 14th century.
In all of our conversations with JWs, not one of them had the independence of thought to use the admittedly more correct “Yahweh” in the conversation. Now we don’t particularly care if one uses Yahweh, Lord, or even Jehovah in place of the tetragrammaton, except to raise this interesting question. If the Watchtower’s goal is to make the Divine Name accurately known, why would they have chosen the appellation they agree is less accurate? In other words, if, as they state, “Yah-weh” is “the more correct way,” why would they use the less correct rendering, Jehovah? If it is dishonoring God to use the word LORD, as many translations use to represent YHWH, wouldn’t their use of the less accurate name Jehovah be just as dishonoring to God as the word LORD?
There are many other issues of more serious concern with the JWs New World Translation, NWT, usually deliberately imposed on the text to reinforce their unbiblical teachings. So while we could write many more pages describing those oftentimes gob-smacking “errors,” we will comment today on just two.
Under Lordship of Christ on Monergism, they note:
The Greek word for Lord is kurios, the word used by citizens of the Roman empire to acknowledge the divinity of Caesar.
We find in Romans 10:9-13, the Apostle Paul takes the declaration that Roman citizens were to proclaim that Caesar is Lord and applies it to Jesus. In Roman society one was free to believe in any deities they chose, but they must in any case acknowledge the divinity of Caesar. Changing this declaration of Caesar’s divinity by replacing it with the name Jesus – to stress His divinity – was of course considered by the Romans to be treasonous.
The next paragraph may seem a bit difficult to grasp, with all the Κύριος and Κύριου, unless you are way better educated in Greek than Joy, which is quite possible, but don’t let your eyes cross, we will explain in plainer terms after – and then it will all fall into place.
The Greek word translated “Lord” in Romans verses 9 and 12 is the Greek word “Κύριος,” (kurios) and basically means “Lord.” In verse 13, Paul uses the same word with a slightly different ending, “Κύριου,” (kurion) which adds the additional word “of” to the word Lord,” making it “of Lord.” (This can be clearly seen in the 1969 edition of The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures at JW.org.) In this context, Paul applies the word kurios (Lord) to the exact same person in verses 9, 12, and 13. The WTBTS was essentially forced in verse 13 to translate it “Jehovah” rather than Lord, because it is a quote from Joel 2:32. The Tetragrammaton is in that Joel passage in the Hebrew Scriptures, which reads in Joel 2:32:
“And everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved;”
The way the WTBTS has handled Romans 10 gives the illusion that there are two separate persons that are being called on in this passage. Jesus is meant in verse 9 and 12, but for the Watchtower, Jehovah in verse 13 is another person. However, the person in verses 9 and 12 is the same person they are to call on in verse 13. Perhaps a little verbal thought experiment would help. We will substitute two different names in the text to see if there is one or two persons in view. We will substitute Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones in the text from the New World Translation:
For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Mr. Smith, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised Mr. Smith up from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation. For the scripture says: “No one who rests his faith on Mr. Smith will be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. There is the same Mr. Smith over all, who is rich toward all those calling on Mr. Smith. For “everyone who calls on the name of Mr. Jones” will be saved.” (New World Translation)
If this was the case it would have Paul saying, you should call on Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith can save you. Mr. Smith is reliable. Mr. Smith won’t disappoint you. So, if you want to be saved, call on Mr. Jones!
Paul is declaring that Caesar is not Lord but instead, “Ιησους Κύριος,” Jesus is Lord, in verses 9 and 12, and who is also the “Κύριου” in verse 13. According to Paul, in order to be saved, we must confess that Jesus is (to use the NWT translation) Jehovah in order to be saved. This is interesting because nowhere in Scripture do we find a similar passage saying that we have to confess that the Father is YHWH. The Father is YHWH, of course, and many Scriptures point out that He is, but as it happens, the Father and Son share the divine name. Which is the second thing of interest. In the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19, Jesus is recorded as saying:
Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, (NWT)
“The Name” here is singular, not plural. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share the name YHWH. In order to be saved, a Jehovah’s Witness has to do the very thing the Watchtower vehemently denies to them. They must confess that Jesus is Jehovah and call on Jesus as Jehovah, as God, to be saved. Call on Him today.Ω
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