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THE DIVINE NAME
WHAT ABOUT GOD'S NAME: The Tetragrammaton (Divine
Name) of God is written in Biblical Hebrew some 6,800 times although without any indication of its vowel sounds. Usually
it is rendered in English as YHWH (or YHVH) and some scholars believe that possibly the missing vowels with the consonants
together formed the name Yahweh. However, it is true that some modern Bibles in English give the name as Jehovah
in at least some verses of the Old Testament such as at Psalm 83:18 in the King James.
In the New Testament a part of the tetragrammaton does
appear in various names. For example in Hebrew in the Old and New Testaments one finds the name Elijah, which in Hebrew
is Eliyahu where El means God -i- means "my," and "yahu" is a shortened form of YHWH. Thus
Elijah means My God Is Jah. The name "Jesus" is from the Hebrew words "Yeh" or "Yah" (short
for YHWH) and "sus" (or "-shua") meaning "(is) salvation, so that a possible full translation of
Jesus in English is "Yah(weh) is salvation."
Thus by saying "Jesus" we each time also
say "Jah/Yah is Salvation," so there is nothing to matter with a Christian using the divine name. However, not only did Christ say when in prayer to call God "our Father,"
but Paul also says use "Abba" which can be translated "papa" or "dad." (Romans 8:15, Galatians
4:6) Since in the Bible, Christians are to regard and speak of God lovingly as our heavenly "father" or "dad,"
most always have and still do. Doing so draws a believer in Christ to feel much closer to God than if he or she
kept using a formal name such as Jehovah or Yahweh, although there is no law saying we can't do that either and many do
so in perfect good conscience.
Among humans,
children do not normally call their human father by his first or last name as this reflects formality and alienation. Thus,
Johnny and Mary Doe call their human father "dad" or "father." They do not call him "John,"
"Doe," "Mr. Doe," or "John Doe." But again, it's a matter for individual choice.
If they do use "Mr." for any reason, although that it is normally formal, it is still also respectful.
The Bible does, of course, also speak of those who call on the name of the Lord being saved at Romans 10:13.
There the New World Translation by Frederick Franz, Nathan Knorr and others over Watchtower when they were alive has
dropped "Lord" and inserted "Jehovah." Another point is that saying all who call on the "name"
of the Lord will be saved does not necessarily refer to those who sound or voice a certain pronunciation, but to those
who are truly following God with confidence and are naturally calling out to Him on that basis and in love.
So it is not wrong to use a formal name such as Jehovah or Yahweh, a respectful title such as LORD, the short form
of Jah or Yah, or terms of affection such as Father, Dad, Papa, Abba etc. Most Christians, for the reasons
noted above, simply use a respectful title or call God our "Father," but for all of us, the Bible
itself shows there is no rule or law about having to use only one of the various possible names or titles for God Almighty,
and we therefore have freedom of conscience although some groups do try to curtail such Christian freedom.
At Deuteronomy 12:3 God said when Israel's tribes entered Canaan that
they must destroy all things related to idol worship including even the names of false gods. God also commanded
that the twelve tribes of Israel with Moses not take the name of God in vain, and another way for the Israelites to obey God
was to work against that possibility by instead using "Adonai" which is Hebrew for LORD. The claim
but some that Jews did not use the divine name because they were supersticious is false; rather they were being careful to
do as God had commanded. Even today some people are prone to use one or another of the possible pronunciations as if
using a magical incantation, in itself a form of "name" idolatry.
This is also why most Christians and
Christian Bibles reflect the same desire to also show respect for God's person and name and therefore generally use
the English word title LORD. A few persons view the matter differently, saying "Christians shouldn't
follow any Jewish customs at all," or, as with the Watchtower Society heads over Jehovah's Witnesses, have,
as already noted in the paragraph above, been among those claiming that other Christians and Christian Bibles that
do not use YHWH (Yahweh/Jehovah) do so in order to follow a "Jewish superstition."
In fact Jesus
Christ himself was both a Jewish Rabbi and the founder
of Christianity, and he did as other Jewish rabbis did, namely he used the expression LORD to show respect (not
superstition) although he also told his followers to tenderly address God in prayers as "Our Father" in heaven.
(Read Matthew 6) These reasons explain why although some 5,000 early manuscripts of books of the New Testament, some
complete and others partial, dating to within the first 100 years of Christianity's start have been found.
He wasn't being "superstitious" but perfectly following the Bible.
Running contrary, members
of a translation committee of the Watchtower Society organization over Jehovah's Witnesses in their own New
World Translation added the name Jehovah throughout the New Testament even in places where it does not even quote
any Old Testament scripture in Hebrew that did use the divine name. Although that committee wished to stay anonymous
it is known that it was headed by now deceased former Watchtower President Frederick Franz who had no formal training in Hebrew.
The other members are known to have simply rubber-stamped whatever he translated as they had neither formal training
nor even informal training as Franz did.
This
adding of the name "Jehovah" in place of "Lord," which definitely is in the early manuscripts, concerns
all Christians including good, caring Jehovah's Witnesses. Why? Because they know that at Revelation
22:18 the writer apostle John says "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds
anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book."
Was such mistranslation
by accident or what? It is alarming when one also notes that Franz and other Watchtower heads have led the vast
majority of Jehovah's Witnesses to never partake of the Last Supper memorial emblems of unleavened bread and wine since this
not only means almost all Jehovah's Witness are thus denied full communion with the body of Christ on earth. That
is in accord with the similar practice called "denying the body of Christ" used in Satanism, something
hard to bear but fact and so also alarming to all good, humble and honest Jehovah's Witnesses who also
want to be thought of as followers of Christ instead of perfect men. At the least beware that the NW Translation errs
in some verses of Revelation -- and for that matter has some errors elsewhere.
As a final thought, we may find that some very nice, loving Christian
friends prefer to call Jesus Christ not by the English pronunciation (Jee-zhuhs) but by the Greek "Yesu" (Yay-soo)
or the Hebrew "Yeshua" (Yeh-shoo-ah). Should we treat them in a cold and unkind manner because they do so?
Definitely not! As the Bible says, true Christians are known not by viewpoints but by LOVE. May we
all continue with one another in love even though -- like flowers that differ by color, fragrance, shape and sizes --
we naturally have different views and personal customs. LOVE, not robotic sameness, is what gives us true Christian
unity. Regarding love being the perfect bond of unity see Colossians 3:14; regarding Christian freedom to differ on
matters of conscience see Romans 14:1-22.
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