why is Gods name Jehova hidden?

Question

Only Jehovah`s witness uses gods real name.
why not all ?

Answer 1

There are two reasons:

1. Others do not value their personal relationship with the Almighty as highly as Jehovah's Witnesses do. If one wants a familiar and close relationship, it makes sense to use the personal name of someone we love. The Scriptures encourage us to use God's personal name.

(Psalms 83:18) That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone are the Most High over all the earth

2. Others are insufficiently Christian, unwilling to follow the example of Jesus Christ with regard to the divine name "Jehovah".

(John 17:26) [Jesus said] 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

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/na/index.htm

Answer 2

If the name is "hidden", it's because no one knows for sure what it is. When you say that Jehovah's Witnesses use God's "real" name, that isn't exactly true since NO ONE, INCLUDING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, know the "real" name. If Yahweh is the "real" name...and the possibility exists that it is...isn't it somewhat insulting to his Name to ignore it and insist on the name Jehovah? Jehovah is Latinized and most certainly not the name he gave Himself, not the name the Jews called him, and not the name that Jesus used on the apparently rare occasions that he did use it. It is a real possibility, though, that Yahweh was that name.

Although JW's argue that you should use the name translated into your particular language, that doesn't appear to be supported by the fact that when the Septuagint was translated, the Divine Name was not translated into Greek, but the Hebrew Tetragrammaton was put into the Greek text. Therefore if Jesus and the apostles read the Septuagint and actually pronounced the Tetragrammaton (knowing the correct vowels to add), they would have uttered the Hebrew name, not the Greek equivalent.

It is absurd to magnify the importance of USING a name that isn't grammatically correct, wasn't used by any of the New Testament writers, and was apparently used only sparingly by Jesus himself. Notice I said USING, I didn't say it was absurd to hallow the name. One can hallow the name by speaking the truth about His name. And the truth is we don't know exactly what it is. To tell people that his name is Jehovah isn't exactly the truth. To tell people that his name is Yahweh isn't exactly the truth (although that one is possible).

So why doesn't everyone just speak the truth about what his 'real' name is and that would be one less thing to argue about.

Achtung,
1. I don't wish to be disrespectful, but I have to say That's Ridiculous. A familiar relationship has nothing to do with calling someone by their given name. "Darling" is certainly more familiar than "George".

As any informed person knows, Psalm 83:18 would be more accurately translated as YHWH with some vowels.

2. "the example of Jesus Christ" is that he usually used "Father", or sometimes God, but NOT YHWH. Or don't you think the Scriptures aren't reliable? I challenge you to cite just one scripture where Jesus used YHWH. And I don't mean in an English translation, I mean in the Greek as written.

I wonder if Jesus feels properly chastised by you for failing to use the name at every opportunity.

cmerch, you seem to think it was Jehovah's Witnesses who first restored the name of Jehovah in the Scriptures. Hopefully you know that it was the American Standard Version of the Bible that did that quite a while before the New World Translation was made. Then when it was revised, they took it out again. Not everyone agreed on whether to put in "Lord" which was safe, or to put in Jehovah which was closer to YHWH but still not right. Steven T. Byington, a highly regarded translator even held in high regard by the Watchtower Society wrote in 1951:

"For there are on the American market two standard revised versions of the complete Bible, one published by Nelson with the name "Jehovah" and one published by the Oxford University Press with "the Lord", and the one that everybody buys is the one from Nelson."

So I really think your theory is erroneous. Although I will agree with you that people may now dislike the name Jehovah because it is so closely identified with Jehovah's Witnesses. While seeking to "glorify" his Name, the Witnesses in fact have caused the name to be spoken of with reproach because it is so closely identified with the false prophecies of the Watchtower Society. What greater reproach than to be a god who cannot fulfull his own prophecies, which have been made widely known by his 'exclusive channel of communication"?

Answer 3

Thank you achtung heiss! Great info!

I would like to add as well that if someone from another country mispronounces my name, I am not going to ban him from using it.
No, no one knows the original pronunciation of God's name.

The question that was asked was (paraphrased):

Why doesn't everybody use the name Jehovah?

The simple answer is:

Because not everyone is one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Jehovah's Witnesses chose the name because it describes what they do. This action accomplished two things. It made them a "people for his name" as prophesied. It also made them a people hated in all nations because they had already been exposing unscriptural teachings of many other powerful churches for many years. This led to a defaming of Jehovah's Witnesses by these very churches.

Although it could not be denied that what Jehovah's Witnesses were telling the world about the name Jehovah was true, now those very same churches found themselves in quandry. It is a historical undeniable fact that Jehovah's name had been removed from the bible by every major denomination. Now the entire educated world knew it. Over time the Witnesses were seen more and more on people's doorsteps preaching what they had learned and becoming despised for it widely. Yet their numbers grew.

Basically what happened rather quickly is that there was this undeniable historical fact that made the major churches very uncomfortable, yet to rectify this they would have to make a very obvious effort to restore Jehovah's name to the standing it deserved. The problem was that in restoring the name they would not only be admitting that it shouldn't have happened in the first place, but also admitting that everything they had done to the Witnesses in the early part of the 20th century had been for no good reason. Not only that, the use of the name was already powerfuly linked to Jehovah's Witnesses and no one else. To use the name would be to support what the Witnesses had done.

These "irritating" people who come to your door and "shove bibles down your throat" would come to mind everytime the Name was spoken in their churches.

Well.... That isn't what happened is it?

Because instead of publicly admitting their mistakes they decided to downplay them by teaching their followers that the Name is not important. That the spelling, pronounciation and meaning are unclear or unknown and therefore it is better that we just continue using the words Lord and God.

Keep all this in mind when you read evidence of the Witnesses "misleading" their flock. Notice that the evidence of mistakes that the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses have made over time is not difficult to find because they do not hide from their mistakes. In fact they have published many of them themselves in their own puplications.

The difference between all other religions and Jehovah's Witnessses is that they admit their mistakes and fix them when neccessary and make those changes public to their followers.
But the most important difference is that they use and publicly declare his Name. Yes, other religions use the Name but Jehovah's Witnesses are the ONLY religion that has adopted the practice of making Jehovah's name known throughout the world as their most important reason for existing.

Answer 4

On cable TV, Jehovah is all over the place. Many use the name.

The Catholic church took it out a long time ago, and especially Jehovah's Witnesses put it back in the 7000+ time it was taken out. It was YHWH. I think 7,000 times means God want us to know it and Him.

John 12:28 "Father glorify your name." Therefore a voice came out of heaven, "I both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

Answer 5

Jasmine: Because the king James bible in the back says the divine name was not to be spoken by these people because they were superstitious. so they substituted God or Lord.
When ever Jesus did something he used his fathers name.
So they thought the power for his miracles was in the name.
Because they were superstitious should we be?
That really is his name. This girl is wanting to be a Jehovah's Witnesses. We tried to show her different and found out she was right. All people don't do it because no one bothers to check.
the priest said that was his name.

Answer 6

Many Christians churches use the name Jehovah. His name is/was not hidden. The Jewish scribes were taught that they could not say or record God's complete name. That's why is Jewish writings you see only some consonants.

Answer 7

Its strange that Jehovahs witnesses condemn other groups for not using the word Jehovah when they do use the equivalent word Lord. Jws need to be reminded that for fifty five years they used other names for God besides Jehovah. It wasnt untill 1931 that the society began using Jehovah exclusively.The name Jehovah by its self does not have any meaning for the average person. The hebrew word Jehovah must be explaind in a persons native tongue for him to understand it. The name Jehovah means Lord it aso means self existent one it expresses his Love Rightousness and Holines.

Good question by the way

Answer 8

The Israelites began to think it was too holy to pronounce and started to leave it unwritten.......also unspoken, eventually the correct way to pronounce God's name became forgotten and as the written hebrew doesn't have any vowels it is unclear exactly how to pronounce his name so either Yaweh or Jehovah is used nowadays, the meaning of his name is Iam what I am.......

Answer 9

Jehovah is not God's name. It is a corruption created by Christians that did not understand Hebrew.

God told Moses that his name was "I am what I am," In Hebrew that is Jahweh, represented by the Hebrew letters JHWH. The vowels, which are shown as marks or points around the word, were removed becaus this name was considered too holy.

Another name of God is Elohe, which means Lord. The Christians took the vowels of Elohe and added them to JHWH to make JEHOWEH which became Jehovah.

I just call Him Father

Answer 10

Would it have anything to do with His arch enemy???
2 Corinthians Chapter 4 vs 3 and 4