the Watchtower Society teaches that LORD in capital letters is where they put the word Jehovah,?

Question

John 20:24-29 Namely v 28"And Thomas answered and said to him "My LORD and my God" after touching the hands of Jesus. Is Thomas recognizing that Jesus is Jehovah? v.29 "Jesus said to him. "Thomas, because you have seen ME you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed".Is Jesus Blessing Thomas for recognizing his divinity?

Dwayne...This is the teaching of the WBTS I am just asking a question using their Logic

Astan Mine says LORD...and so (did/Does) the NWT

Revilation.....This is the single scripture that shattered my faith as a Jehovah's Witness.....I posted this scripture to the elders of the local congregation where I was a member and told them that if they could explain this to me accurately, that I would be able to return to the Kingdom Hall and be a Witness again.....24 years later, no takers.

Keiichi..you even will go to- my -explination fot Jesus divinity....I meant that Jesus being divine was the same as him being the almighty in the flesh
The 2 scriptures that you quote only proves that Jesus set aside his equal place with "Jehovah" to come to earth and be a sacrafice for you......If you believe in this awesome gift...Then you owe it tio your God to assess your beliefs, especially when so many people have given you scriptural proof why you need to.

Keiichi..you even will go to- my -explination fot Jesus divinity....I meant that Jesus being divine was the same as him being the almighty in the flesh
The 2 scriptures that you quote only proves that Jesus set aside his equal place with "Jehovah" to come to earth and be a sacrafice for you......If you believe in this awesome gift...Then you owe it to your God to assess your beliefs, especially when so many people have given you scriptural proof why you need to.

Heiss...I don't know why this supprises me but, time and time again I find you lying to protect WBTS theology.....This is what they tought me when I was a pioneer....They may not teach this now because they have been exposed.

Bambi...You are rambling again.....I have no idea what you are talking about...But it looks like you feel better in saying it, i guess that is good?

Answer 1

This is the area that I personally feel is where the Watchtower Society is most dishonest. There is ample evidence that Jehovah never appears in the New Testament and the Watchtower ignores this an puts the word Jehovah in to support unchristian doctrine.

I would urge every Witness interested in truth to read http://jehovah.net.au/jehovah.html about this topic.

The 1985 Kingdom Interlinear Translation p.11, claims the criteria for using the Divine Name in the New Testament was to replace the Greek words Kyrios and Theos with Jehovah whenever the Christian writers quoted from the Old Testament: "The modern translator is warranted in using the divine name as an equivalent of ("kurios") and ("theos") , that is, at places where the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures quote verses, passages, and expressions from the Hebrew Scriptures or from the LXX (Greek Septuagint) where the divine name occurs."

The reader is led to the conclusion that every inclusion of Jehovah in the New Testament has support from an Old Testament quote. Yet an examination of the 237 inclusions reveals the following;

> Only 76 times is Jehovah included based on a direct Hebrew quote
> In 78 other instances the scriptures are not quotes, but reference Hebrew passages discussing Jehovah
>83 times the New World Translation has included Jehovah with no support from the Hebrew Scriptures

On the other hand, there are also times when the New World Translation has chosen not to use the word Jehovah when the Christian writers quoted the Old Testament, even when done so by the J versions. This lack of consistency is because to do so would contradict Watchtower doctrine.

Answer 2

The Watchtower Society teaches that LORD in all caps is usually translated from a greek word (either Theos or Kyrios or something like that). Whichever one of those obviously refers to an Almighty God is what they rendered as Jehovah in the NT.
Anybody who pays close attention to the context of several passages would notice that other translators got a little careless by rendering every divine reference as LORD, because it makes it very hard to distinguish between Jehovah and Jesus, which the Scriptures clearly indicate are 2 different individuals.

JWs never denied that Jesus was/is divine, but the discrepancy comes in the definition of divine. Superhuman and holy are fitting descriptions of Jesus both in prehuman form and after his resurrection. While on earth he was a human with supernatural powers supplied by God, just like Moses and Elijah had supernatural powers supplied by God. He was not, however, God in the flesh.

Answer 3

Not sure what the problem is. Jesus is Divine, before going to earth and after returning. So Thomas answer is correct.

Jesus says his father is a higher being then he is.
- John 14:28.

Jesus also states he is the not the same god as his father by showing God was in heaven not on earth.

Luk 3:22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came FROM HEAVEN, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

John did not say that the Word was merely clothed with flesh. He “became flesh” and was not part flesh and part God. If Jesus had been human and divine at the same time, it could not have been said that he had been “made a little lower than angels.”—Hebrews 2:9;

That Jesus was not partly a spirit when on the earth is proved by Peter’s statement that Christ was “put to death in the flesh, but . . . made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18)

Only because Jesus was wholly human could he have experienced what imperfect people experience and thus become a sympathetic high priest. Wrote Paul: “We have as high priest, not one who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in all respects like ourselves, but without sin.”—Hebrews 4:15.

As “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” Jesus “gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” (John 1:29; 1 Timothy 2:6)

In that way, Jesus bought back exactly what Adam had lost—perfect, eternal human life. Since God’s justice required ‘soul for soul,’ Jesus thus had to be what Adam was originally—a perfect human, not a God-man.—Deuteronomy 19:21; 1 Corinthians 15:22.

Answer 4

No, my Good News Bible doesn't say "LORD" but "Lord". Also there is a paragraph in the Preface Section that tells of God's name being Jehovah/Yahweh and that His Holy name is represented by the title "The LORD".
Maybe you could look up the Preface page of your Bible to see if there's any indication on this.

Answer 5

GOTCHA!!
I learned this 1st
from the Public Radio,
then the Bible,
then the Public Library.
It's true; & I have more than 1 Bible,
go! look in yours.

You put in print the insinuation that
The W.B.T.S. is misleading ppl., when in fact what u r implying is not true.
Oh it's there in the Bible alright.
The difference, (that is) but there r other sources as well.
Since you hate Jehovah, He will hate you.
I love you now, you can go back home you know?
YOU are stirring up contenions,
I will try to Not answer You again.
Since, you r doing Satan's will.

edit: right back at cha, angry treacherous woman.

Answer 6

I do not want to comment on the Watchtower Society, but rather on the question of Thomas.

It is because of his unbelief unless he could see and feel the nail prints in Jesus that we get the term "Doubting Thomas". It means one that has to "see" to believe.

Jesus was not commending him for his belief, but was saying: You had to see me to believe - More blessed is he that doesn't see me and still believes (FAITH).

Answer 7

Yes, it does raise the question as to why sometimes "lord" is not translated as "Jehovah" and other times it is.

Interesting that one of the answerers attributes the fact that YHWH doesn't appear in any Greek manuscripts to his belief that 'trinitarians' removed it. Perhaps he should be reminded that his religion doesn't believe there were any trinitarians until the fourth century, yet Greek manuscripts prior to that time also do not include YHWH.

Also, it's interesting that even in copies of the Septuagint where YHWH appears, it usually appears in Hebrew letters, not translated into Greek. And how many Greek-reading people could read Hebrew?

Answer 8

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

I was taught this: Thomas was the Doubter. Thomas, on proof by touching the hands, came to a sudden realization as in: "It is Jesus transfigured"!

Non-trinitarians: Having been skeptical and startled by this he exclaims: My Lord (Jesus) my God (this is like todays internet OMG).

"and" is added to show this was two separate exclamations, and gives the confusion.

Trinitarians: "and" as meaning both are applied to Jesus as both Thomas's Lord is Jesus and as Thomas is also stating: "Jesus is God".

Joy -JJ

I found the link interesting!

Answer 9

The premise of the initial "question" (the part in bold) is entirely the fabrication of the questioner. Neither "the Watchtower Society" nor Jehovah's Witnesses have ever followed the convention which is here invented and presented by this anti-Witness "questioner".

Perhaps this so-called "questioner" must be reminded firstly that the Christian Scriptures were NOT written in English. Secondly, there is no evidence that John or other writers of the Christian Scriptures wrote any words with all-capital letters.

Thirdly, "New World Translation" was translated from the original language manuscripts, meaning that the translators would never have seen the English word "lord" in their source material and would never have seen the all-capital "LORD" anywhere in their source material.

The languages in which the bible was originally written did not have formal capitals or punctuation, so when capitals are used in modern bibles it is merely the modern convention accepted by that particular translator/publisher which determines what is used in a particular bible edition.

The Hebrew Scriptures (so-called "Old Testament") include the Divine Name nearly seven thousand times, written as four Hebrew letters corresponding to "YHWH" and described universally as "the Tetragram" or "the Tetragrammaton" (literally meaning "four letters"). Most bibles follow the ancient superstition of hiding the personal name of God by replacing it with some title such as God or Lord. Over the centuries, perhaps a twinge of remorse for dishonoring the Divine Name persuaded many translators to at least set apart such aliases by using all capital letters, such as GOD or LORD.

Trinitarians realized that using "Lord" helped to obscure the fact that Jesus the Son is a distinct person from God the Father. The practice had the effect of making a Scripture which actually referred to YHWH (Yahweh/Yehowah in Hebrew, or Jehovah in English) instead seem to refer to Jesus. The end-result pleased Trinitarians so much that they worked to replace YHWH wherever they could, and so (as of May 30, 2007) all the discovered ancient Greek manuscripts have already had instances of "YHWH" removed.

But such forced obscurity is exposed as absurd when the two persons (Jehovah and Jesus) are juxtaposed in a single sentence, such as at Acts 2:34. In this verse and others, dozens of bibles have chosen to restore the Divine Name (הוהי or YHWH or Yahweh or Jehovah) where it plainly belongs, where many or most others merely all-capitalize the instance of "lord" which refers to God the Father.

Even more interestingly, hundreds of times a Christian Scripture directly quotes from a Hebrew Scripture which plainly contains the Divine Name (such as Acts 2:34 which quotes Psalm 110:1). In these instances, it is shameful when a bible refuses to restore the Divine Name to its plainly rightful place.

The New World Translation is a noteworthy exception to the generally superstition-coddling trend of other bibles.

(Psalm 110:1) NWT: The utterance of Jehovah to my Lord is: “Sit at my right hand

(Acts 2:34)
NWT: Jehovah said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
NASB: THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND
GWT: The Lord said to my Lord, "Take my highest position of power
KJV: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand
ASV: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand
BBE: The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand
DBY: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand
WEY: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand
WBS: The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand
WEB: The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit by my right hand
YLT: The Lord saith to my lord, Sit thou at my right hand

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/na/index.htm?article=diagram_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_05.htm

Answer 10

What an excellent point, LP!!! It always bothered me that the society usually sidesteps this event as being Thomas' hysteria... as if he didn't realize he was spouting gibberish or something. It was always on my personal exception list of things that would have to "wait on Jehovah" to explain, since the Watchtower couldn't. Right beside the resurrection of the men of Sodom. Or not. Old Judge Rutherford's slogan should have been: "Rationalize! Rationalize! Rationalize!"
Thanks for the insight!