Do JW's know that calling God Jehovah is a wrong of interpretation of Hebrew?

Question

YHWH or Yahweh is explained in the book of Exodus as "I am Who I am". Since the name of God was considered so sacred Jews started to call him Adonai, which means Lord.
Later, someone put YHWH and Adonai together and came up with Jehovah. I was just wondering if you knew that and what you're thoughts were on it.

Cathy, I'm not that Jewish. So I'm good, as are my neighboors who are Orthadox, have no problem with me when we talked about this.
I asked the question because I have a friend who was a JW, and she arugued with me, I just wanted to know who else knew this.

Garret,
The German language is very close the Yiddish, which is a dielct that many Jews speak.

I think some of you are missing the point. They took one name Yahweh, which we can pronounce on our own, and give it an Engish translations if we want. And took another name Adonia which we can pronouce and give an Engish tranlation, and put those two seperate words together. Its a mistake. That is all.

I don't know who said that they Latinized the name, because there is no letter 'J' in Latin either. If you're gonna put Yahweh in an English translation then it would be Jahweh, not Jehovah. That is where Andoina came into play, they combined the two words than mean two different things. Do you people read???!!!!!

Racykitty, I am working on my degree in Religious Studies, I have talked about this with my Orthadox neighbors as well as my professors, so for you to imply that I am looking for everyone to agree with me is insane. I just asked if people knew that, I didn't ask about the King James Bible Verson or for anyone to quote Mathew. It was a plain question, and I wanted to know what people thought about it.

Answer 1

Hi Carrie,

You are quite correct, and as a matter of fact, the JW
are also aware of it. The letter "J" came into use in our
alphabet in the year circa, 1522. So there are without
excuse as far as calling who they believe to be their
Creator. But as you also may be aware of, Mens Traditions are more important than Truth.

Answer 2

You are given reasonable, educated answers.
Although, YOU haven't received any yet, that justify your own reasoning.
So, you revert to insulting ppl i.e. "Do you ppl read!!!???"
Well dear, of course we all read, we read ur ? YOU just didn't / can't discern the truth. It's not your own opinion that matters, its God's. You are the 1 that's being 'shown' the real deal. And you don't like it, apparently u'd rather have ur ears tickled? If you don't like the answers of truth, that ur getting here GO TO A LIBRARY and READ the info for yourself. But of course, you'd find the answers you want...not the truth.Some guy posted a ? here, today about the NWT was found to be the most accurate according to some dude, a Theologist of /or something or another. Why don't cha go take a gander @ that. W/ a wanting heart. Pray to Jehovah, and ask Him to show you discernment?

I had to go back & look @ what that girl Bambi wrote about carry ourselves, to the point of His approval. At the end there, basically, I guess she's saying to why quibble over Y/J...I/J as long as u do what He says.....even tho' / if they're not pronuncing it properly, the exact pronunciation is long gone. Maybe God meant for that to be so, b/c of all the squabbling? Or was it Satan? He is the Only One who Really Doesn't want mankind to know the truth, about Jehovah.

edit: My apoligies. On-line some times things r read or I should say misread. I had read ur additional details. And it doesn't sound like you're respectful. My apoligies, I still stand by what I said, its just Not w/ an attitude. o.k.
So, then the answer is yes, no body knows how its correctly pronunced, any more. As well as, no one know the factual day of the birth of Jesus.
I have studied His name; for years (more then 10) and have Never come across "some1 put YHWH & Adonai together & came up w/ Jehovah" That Is Not True! Of all the secular & non writings I've studied, not 1 even implied that.
The Torah Does Not Teach This.
The Holy Scriptures Does Not Teach That. Neither Did Jesus.
If you want to truth, all of it, ask Jehovah, He'll tell you.

Answer 3

Cathy it's fine for you to never mention God's name because you only believe in God Almighty, not his son Jesus. Christians that do not believe in the trinity, have to distinguish between the father and the son. To Garrett B, you made an interesting point, I wonder how Martin Luther translated YHWH in his translation in early 1500.

I looked it up on that encyclopedia on the Internet and here is what it said.

By contrast, the translation "Jehovah" was created by adding the vowel points of "Adonai." Early Christian translators of the Torah did not know that these vowel points only served to remind the reader not to pronounce the divine name, but instead say "Adonai," so they pronounced the consonants and vowel points together (a grammatical impossibility in Hebrew). They took the letters "IHVH," from the Latin Vulgate, and the vowels "a-o-a" were inserted into the text rendering IAHOVAH or "Iehovah" in 16th century English, which later became "Jehovah." This name originates from the 15th century teachings of Martin Luther.

Since Martin Luther busted the Catholic Church without getting hanged, I would have to say he had a semblance of truth or the backing of God, at least in some of his adventures.

Answer 4

Yes, even the JW's know that Jehovah is an incorrect rendition of the Hebrew; yet at the time of the JW's foundation JEHOVAH was the common english translation and some years later they adopted JEHOVAH into their title of the religion.

They admit that Yahweh is the probable rendering but that since the convention is to use Jehovah they will stick with that. It is an "acceptable" english transliteration, in the same way that JESUS is an english transliteration of the Hebrew "Yehshuah" or the Greek "Iesous"

Answer 5

Hello everyone, my name is Shalei. Nice to meet you all. I posted a very similar question like this last week. I got me a "King James Bible" and looked up the that scripture same scripture achtung is posting. King James Bible I was told is the FIRST English translated Holy Bible. Please you all, correct me if I'm wrong. Now everyone let's all take a deep breath and say "Thank you "Jehovah God" for the opening the truth to us through your Holy Spirit , in the name of your Son Christ Jesus, Amen."
Good we all prayed together.
Psalm ch. 83, v.18: Than men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
100% proof that the JW's did not make-up that name or mistranslated that name. The JW's did not put together the King James Version of the Holy Bible. So let us now put this to rest and not anger OUR God anymore by fighting over His name that is IMPORTANT to Him or He would not have that in His Ten Commandments.
Jehovah is the English translation and we all should except that. I think the animosity you feel here is because the JW's acknowledge that FIRST and you all did not. Cast that jealousy feeling out of you guys and start focusing on what is coming up. I admit and openly confess to that and I pray you all will too. Now I own 2 Bibles. How much more I buy, I don't care as long as I learn the TRUTH. Please let us focus on the upcoming of what is the inevitable.............Armageddon. Please no more questions on "Jehovah's" name. Let us now question our own Bible O.K. Peace be with you all.

Answer 6

God's Name is essential to salvation. God Himself says so at Joel 2:32, and Christ's apostles quote Joel's verse in Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13. Many Bible translations will say "the Lord" here, but in the original Hebrew of Joel's book it is YHWH, "Jehovah."

The original Hebrew pronunciation of God's Name may not be lost completely. Many Karaite Jews even today pronounce the Name as "Yehovah" in Hebrew. Karaite scholar Nehemiah Gordon has written extensively about this.

As for "Yahweh", that is only a scholarly guess or reconstruction, according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary (Volume 6, page 1011). Other scholars, like George Wesley Buchanan of Wesley Theological Seminary, have written that the original Hebrew pronunciation was "Yahowah," having 3 syllables, not 2 as in "Yahweh." (Biblical Archaeology Review magazine, March/April 1995)

So, "Jehovah" in English is not a "fictitious name." It is a very good English approximation of what the original Hebrew was likely to be: "Yehovah" or "Yahowah."

Hebrew does not have a "J" but that is really irrelevant. We speak English, and in English Bibles the Hebrew "Y" is represented by the English "J". In our English Bibles we have "John," not "Yochanan." We have "Jesus," not "Yeshua." We have "Jeremiah," not "Yirmeyahu." And so on. So it is with "Jehovah." Other languages put God's Name in the regular form for that language.

The first Christians often used the Greek Septuagint Bible. That Bible spelled Hebrew names according to the Greek form, and that was fine for Christians speaking Greek. They did not have to use entirely Hebrew spellings for names in Greek. Nor do we have to speak English according to an entirely Hebrew spelling.

What is fundamentally important is that we recognize that God has a personal Name that He Himself revealed to mankind through the pages of the Holy Bible. If God had wanted us to refer to Him merely as Lord or God, he would not have put his Name in the Hebrew Scriptures some 7,000 times.

Answer 7

Jehovah has been accepted as the ENGLISH pronunciation of God's name for more than 400 years. Jehovah's Witnesses did not translate/interpret "Jehovah" from YHWH or Yahweh.

Since very few English speaking people use "Yeshua" instead of the more common English "Jesus", doe s this mean they are wrong in their 'interpretation' too?

Answer 8

**BOTH ARE NOT the correct pronounciation of the name of God--
**JUST AS JESUS is not the correct pronounciation of Yeshua!

--THE "WRONG" is the failure to use what we have of the tetragrammaten as is warned against in this commandement:

Exodus 20:7 AMPLIFIED BIBLE:
7" You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain"

(Exodus 20:7) “.NWT.“You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.”

***HOW MUCH more frivolos or worthless than to argue about the exact pronounciation that is not known at present AND FAIL to use, when Jesus recommended-- "Our father who art in heaven, HALLOWED be thy name...."
--YOU DON'T hallow or make sacred by ignoring the name and failing to use any form of the tetragramatten!

--HONEST BIBLE translators who are not biased by the teaching of the trinity(which there are very few of) have no difficulty in using the name Jehovah which is the latinized form of Yahweh:
*** w82 3/15 pp. 22-27 Loyally Advocating the Word of God
***Loyally Advocating God’s Name......
..............
22 The fact is that the Creator is referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures more often by his distinctive name Jehovah than by all other designations put together. More than that, it simply does not make sense to translate a proper name, such as Jehovah, by a common noun such as Lord; no more than it would make sense to translate “Rolls Royce” (the name of the world’s most costly automobile) simply by the word “auto” or “car,” when there are so many other autos or cars. The Jerusalem Bible, though preferring “Yahweh” to “Jehovah,” makes a strong point for using it instead of “Lord.” The preface of that translation states: “To say, ‘The Lord is God’ is surely a tautology [a needless repetition], as to say ‘Yahweh is God’ is not.”
**23 THEN SHOULD YAHWEH BE USED INSTEAD OF JEHOVAH(my caps) Not necessarily so. According to Canon D. D. Williams of Cambridge, the “evidence indicates, nay almost proves, that Yahweh was not the true pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton.” The Biblia Hebraica, published in Stuttgart in 1951, vowel points the Tetragrammaton to read “Yeh·wah′.” This edition was used by the New World Bible Translation Committee. Tübingen professor Gustav Oehler states: “From this point onward I use the word Jehovah, because, as a matter of fact, this name has become more naturalized in our vocabulary, and cannot be supplanted.” The Bible translator Rotherham, in his Emphasized Bible, was among the first to use the form “Yahweh.” However, in his Studies in the Psalms, first published after his death, he returned to the form “Jehovah,” stating he did so because of “the desirability to keep in touch with the public eye and ear.”

Answer 9

Jesus IS NOT the EXACT PRONUNCIATION of the Son of Gods Name; But that DOESN'T MEAN that People SHOULD not USE IT ! ! !

No modern day human knows the exact pronunciation of either the name for God(JEHOVAH) or the name for the son of God(Jesus)

The IMPORTANT THING is 2 USE the name that's MOST COMMON in YOUr Language !

JEHOVAH has LONG BEEN the most Commonly KNOWN English Name for God and that is Why Jehovah's CHRISTIAN Witnesses use it !

You wouldn't stop using the name Jesus because IT'S NOT the exact pronunciation of the name of the Son of God would you?

IT'S the SAME PRINCIPLE ! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

The Tetragrammaton ("YHWH" or "Yehowah" or "Jehovah") appears in the bible nearly SEVEN THOUSAND TIMES. "I am who I am" (or similar) appears twice. It would seem that the Divine Author wanted His personal name to be known and used.


It is true that the Almighty did not say, "Listen, thousands of years from now when a new language called English comes along, they can pronounce my name as 'Jehovah' and that's fine."

Instead, like with any and every personal name, different languages TRANSLATE personal names to fit their lingual tendencies. George becomes "Hor-hey" in Spanish or "Gay-org" in German and no one gets upset.

It's not exactly wrong to call the Almighty by the impersonal "God", just as it's not wrong to call one's offspring "Child". If we want a familiar and close relationship, however, it makes sense to use the personal name of someone we love. The Scriptures encourage us to use God's personal name.

The Hebrew name “Yahweh” (or “Yehowah”) does seem to accurately pronounce the divine name. Just as the Hebrew name “Yeshua” (or “Yehoshua”) is translated into “Jesus” in English, the Hebrew name “Yahweh” is translated into “Jehovah” in English.

The important thing is to use God’s personal name in whatever language you speak, rather than insisting upon the impersonal! The name “Yahweh” is certainly preferable to the non-name “God” or “Lord”, especially if you speak Hebrew. If you speak English, feel free to use the name "Jehovah".

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

(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/e/na/
http://watchtower.org/e/20040122/
http://watchtower.org/e/19990208/article_03.htm

Answer 11

Jehovah is the English translation. Like Jose' is Spanish for Joe. Jesus can be also pronounced Haysuse.