What is the reasoning behind the significance of the word "Jehovah" in the Jehovah Witness faith?

Question

In most of my Bible classes and in my college theology studies, the word Jehovah has been called an artificial construct and blatant mistranslation of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic text. I understand however, that the name Jehovah is considered the sacred name of God to the Witness community and they are required to call God as Jehovah (the name of God). Please help me to understand this; how can a mistranslated (human mistake) word be sacred and holy like that? I am looking for serious enlightenment, and am not in any way attacking Jehovah's Witnesses, so please, intelligent, kind-spirited answers!

Answer 1

The significance of "Jehovah" is that God has a personal name. In English, it is commonly written as "Jehovah." It is similar in other languages. Note:

Awabakal - Yehóa

Bugotu - Jihova

Cantonese - Yehwowah

Danish - Jehova

Dutch - Jehovah

Efik - Jehovah

English - Jehovah

Fijian - Jiova

Finnish - Jehova

French - Jéhovah

Futuna - Ihova

German - Jehova

Hungarian - Jehova

Igbo - Jehova

Italian - Geova

Japanese - Ehoba

Maori - Ihowa

Motu - Iehova

Mwala-Malu - Jihova

Narrinyeri - Jehovah

Nembe - Jihova

Petats - Jihouva

Polish - Jehowa

Portuguese - Jeová

Romanian - Iehova

Samoan - Ieova

Sotho - Jehova

Spanish - Jehová

Swahili - Yehova

Swedish - Jehova

Tahitian - Iehova

Tagalog - Jehova

Tongan - Jihova

Venda - Yehova

Xhosa - uYehova

Yoruba - Jehofah

Zulu - uJehova

Answer 2

***Correct Pronunciation of the Divine Name.

“Jehovah” is the best known English pronunciation of the divine name, although “Yahweh” is favored by most Hebrew scholars. The oldest Hebrew manuscripts present the name in the form of four consonants, commonly called the Tetragrammaton (from Greek te·tra-, meaning “four,” and gram′ma, “letter”). These four letters (written from right to left) are הוהי and may be transliterated into English as YHWH (or, JHVH).

The Hebrew consonants of the name are therefore known. The question is, Which vowels are to be combined with those consonants? Vowel points did not come into use in Hebrew until the second half of the first millennium C.E. Furthermore, because of a religious superstition that had begun centuries earlier, the vowel pointing found in Hebrew manuscripts does not provide the key for determining which vowels should appear in the divine name.

Superstition hides the name. At some point a superstitious idea arose among the Jews that it was wrong even to pronounce the divine name (represented by the Tetragrammaton). Just what basis was originally assigned for discontinuing the use of the name is not definitely known. Some hold that the name was viewed as being too sacred for imperfect lips to speak. Yet the Hebrew Scriptures themselves give no evidence that any of God’s true servants ever felt any hesitancy about pronouncing his name. Non-Biblical Hebrew documents, such as the so-called Lachish Letters, show the name was used in regular correspondence in Palestine during the latter part of the seventh century B.C.E.

Another view is that the intent was to keep non-Jewish peoples from knowing the name and possibly misusing it. However, Jehovah himself said that he would ‘have his name declared in all the earth’ (Ex 9:16; compare 1Ch 16:23, 24; Ps 113:3; Mal 1:11, 14), to be known even by his adversaries. (Isa 64:2) The name was in fact known and used by pagan nations both in pre-Common Era times and in the early centuries of the Common Era. (The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1976, Vol. XII, p. 119) Another claim is that the purpose was to protect the name from use in magical rites. If so, this was poor reasoning, as it is obvious that the more mysterious the name became through disuse the more it would suit the purposes of practicers of magic.

Answer 3

Mike, I have to wonder if they said the same thing about using Jesus since they is no J in Hebrew. I believe it was spelled that way in Tyndale's English translation of the bible. Correct me if I am wrong. In the King James Version of the bible it was found at Ps 83:18 but has been removed from recent versions.

Answer 4

My cleaning lady is a JW and I just called her and she said that the person who wrote the 2nd answer was quoting from correct information but if you want to know and check it out go to
www.watchtower.org and you will get the correct information on any Q you might have about JW. She also said Jehovah means Most High.

I just checked my list of the Names of God and it has El Elyon as God Most High. Best go to Wtower web site if I were you.

Answer 5

I don't have any problem with saying God Almighty name as "Yehovah/YHVH". I think it all started with the King James Bible. It says the name Jehovah. Anyway the important thing is whatever language you speak that IS the translated name for God Almighty is fine. Don't worry about it God knows who you are calling because first He reads your heart.
P.S. Please DO NOT EVER use the name Baal.

Answer 6

Royal; How many j's are in the hebrew ,aramaic or greek words for Jesus?

Answer 7

True Christians have a commission from Jesus Christ to make disciples of people of all nations. When teaching these people, how would it be possible to identify the true God as different from the false gods of the nations? Only by using His personal name, as the Bible itself does.—Matt. 28:19, 20; 1 Cor. 8:5, 6.

Ex. 3:15: “God said . . . to Moses: ‘This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, “Jehovah the God of your forefathers . . . has sent me to you.” This is my name to time indefinite, and this is the memorial of me to generation after generation.’”

Isa. 12:4: “Give thanks to Jehovah, you people! Call upon his name. Make known among the peoples his dealings. Make mention that his name is put on high.”

Ezek. 38:17, 23: “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘ . . . And I shall certainly magnify myself and sanctify myself and make myself known before the eyes of many nations; and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”

Mal. 3:16: “Those in fear of Jehovah spoke with one another, each one with his companion, and Jehovah kept paying attention and listening. And a book of remembrance began to be written up before him for those in fear of Jehovah and for those thinking upon his name.”

John 17:26: “[Jesus prayed to his Father:] I have made your name known to them [his followers] and will make it known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in union with them.”

Acts 15:14: “Symeon has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.”

Answer 8

Vot and papa summed it up nicely.

Edit: Ephraim_ Baal does not refer to God.

Answer 9

FYI: Baal translated into English is Lord.

So if you use only titles to refer to Jehovah,

You could be calling God, Baal.

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This is something I wrote earlier. I hope you enjoy it.

Yahweh vs Jehovah

(This is a response to a “Bible Lesson” found on the internet.)

First I would like to commend you on your research and presentation. It shows you put in many hours of research into what you feel is an important issue.

I must agree that the name of the Most High Supreme Being is the most important issue a person can consider.

• Joel, Peter and Paul said that those who call upon His name will be saved.

• Jesus taught that His name was to be hallowed or holy.

• Jesus said he made God’s name known.

Adding to these reasons are God’s own commandments concerning the use and misuse of His name.

I must say at this time that after reading your arguments several times I’m more confused than enlightened.

From my reading of your lesson I have come to understand that Yahweh is an educated guess on how the Holy name was pronounced in Hebrew. But no matter how educated that guess is it can still be just as wrong as it is correct. The important point concerning Yahweh (vs Yehwah) to any other combination of vowels is that Yahweh is the generally accepted form of the Hebrew name.

Next you discussed that it was improper to use Jehovah in English translations and improper for general use by Christians and I’m assuming non Christians because at best it was only the accepted English translation of the Hebrew name for God.

I asked a friend whose hobby is creating a catalog of English versions and translations of the Bible. How many of the 1700 plus English bibles in his catalog use Jehovah and how many use Yahweh? His answer was that Jehovah is used in over a hundred different bibles and Yahweh is used but not in as many translations as the name Jehovah.

Then I opened my Spanish copy of the Bible and to my surprise Matthew wasn’t Matthew but Mateo, Peter was Pedro, Luke was Lucas. I did find Jesus as Jesus but it is pronounced as “Hay-soos” and not Jesus. And instead of finding Yahweh I found Jehová.

I hope you can see my dilemma, if Jehovah is wrong in English why didn’t the Spanish translator know this concerning his translation into Spanish, and why were so many English Bible translators in error?

Next I went to my Greek interlinear and you can imagine my further confusion and surprise when I found that Jesus wasn’t Jesus but Iesouś. So in desperation I went to my Bible Encyclopedia and it proceeded to tell me that Jesus’ name was probably Yeshua, Yehosua or Yehohshua in Hebrew.

So according to your arguments we have not only been insulting Yahweh (Jehovah), but we have also insulted Jesus, or Iesouś, or Yeshua, or Yehosua or Yehohshua. This is a scary thought.
(Jesus’ Hebrew name could point to God’s name being spelled as Yehowuah)

Not only am I confused but the other day I went up to my friend and mentioned that I was reading in the books of Yirmeyahu and Yesayahu, and he was more confused than I was because all he said was “Huh!?” (Jeremiah & Isaiah) (These spellings could point to God’s name being spelled as Yahuweh)

Then I remembered the wise counsel my grade school English teacher taught me when she said “Ain’t ain’t a word cause ain’t ain’t in the dictionary.” (Actually it is now, with a note that through usage it has become acceptable in verbal conversation but not in the written form) So getting out my College dictionary under the word “Jehovah” it stated: “God’s name in Christian translations of the Old Testament. (equal to the Hebrew word Yahweh)” Then I looked up “Yahweh” in my dictionary and it wasn’t listed. This created a moment of further dismay until I realized that I had an English dictionary and not a Hebrew dictionary.

I believe you stated it correctly when you said that Jehovah “is the most accepted name of God in English”

So when I speak to people in English I use Jesus and Jehovah,
When I speak to my friends in Spanish I use Jesus (Hay-soos) and Jehová,
and if I could speak to people in Hebrew I would use Yeshua and Yahweh.

In all seriousness the greatest tragedy that a Bible Translator can do is knowingly replace a known word with a wrong word to further his or her own belief. In the case of Yahweh or Jehovah, both represent the personal name of God, which He has chosen. Is a bible translator wrong if he chooses one name over another? No, is a bible translator wrong when he uses LORD? Yes, this translator has chosen to remove God’s Name from His Word. The original writers of the bible, and the True Author of the Bible knows the difference between His Name and the title Lord, and if He had wanted to use a title He would have placed it in the text, which He had done on numerous occasions where Lord is the correct translation.

Not only is the replacing of God’s name with a title an error in translation, it also invalidates God’s Word. This has lead to many misconceptions concerning who God really is. The book of Revelation contains strong warning about changing God’s Word. My prayer would be that all 1600 plus English Bibles contain Jehovah or Yawheh in all of the approximately 7000 locations it occurs.

It is a shame when one modern day translating committee said that to use God’s name instead of LORD would have doomed the sales of their translation to just a few bible scholars and a few serious bible students. This comment testifies to the sad state of bible knowledge that has resulted from leaving God’s name out of the bible.

Imagine opening a Bible and finding that the name Jesus had been removed and the title “Anointed One” had been inserted. So in turning to the Preface of this translation we read “Since we the translators believe in the trinity, we believe that Jesus is the name of God. Hence we feel that the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments now apply to this Name of the Son of God. It is for the following three reasons we have taken the name Jesus out of our bible: First, Jesus is not the correct Hebrew name of the Son of God, second we can not accurately confirm which name is correct, and third we do not want any to miss use His Name, even by accident. Therefore in keeping with accepted translation traditions we have replaced it with a title. We feel that ‘Anointed One’ adequately describes Jesus and is an acceptable replacement to His Name. A second reason we have chosen to use ‘Anointed One’(Jesus) instead of LORD (YHWH) is so as not to confuse which name of God the original Bible writers meant to use.”

Where does it end?

Answer 10

I AM = YAHVEH
No J's in the Hebrew or Greek