If I understand correctly, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the name of G-d is essential in order for one (and one’s prayers, efforts, etc.) to be accepted by G-d. (This seems much like an old magical theory that knowing a being’s name meant one could control it. Isis poisoned Ra in order to find out his name, wherewith she could heal him, so that she could use that name to increase her power and abilities.) They believe that this personal name is “Jehovah.”
Most scholars believe that God’s name - the Four-Letter Name, the Tetragrammaton, as revealed in the Bible - is Yah with weh (or veh). (Ignoring, of course, that He is also called a good number of other names).
Now, when they know, and even admit they know, that G-d’s name (per the Tetragrammaton) is Yah with Veh, why do they continue insisting on and using Jehovah, when it is clear that “Jehovah” was some translator’s mistake. (Briefly, Jews would put the vowels of the word “Ado Nay” on the Name to remind the reader to pronounce the Name as “Ado Nay” and not try to pronounce it with the consonants listed. Sometimes, especially when followed by the actual word “Ado Nay,” the vowels of “Elokim” are placed on the Name. In any case, the vowels on the Name are not the vowels with which the Name is to be pronounced - they do not belong to the name. Using the vowels usually placed with the consonants, one gets “Yehovah,” which would be written as “Jehovah” in Latin and German.) Why are they still Jehovah’s Witnesses?
(Personal note: At least by keeping Jehovah, Jehovah’s Witnesses are keeping the Name sacred and less used than if they did change it to the true pronunciation of the Name.)
ah the days of the cult - … here from the beyond JW’s website an appendix references the whole schtick behind the naming convention of Jehovah from Yahweh or references it here:
In one sense, the New World Translation of the Bible is superior to most other translations, but at the same time its strength becomes its worst affliction. This issue involves the use of the name “Jehovah”.
Most translations replace God’s name by “Lord” (usually in uppercase, i.e. “LORD”). This tradition derives from the Jewish rule against speaking God’s name. (This no doubt relates to concerns about “taking God’s name in vain” – one of the Ten Commandments).
“Better safe than sorry” seems to be the attitude of most translators. So deeply ingrained is this avoidance of the Divine Name that one can not find any original texts that have the name spelled out in its entirety. As a result, the original pronunciation of God’s name is not known for sure.
The original Hebrew did not use vowels, so God’s name was rendered as YHVH. Eventually, the Masoretic translation of the Bible inserted special vowel symbols. However, when it came to the name YHVH, the translators used the vowels from “Adonai” (meaning “Lord”) as a warning to the reader to say “Lord” instead of the Divine Name. Thus, YHVH became YaHoVaH.
Some scholars argue that the name should be pronounced Yahveh, while others prefer Yahweh. The matter is probably impossible to prove one way or the other.
when Charles Taze Russell started his Millenial Dawn/Bible Students (from which the JWs later emerged) in the 1880’s, ‘Jehovah’ was the popularly-known version of the Name. ‘Yahweh’ or ‘Yahveh’ was limited to academics. (Btw, a few Sacred Name groups still adhere to ‘Yahoweh/veh’.) JW’s basically figure that an Anglized version of YHWH is better than nothing & is just as valid as using ‘Jesus’ for ‘Ihsous’ (Greek) or ‘Yehshua/Yehoshua’ (Hebrew).
You cannot even WRITE the name (hence all the “G-d” around here)
Why have it around? If it’s such a theological A-Bomb, why don’t Jewish leaders just expunge all knowledge of its existence from all of their writings and teachings?
(BTW, if we’re all busy writing “G-d”, shouldn’t we be writing “L-RD” instead of “LORD”, too? And “H-”, “H-s”, and “H-m” instead of “He”, “His”, and “Him”? “God” is as much His Name as all of these other strings of letters.)
Of course you can write it - if you’re writing a Torah, a bible, or a prayer book; I hear it also helps when activating golems. It’s just not meant to be written lightly. Jews are strong believers in the power of the written word. Where other religions have holy relics, we have sacred combinations of letters.
Anyway, we can’t expunge it - it’s the Name. It exists, regardless of what we do. As the bush said, It is as It is.
(The word G-d is a translation of the Hebrew word Elokim, which is Elohim - God - with the H removed. Frankly, I think it’s just an affectation. There’s nothing holy about English).
Actually, jews are permitted to write the name. However, that written name must always be treated in a respectful manner. I’m not sure exactly all that entails, but I’m sure there is a pretty lengthy list of rules and commentary and explanation and extrapolation covering exactly what this means. If the name is written in holy books it can be assumed that there will be no disrespect. But what if you wrote the name on a scrap of paper and forgot about it, and someone threw the paper in the trash, or it fell on the floor? That would be disrespectful. Or what if you wrote the name in an electronic file, and someone later printed out the page and the page was then handled disrepectfully? And some people worry about what it means if, say, you had the name displayed on your computer screen, and then scrolled up so the name wasn’t visible anymore. Did you erase the name? Some people would say no, but others aren’t so sure. So why take a chance?
The bottom line is that you can write the name as long as you take steps to ensure that the writing is always handled correctly. If you can’t be sure the writing will be handled correctly then it is better not to write the name at all.
Rules rules rules, I think the point of not naming God is because it doesn’t adequately convey what one is talking about, not for any other reason than that. So just say it however you want, someone will understand or they won’t. Whatever.
I still think that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not use the real Name because they are either ignorant of it or do not want to update/correct their practices to honor it. Considering how important the Name is for Jehovah’s Witnesses, it seems a little unlike them to stick to a name that is incorrect. (But this is nothing new: every religion ignores things that they should consider.)
But then again, as FriarTed said, they don’t use a correct pronunciation of “Jesus” either: “Yesous” (from the Green New Testament), “Yeshua” (what “Yesous” is a translation of), or “Yehoshua” (the unshortened version of “Yeshua,” as “Yeshaya” is a short form of “Yeshayahu,” etc.).
From their doctrine, wouldn’t God and His Son mind having their name mispronounced?
It sounds like you are trying to discredit JWs any which way you can, even at the expense of contradicting yourself.
As noted earlier in this thread, the real pronunciation of God’s name has been ‘lost in translation’ as it were. If not even the most eminent scholars are 100% sure how YHWH is to be rendered in modern English, how can JWs be accused of using the wrong name?
…as if the choice of Jehovah is solely an idiosyncracy of the JWs! It has been the established form of the divine name throughout western european history for hundreds of years and is used as the base for theophoric names in scripture in all popular bible versions.
The use of the term ‘cult’ here is also misplaced. To say that JWs are members of a cult is to deny them their status as the most publicly-accessible of all the Christian evangelical groups.