A MILESTONE FOR LOVERS OF GOD'S WORD

Restoring God's Name

An outstanding feature of the New World Translation involved the restoration of God's name, Jehovah. In ancient copies of the Hebrew Bible, the divine name is represented by four consonants that may be transliterated as YHWH or JHVH. This distinctive name appears 7,000 times in the so-called Old Testament alone. (Exodus 3:15; Psalm 83:18) Clearly, our Creator intended his worshipers both to know and to use that name.

However, superstitious fears caused the Jewish people to cease using the divine name. Following the death of Jesus' apostles, copyists of the Greek Scriptures began replacing God's personal name with the Greek words Ky'-ri-os (Lord) or The-os' (God). Sad to say, modern translators have perpetuated this God-dishonoring tradition, eliminating God's name from most Bibles and even concealing that God has a name. For example, at John 17:6 are Jesus' words: "I have made your name manifest." Today's English Version, however, renders this: "I have made you known.

Some scholars defend the elimination of the divine name because its exact pronunciation is unknown. However, such familiar Bible names as Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Jesus are routinely rendered in ways that bear little resemblance to their original Hebrew pronunciation. Since the form Jehovah is a legitimate way of rendering the divine name-and one familiar to many people-objections to using it ring hollow.

The New World Bible Translation Committee took the bold step of using the name Jehovah in both the Hebrew and Greek portions of Scripture. They had a precedent for this in early missionary translations for people in Central America, the South Pacific, and the Orient. Such use of God's name is not merely of academic interest, however. Knowing God's name is critical to coming to know him as a person. (Exodus 34:6, 7) The New World Translation has encouraged millions of readers to use his name!

Next time: Reaching Non-English Readers

Watchtower,1999