tigger 2
Well-Known Member
.........................................God goes by many names in the Bible.
Not sure why a person has to isolate it to just one of His names only (unless they are being wrongfully influenced by outside ideas not found in the Bible).
IMPORTANCE OF THE PERSONAL NAME OF GOD
Since the scriptures Jesus quoted (even from the Septuagint of his era) often used God's personal name, would he, the perfect representative of God and truth, not read what was written in the sacred scriptures?
Is there some reason for actually removing the only personal name of God (YHWH/JHVH) from the nearly 6000 places it is found in the OT manuscripts (including the available pages and fragments from the Greek OT Septuagint up to the beginning of the 2nd century)?
The only personal Name of God, “Jehovah” in traditional English form (or “Yahweh” in a possible ancient Hebrew form), has been removed in most “orthodox” translations from all (or nearly all) the 6000+ places it actually occurs in the ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament!
Reasons for such God-dishonoring “pollution” of his only personal name (Ezek. 39:7, KJV) include: manufactured trinity “evidence” (“special pleading”?); desire for popularity; literary “beauty;” economic considerations; and the traditions of men. One of the few respected “orthodox” scholars honest enough to admit this was Dr. Palmer.
Yes, the late Edwin H. Palmer, Executive Secretary of the NIV Committee on Bible Translation; Coordinator of all translation work on the NIV; and General Editor of The NIV Study Bible by Zondervan (see “Tribute to Edwin H. Palmer”, p. v., The NIV Study Bible, 1985), wrote the following reply to an inquiry about why the NIV did not use God’s personal name (Jehovah) as found nearly 7000 times in all the ancient Bible manuscripts of the Old Testament:
“Here is why we did not: You are right that Jehovah is a distinctive name for God and ideally we should have used it. But we put 2 ¼ million dollars into this translation and a sure way of throwing that down the drain is to translate, for example, Psalm 23 as, ‘Yahweh is my shepherd.’ Immediately, we would have translated for nothing. Nobody would have used it. Oh, maybe you and a handful [of] others. But a Christian has to be also wise and practical. We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition. It is far better to get two million to read it - that is how many have bought it to date - and to follow the King James [‘LORD ’] , than to have two thousand buy it and have the CORRECT translation of Yahweh .... It was a hard decision, and many of our translators agree with you.” - Quoted in 15 July 1979 The Watchtower. (My emphasis added)
Notice how a number of the most-respected, “orthodox,” trinitarian Bible study publications address this extremely important issue of God's only personal name:
“Of primary significance is the name of Yahweh [or Jehovah] which he himself made known in his revelation (Gen. 17:1; Exod. 3:14 [and 3:15]; 6:2...). One of the most fundamental and essential features of the biblical revelation is the fact that God is not without a name: he has a personal name [Jehovah or Yahweh], by which he can, and is to be, invoked.” - p. 649, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 2, Zondervan, 1986.
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