Names and titles of God in the New Testament

See main article: New Testament.

Jehovah is an older rendering of the Hebrew word YHWH, which does not appear in any original, Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Moreover the New Testament overwhelmingly quotes the ancient Septuagint version of the Old Testament (Greek), not Medieval Masoretic versions (Hebrew). The Septuagint does not contain forms of the word YHWH and so neither does the New Testament when quoting it.

The New Testament is one of the best attested of all ancient writings with over 5,000 Greek extant manuscripts. Furthermore, archaeologists have discovered papyrus fragments of the New Testament dating back to the middle of the second century. One of the most ancient fragments, the papyrus codex designated Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 2 [P46] is dated prior to 200 AD and contains nine of the apostle Paul's letters. Of all 5,000 extant manuscripts, none contains either the Hebrew (YHWH) or Greek transliterations (Iabe) of the Hebrew.

However, some contemporary publishers of modern versions of the New Testament insert the word "Jehovah" in place of the original Greek wording. In one of these, (the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, published by the Jehovah's Witnesses), the name "Jehovah" is inserted 237 times! However in all literal English translations of the New Testament, θεός is rendered God, Κύριος, Lord, Ίησοûς, Jesus, and Χριστόϛ, Christ.

Moreover in the Lord's Prayer, Christ says: "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name" (Matthew 6.9). If Christ meant that this name was Jehovah and that his Disciples should use "Jehovah" in prayer, it is a significant omission that he failed to tell them that.

Thus, YHWH/Jehovah cannot occur in translation since it is not in the original.

Jehovah and the Septuagint

The Greek Old Testament that the primitive Church used (as opposed to other Greek Old Testaments) is known as the Septuagint (q.v.). Christ and the Apostles quoted extensively from it.

The introduction of the tetragrammaton into translations of the Old Testament used by the Church traces back to the Church of Rome. In the Middle Ages when St. Jerome, a Roman Catholic classicist, began his translation of the Old Testament into Latin he switched from using the ancient Septuagint as his source to the then new Masoretic texts. He was the first to translate from a Masoretic Old Testament and brought YHWH for the first time into texts officially adapted by the Western Church. This use of the Masoretic did not affect the Eastern Churches and the bulk of the late Roman Empire's population who spoke Greek, not Latin.

Furthermore, to reconcile these facts with the belief that YHWH is the one and only name of God, Jehovah's Witnesses make various assumptions. Among these is the belief that YHWH was replaced in the Old Testament with Κύριος sometime after the New Testament was written! For example, it is stated that Origen included the Tetragrammaton in his Hexapla in the 3rd century AD. But this statement is deceptive; it does not mean that YHWH was used in the Septuagint. Origen's Hexapla was a comparison in side-by-side columns of separate versions of the Old Testament in Greek. Thus to say that YHWH appeared in the Hexapla, does not mean that it appeared in the Septuagint quoted in the New Testament at all.

The Septuagint, translated from lost Hebrew texts, uses neither YHWH nor Jehovah. The Septuagint was the preferred version of the Old Testament both among Christians and Jews. All existing manuscripts of the Septuagint (dated to earlier than the 2nd century AD) use θεός or Κύριος in reference to God, not YHWH. Like the New Testament, the Septuagint is written in Greek and YHWH does not appear in it either.

Jesus quoted numerous times from the Old Testament, including his replies to the tempter where he indicates that he is God: "Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Matthew 4.7). Here as elsewhere, he quotes from the Greek Septuagint.

Many Greek Old Testaments

In regard to the Septuagint some rudimentary mistakes are made by confusing it with several other Greek versions of the Old Testament. Inherent in such error is the assumption that all Greek versions of the Old Testament were the Septuagint. This is not the case.

Indeed, Origen categorized at least seven different Greek versions of varying quality: the versions of Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus, and lesser versions that he labeled the Quinta, Sexta and Septima. Origen compiled his Hexapla (and Tetrapla) as a reference for Christians debating the Old Testament with ancient Jews. The Hexapla is almost completely lost and these other versions exist only in small fragments, mostly from the Hexapla. A few more of these fragments have also been discovered in Qumran and two of these fragments, from unidentified Greek versions have YHWH in Semitic script written or inserted afterwards. The Qumran manuscripts were those kept by a small sect of Jewish separatists known as the Essenes.

Since the Church of New Testament times as well as mainstream Jews used the Septuagint, and since it is well established that the New Testament quotes the Septuagint extensively (and apparently exclusively), the other texts are not relevant to the text of the New Testament and texts used by the Essenes are less so. As noted in the beginning of this article, manuscripts and textual analysis of the Septuagint is extensive. The same applies to the New Testament. Both the Septuagint and the New Testament exist as complete documents, not as small fragments. The tetragrammaton is notably absent from both.

See also

• Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament and the Septuagint.
• YHWH, a Hebrew name for God that appears in the Masoretic Old Testament.
• Jehovah, an out-dated vocalization of Hebrew YHWH.
• Iaoue, the ancient Greek rendering of YHWH.
• Yaw, an article that discusses some linguistic theories involving YHWH.
• Jehovah's Witnesses, a religion that teaches that YHWH was written in the original New Testament.

External links

• Greek text - Complete Greek text of the Septuagint hyperlinked to Strong's concordance.
• Brenton's - The standard English translation of the Septuagint (hard copy has Greek in column)
• The New Testament and the Septuagint - Instances where the New Testament quotes the LXX against the Masoretic Hebrew
• The New Testament and the Hebrew OT - Instances where the New Testament agrees with the Masoretic Hebrew meaning
• Names in the Septuagint and Masoretic - A table of the older Greek names with the newer Masoretic renditions, in the Old Testament
• The Septuagint Online - Comprehensive site with scholarly discussion and extensive links to texts and translations
• Versions of the Bible - Thorough entry on versions of the Bible in the Catholic Encyclopedia.