Names and titles of God in the New Testament

The New Testament, which was written in Greek, does not contain the Masoretic YHWH However, a number of modern Bible versions have inserted variations of YHWH as the name of God in the New Testament. The best known of these is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, published by Jehovah's Witnesses, a religion based on the belief that Jehovah is the one and only name for God.

Although YHWH does not appear in the original language (Koine Greek) in which the New Testament was written, Jehovah's Witnesses believe it important that some obscure, modern versions have replaced the original wording with versions of YHWH. However in all actual translations of the New Testament into English, θεος is rendered God, Κυριος Lord, Ιησους, Jesus, and Χριστοϛ, Christ. Thus, YHWH/Jehovah cannot occur in translation since it is not in the original.

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 it in prayer, it is a glaring omission that he failed to tell say "Jehovah".

The New Testament is one of the best attested of all ancient writings with over 5,000 Greek extant manuscripts of the New Testament. The Tetragrammaton does not appear in any known original-language manuscripts of the New Testament, despite the discovery of 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 A.D. and contains nine of the apostle Paul's letters. Of all 5,000 manuscripts, none contains either the Hebrew (YHWH) or Greek (Iabe) transliterations of the divine name.

Thus, the word "Jehovah" is not in the original New Testament.

Jehovah and the Greek Old Testament

The Greek Old Testament is known as the Septuagint (q.v.). Christ and the Apostles quoted extensively from it.[1] This is no surprise, since the New Testament was itself written in Greek (see above). However, whilst altering the manuscripts of the New Testament to read "Jehovah," it is sometimes justified that this would "restore" usage from the Old Testament.

However, 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 θεος or Κυριος in reference to God, not YHWH. Like the New Testament, the Septuagint is written in Greek and YHWH does not appear in it either.

When Jerome, a Roman Catholic classicist made his translation of the Old Testament into Latin, he switched from the Septuagint of the Early Church to the Masoretic.[2] 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. Ironically, the Jehovah's Witnesses use of Jehovah historically comes from an act of the Church of Rome, a church which they attack. 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 Jehovah 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 Κυριος 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: Hebrew, Aramaic, Samaritan, and Greek. Thus to say that YHWH appeared in the Hexapla, does not mean that it appeared in the Greek Old Testament at all.

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.[3][4]

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 "Jehovah" was written in the 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