At John 17:26 Jesus said: “I have made your name known to them.” And at Matthew 6:9-10 Jesus says to pray for God’s name to be sanctified and John 12:28 Jesus says “God glorify your name.” Despite the overwhelming scripture that illustrates the Almighty has His own unique name… what reason do you think the Tetragrammaton wasn’t riddled throughout the new testament and used by the disciples/apostles in their writings when reiterating Jesus ministry? In fact, the New Testament doesn’t once use it, right? I’ve always had a hard time understanding why not. The only reason I can think of was to conceal God more to only those who really sought? But then that would go against the preaching work too. What’s your best take on that?
There is no question that Satan has endeavored to erase God’s name from the Scriptures. As the Appendix in the NWT points out, recently discovered fragments of the Septuagint dating from the time of Christ used the YHWH in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. In copies produced later than the second century, the YHWH is gone. That means that Jesus and his disciples, whether reading from the Hebrew or Greek, likely read from the Scriptures that used the abbreviation of the personal name of God.
Since there are no original New Testament books known to exist, it cannot be said definitively that the writers, such as Paul, John, and Peter, did not use the Tetragrammaton. It is hard to imagine that they did not, especially when they quoted directly from the Hebrew Scriptures where the name appeared. It is also inconceivable that Jesus did not speak God’s name given the fact that he made his Father’s name known. For example, after his baptism, Jesus got up in the synagogue on the Sabbath and read from the scroll of Isaiah that says: “The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah anointed me to declare good news to the meek.” As already stated above, even if Jesus read from the Greek translation the YHWH probably appeared twice in the passage above.
Given the fact that the YHWH was later erased from copies of the Septuagint and modern translators have even gone so far as to omit God’s personal name from the Old Testament where it appeared nearly 7,000 times, it is most probable that the YHWH was written in the original gospel accounts and apostolic letters but was removed by copyists from the second or third century onward. Most copies in existence are from no earlier than the fourth century. Perhaps someday an original may turn up and settle the dispute.
In any case, the question really is why did God allow copyists and translators to tamper with the sacred Scriptures?
Consider the fact that in the days of the Judea king, Josiah, a copy of the law was discovered in a temple restoration project initiated by Josiah, which means that for an unknown period of time— perhaps hundreds of years— the priests and kings that God had entrusted with the law he transmitted to Moses lost it.
A similar thing has happened in the Christian era. Because corrupt church leaders had allowed Constantine to commandeer Christianity, during the approximately 1,000 years Dark Age the Scriptures were locked away in the dying Latin language. As a result ignorance and superstition prevailed.
Still, we who know the truth recognize that God’s purpose has prevailed. Besides, all of the ignorant masses down through the ages will receive an earthly resurrection. God allowed Satan to hide his word but only for a time. There are Bibles aplenty now. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society publish the New World Translation in over 130 languages and every translation uses the divine name in both the old and new testaments. You might say Jehovah’s Witnesses now own the Bible, which is as it should be. All of this comes at the same time Jehovah’s Witnesses are accomplishing the final phase of preaching the good news throughout the world, publishing not only Bibles but explanatory information in over 1,000 languages. Satan has utterly failed to snuff out God’s name and word.
During the conclusion, everyone who calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved. Those who have rejected the use of God’s name and who enjoined in the satanic deception that Jesus is Jehovah will be cut off.
Question: God cannot lie but He’ll let millions be misled… Basically, that’s what you are saying… Correct?
Yes. God does not force people to accept the truth. Jesus said it best when he told Nicodemus: “Now this is the basis for judgment: that the light has come into the world, but men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were wicked. For whoever practices vile things hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his works may not be reproved. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest as having been done in harmony with God.” — John 3:19-21
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Just a note, this video was uploaded about 10 years ago, back when YouTube restricted videos to 10 minutes in length. Also, I had to intentionally blur the video as the vertically striped shirt I was wearing created a weird flashing effect. Lesson: Never wear a shirt with closely aligned stripes when doing a video. ;~)
