jehovah in the new testament

8/9/2019 Jehovah in the New Testament

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y Response to Lynn Lundquist's

"The Tetragrammaton and the Christian Greek Scriptures"

"A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if Iam a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name." Malachi1:6, American Standard Version

ynn Lundquist has undergone a major work (at http://www.tetragrammaton.org) addressing, and

iticizing the New World's Translation insertion/addition/interpolation/substitution/restoration of the

ivine Name "Jehovah" in the New Testament. I will try as best as I can to this ot this voluminous w

y Lundquist. I realize also that Greg Stafford and Hal Fleming have also responded. I am privy to w

rother Fleming has written, but not Brother Stafford. I hope there will be no overlapping, and any th

would be quite unintentional.

lso, we will see, that by Lundquist's criteria of accuracy, few Bibles would pass his test of accuracy

gard to Divine Names and titles.

23 After quoting Wilbur Pickering's statement on the negligence of copyists lengthening or

ortening as they please, Mr. Lundquist goes on to say,

"As ones who love and respect God's written word, we would strongly denounce anyattempt to alter Scripture. We would correctly demand a faithful reproduction of God's

revelation by both the scribal copyists in early centuries and a translator's rendering of the

text into another language today."

his is one tactic Lundquist uses to undermine the addition of the Divine Name in the NWT-NT,

pecially as the Name does not appear in the earlier Alexandrian mss.hoosing Pickering's statement is an interesting choice, as he is an advocate of the later Byzantine te

pposed to the earlier Alexandrian texts, and points out that most errors were introduced into the mss

ithin the first two centuries.*(See The New Testament Text, p. 108)

ommenting on Pickering, D.A. Carson points out,"Errors were not added one per generation, generation by generation, but wholesale, as it

were." The King James Version Debate, p. 115

is this dramatic "wholesale" error/change that I will try to focus on, and the reasons, whethereological or even, anti-semitic, that I will bring up later.

51 Lundquist:

"It is particularly interesting to note the variety of English words used by the New World

Translation for the 714 occurences of the word Kyrios throughout the Christian Greek

Scriptures."

f these, some examples are: Lord, Jehovah, master, sir, owners, and in one situation, God.

he word Kyrios and the Hebrew equivalent, adon, has always held a variety of meanings, as the

llowing helps us to realize from Vine's Dictionary of Bible Words:

"properly an adjective, signifying "having power" (kuros) or "authority," is used as a noun,

variously translated in the NT, "'Lord,' 'master,' 'Master,' 'owner,' 'Sir,' a title of wide

significance, occurring in each book of the NT save Titus and the Epistles of John. It is used

My Response To Lynn Lynn Lundquist's The Tetragrammaton and the Christian Greek Scriptures

le:///C|/Documents and Settings/Heinz Schmitz/Desktop/The tetragrammaton.htm (1 of 16) [12/27/2003 4:51:27 PM]


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(a) of an owner, as in Luke 19:33, cp. Matt. 20:8; Acts 16:16; Gal. 4:1; or of one who has

the disposal of anything, as the Sabbath, Matt. 12:8; (b) of a master, i.e., one to whom

service is due on any ground, Matt. 6:24; 24:50; Eph. 6:5; (c) of an Emperor or King, Acts

25:26; Rev. 17:14; (d) of idols, ironically, 1 Cor. 8:5, cp. Isa. 26:13; (e) as a title of respect

addressed to a father, Matt. 21:30, a husband, 1 Pet. 3:6, a master, Matt. 13:27; Luke 13:8, aruler, Matt. 27:63, an angel, Acts 10:4; Rev. 7:14; (f) as a title of courtesy addressed to a

stranger, John 12:21; 20:15; Acts 16:30; from the outset of His ministry this was a common

form of address to the Lord Jesus, alike by the people, Matt. 8:2; John 4:11, and by His

disciples, Matt. 8:25; Luke 5:8; John 6:68; (g) kurios is the Sept. and NT representativeof Heb. Jehovah ('Lord' in Eng. versions), see Matt. 4:7; Jas. 5:11, e.g., of adon, Lord, Matt.

22:44, and of Adonay, Lord, Matt. 1:22; it also occurs for Elohim, God, 1 Pet. 1:25."

nd McKenzie's Dictionary of the Bible under the heading, "Lord:"

"The use ofkyrios in the Synoptic Gospels...is also a designation of God in quotations from

the LXX or as a substitute for the name of God, and in the common profane sense of

owner or master." p. 517

f further note is the lexical evidence pointing to Kyrios as YHWH:

"In the NT, likewise, KURIOS, when used as a name of God...most usually corresponds tohwhy Jehovah, and in this sense is applied." A Greek and English Lexicon to the New

Testament, by J. Parkhurst, revised ed. of 1845, p. 347

A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament by J.H. Thayer, 1889 ed., p.365 says inder

Kurios: "c. This title is given a. to God, the ruler of the universe (so the Sept. for adonai,

eloah, elohim, Jehovah and Jah)."

A Greek-English Lexicon, by Liddel and Scott, 1968 ed., on p. 1013, under Kurios: "B....4.

O KURIOS, = Hebr. Yahweh, LXX Ge. II. 5, al."

his is what we should remember. When asked as to why he defends the NWT, even when it usesehovah" in the NT, Professor Jason Beduhn replies that it is merely a substitute, much like most Bi

bstitute "LORD" for YHWH in the OT.

he Divine Name certainly falls within the dictionary, lexical (see above) and semantic range of

ord/Kyrios, and that is why many other versions/translations have seen fit to also include the Name

eir NT's.

have printed out about 500 pages of material from your site, Mr. Lundquist, and frankly I would ha

en more impressed if you had addressed your concerns against mainstream Bibles that have allowe

adition, and not the Hebrew to influence their decision in this regard. To me, the crime and focus

ould be on those who have removed this Name 6828 times, not on those who seek to restore it. But

ore on this further down.

82

All Hebrew versions trace their source to ancient Greek manuscripts of the Christian Greek

Scriptures. (The only exception is J 9 which comes from the Latin Vulgate.) Inasmuch as

these versions were published in the 16th century and later, we are able to verify the Greektext used as their source. In 223 instances, the Greek word Kyrios (), rather than the

Tetragrammaton, is found in the Greek text. The Tetragrammaton used in these Hebrew

translations was never derived from hwhy in the Greek text.




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he Greek texts and many modern Bible versions in circulation now are based on an eclectic text. Da

allace is heavily involved with the NET Bible, and though he uses the Nestle-Aland Greek text, he

sagrees with it in about 500 places. Wallace calls this position reasoned eclecticism. When the

WBTC committee deviated from their source text (W/Hort), this was not to supplant this text and

ither were they saying that the Hebrew versions were consistently more accurate, just as Wallaceould never say that the later Byzantine or TR text is consistently better, but there are instances whe

ey are useful. For the NWT to include the Tetragrammaton from these versions is, based on the fac

asoned eclecticism.

e realize that the Name does not appear in the two major Alexandrian texts, and we do not hide thact, as seen from our production of the Westcott and Hort Text. We also know, as seen above, that th

ivine Name falls within the semantic, lexical and dictionary range of Kyrios. In fact, each subseque

lease of Nestle-Aland's Greek text allows for more readings from a later tradition, thus moving awa

om the older Alexandrian text. Most Greek manuscripts in existence are of the later Byzantine tradi

lso called the Majority Text) that contain many embellishments in certain areas as opposed to the o

lexandrian text. Where do these come from? The debate rages on.

relying on Versions for how we translate the Divine Name solely an NWT practice. No it is not. T

ote:

n regard to the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translatorsopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as "LORD".." New

ternational Version Preface

he RSV, NRSV and the Good News Bible read much the same, along with note indicating an incor

nderstanding of the ancient LXX.

ost others appeal to tradition, not on any text, for their exclusion of the Divine Name.

et it seems that the NWT is always unfairly singled out in its zeal to promote the name of the almig

od Jehovah.

86, 91 and 104

...our understanding of the limit of inspiration leads us to a single conclusion. Nosupplementary information can be added to the inspired revelation of the Christian Greek

Scriptures beyond that which was written by the inspired Christian writers themselves. This

is the reason why we categorically dismiss the writings of Joseph Smith, the GnosticGospels, or even the early non-canonical writings of the Christian congregation as being

outside the limit of inspiration.

To accept late Hebrew translations as a higher authority than the best preserved Greek

manuscripts from which they were translated violates our understanding of the canon of the

Christian Greek Scriptures. The New World Translation cites only 12 Greek manuscripts

and eight early versions in support of the Greek word Kyrios ( Kuvrio") in the 237 Jehovahpassages. On the other hand, the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament actually cites

754 Greek manuscripts, 86 versions, and 149 lectionaries in support of the Kyrios passageswithin the Christian Greek Scriptures. In all, there are a total of over 5,000 extant Christian

Greek manuscripts.

We fully acknowledge that the transmission of the Sacred Scriptures was under the careful

plan and supervision of Jehovah. Nonetheless, there was an apparent randomness in the

method he used to preserve these texts. The accuracy of the various texts which have been




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safeguarded, and their geographical location which made preservation possible, were

random events. On the other hand, removal of all traces of the Tetragrammaton would, of

necessity, have been a deliberate and planned undertaking. It would represent a statistically

impossible series of events for t he

Tetragrammaton to have been removed from copies of the original writings, leaving no traceof that heresy today.

hink the question that everyone SHOULD be asking, is why has the Divine Name, used in the Heb

xt 6828 times, more than all other divine titles put together, and more than any other name,...

mpletely disappeared?

egarding the Hebrew versions, one scholar writes"

"Supposing a Christian scholar were engaged in translating the Greek Testament into

Hebrew, he would have to consider, each time the word Kurios occured, whether there was

anything in the context to indicate its true Hebrew representative; and this is the difficulty

which would arise in translating the N.T. into all languages if the title Jehovah had been

allowed to stand in the [LXX]." Synonyms of the Old Testament, Girdlestone, p. 43

oving along though, any discussion on textual criticism inevitably involves including the Ante-Nic

athers (hereafter, ANF). How did they feel about God's name?

"God has no name, for everything that has a name is related to created things." Aristides (c.

125, E) 9.264

"He has many virtues as are distinctive to a God who is called by no proper name." Justin

Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.165

"To the Father of all, there is no name given" Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.190

"As to the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe,... if anyone dares to say that

there is a name, he raves with hopeless madness." Justin Martyr (c. 160, E) 1.183

"God cannot be called by any proper name. For names are given to mark out and distinguish

various subject matters, because these matter are many and diverse. However, no one

existed before God who could give Him a name, nor did He Himself think it right to name

Himself. For He is one and unique... On this account, He said to Moses, "I am the Being."

By the participle *being,* He taught the difference between the God who is and the gods

who are not.

Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.281

"If we name Him, we do not do so properly." Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E) 2.464

"The name of God the Father had been published to no one." Tertullian (c. 198, W) 3.682

"Neither must we ask for a name of God. God is His name. We have no need of names when

a multitude are to be separated into individuals...To God, who is alone, the name "God" is

the whole. Mark Minucius Felix (c. 200, W) 4.183

"We say the name Sabaoth, Adonai, and the other names treated with so much reverence

among the Hebrews, do not apply to any ordinary created things. Rather, they belong to a

secret theology concerning the Framer of all things." Origen (c. 248, E), 4.407




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"Christians in prayer do not even use the precise names that divine scriptures applies to

God." Origen, 4.653

"God's own name also cannot be declared, for He cannot be conceived....For the name is the

significance of whatever thing can be comprehended from a name." Novatian, 5.615

"Neither must you ask the name of God. God is His name. Where a multitude is to be

distinguished by the appropriate characteristics of names, there is a need of names.

However, to God - who alone is - belongs the whole name of God." Cyprian 5.467

ere, despite the fact that the Name occurs so many times in the Hebrew text, there is evident hostili

wards the name. Is it because of the Name's association with the Jews the early Christians were try

disassociate and distinguish themselves from?

he Torah is not the itself the name of God but the explication of the Name of God. To him (the

abbalist] meant exactly what it meant for Jewish tradition, namely the tetragrammaton YHWH. An

is is the true meaning of "God's Torah." on The Meaning of the Torah/On the Kaballah and Its

ymbolism, by Gershom Scholem, p.42

he Jews and the Name were solidly bound together. Perhaps, this is why the ANF were not only ho

the Name, but to the people of the Name."In Christian sources, the charge of Jewish hate is unrelieved. St. Justin (A.D. 100-65), inhis Dialogue with Trypho, returns again and again to the point. On one occasion he

confronts Trypho the simple declaration, 'You hate and (wherever you have the power), you

kill us." Tertullian (c. A.D. 155-c. 222) labels Jews 'the seed-plot of all calumnies against

us;' and in the early fourth century, Emperor Constantine (A.D. 306-37) said, 'Let us have

nothing to do with the most hostile Jews.'

Taken from many available accusations, these few samples convey the seriousness of the

charge. The answer has been made that the accusers, having entertained few relations with

real Jews, constructed a theological abstraction having little relation to reality."

hat did this lead to?

"In steering a course between the extremes of Judaeo-Christianity and the anti-Judaism of

Marcion and the Gnostics, that Church had to prove to the gentiles - and to the Jews - that itwas the true Israel, that Judaism was a pretender that refused to abdicate a lost kingdom -

and all this from Judaistic sources....Exegetical disputes inevitably arose between the

apologists and the rabbinate. The latter accused the former of mutilating the text of the

Septuagint...and replaced it with several new Hebrew translations. Christian

polemicists countered with charges of textual suppressions by the Jews." Anguish of

the Jews, Edward Flannery, p. 32

o you see that the fighting between the two factions initially involved allegations of textual corrupt

he move away from Judaism, the formation of a new religion and the great apostasy foretold in the

as enough fuel to create "wholesale" changes in the text. This was helped in part by the abbreviatio

vine names and titles. You recommend the Book, The Jesus Papyrus by Carston Thiede, which say

"With the first Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament, YHWH acquired the visible formof an abbreviation - initially, because the Hebrew consonants were inserted in the Greek

text wherever "God" appeared. This custom was continued into the Middle Ages and had its

variations, which made the abbreviating nature of the exercise more obviousv - such as




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writing only the first letter of the Hebrew word yod, doubling to to look like a twinfold z

and drawing a horizontal bar throught the middle of both letters. A find from Qumram

dating from the period just before the 'birth' of the first Christian texts documents the use of

Greek rather than Hebrew letters to abbreviate God's unpronouncable name.

In a fragmentary Greek papyrus scroll discovered in Cave 4 - Pap4QLXXLev b, with partsof Leviticus - "God" is written neither with the full Greek word theos nor with the Greek

translation of Adonai, kyrios ('Lord'), but with the Greek vowels alone (!) iota/alpha/omega,

to souund something like Ya-oh or Ya-ho. In brief, by the time the first Christians wrote

their own Greek manuscripts rather than copying Old Testament texts, they were alreadyaccustomed to the concept of contracting the name and title of God. We do not know if

kyrios was already contracted as this earliest stage, the period of the scrolls. It could have

been abbreviated in Greek consonants (KS) or with the Hebrew tetragrammaton or with the

Greek vowels IAO. But we have no direct Christian manuscript evidence of this word dating

from this period. However, if the identification and reconstruction of 7Q4 as 1 Timothy 3:16

- 4:3 is any indication of standard practice, the word 'God' itself, theos, was apparently not

abbreviated, nor was another extant nomen sacrum...Let us suppose then, that the first

(Jewish)-Christian scribes initially did what they had always done as Jews, resisting the

temptation - if temptation it was - to break with the traditional practice.s we see above, in fact, as we see often, divine titles are usually abbreviated. But the Divine Name

bstituted for a circumlocution. We will come back to this later.

et us continue on with Thiede, and let's take note of the following "wholesale" change:

"Suddenly, however, all of this changed.

Almost at a stroke, at the beginning of the second phase of transmission, the phase of the

codex. 'holy names' were being abbreviated in Christian papyri....this was also the period

when Jews and Christians were becoming estranged, beginning with the killing of St.

James...This was the moment for the scribes to make a statement - a statement of faith. It

was no longer necessary to show diplomatic or missionary consideration for Jewishsensitivities. Christian documents could begin to assert unequivocally the divinity of Jesus.It was a final step, from oral preaching via the more cautious scroll documents to the boldly

unambiguous handwritten signs in the oldest codex and its successors: Jesus Christ is Lord

and God." p. 143

om reading your book, you seem to think the removal of the Divine Name must be a gradual chang

ut as we see above, by Thiede's and Carson's comments, the changes took place abruptly. Couple thti-semitism with the neo-Platonic thought rampant amongst the ANF (Plato's trinity included a

AMELESS 'ONE') and you have enough of a push for change. The one thing that I have learned w

udying textual criticism, is that corruption happened almost immediately. As you said:

"For a heresy of this magnitude to take place so soon after the Apostles' deaths is most

difficult to believe?"

xactly how many mss do we actually have that can be dated within one generation of the Apostles?

ery few, and even they are disputed.

D. Kilpatrick states in his Etudes de Papyrologie Tome Neuvieme that between the periods 70-13

E. that there were three major changes in the transmission of the text. The change from scroll to co

e tetragrammaton was replaced by Kyrios and nomina sacra (sacred names) were abbreviated. See

21, 222




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ou have provided a list of manuscripts, a list that is also available to anyone who has the Nestle-Ala

UBS Greek text. But even the oldest and most reliable of these are centuries removed from the

tographs.

ou and I can both agree that it is heresy to remove the name from the OT, but yet that did not stop l

XX copyists from removing it, and it did not prevent Jerome from removing it in his Vulgate. As wve seen above, the ANF, as representing the mindset of the post 1st century Christian, simply did n

ke the Name.

gain, as is your habit, you repeat:

"We fully acknowledge that the transmission of the Sacred Scriptures was under the careful

plan and supervision of Jehovah. Nonetheless, there was an apparent randomness in the

method he used to preserve these texts. The accuracy of the various texts which have beensafeguarded, and their geographical location which made preservation possible, were

random events. On the other hand, removal of all traces of the Tetragrammaton would, of

necessity, have been a deliberate and planned undertaking. It would represent a statistically

impossible series of events for t he

Tetragrammaton to have been removed from copies of the original writings, leaving no trace

of that heresy today."

e have to look at preservation from the viewpoint of history as a whole. For over 1000 years all weve had was the divine Name-less Latin Vulgate. There were no vernacular versions or translations,

e penalty for owning one was death. Our oldest manuscripts were not even discovered until after th

rk ages. It is evident that Jehovah WAITED until nearly our day to reveal his Bible in its oldest for

he message of the Bible though has not changed.

an changes happen in a short period of time in regards to Bible translation? Yes.

the 1400's we had no English Bible versions, yet 100 years later, there were several. In the 19thentury, Bibles containing the Divine Name Jehovah were quite common, but not so a century later.

ars ago, Versions were largely Formal Equivalent (literal), now they are largely Dynamic Equivale

meaning-for-meaning, thought-for-thought, paraphrase).

n pages 158-160 you address your displeasure with the New American Standard Version policy on

anslating the Divine Name in the Hebrew Scriptures, yet you still end this chapter with a diatribe

ainst the NWT.

mply doing the math leads me to the conclusion that removing the name over 6800 times is far mor

rious than adding it over 200 times.wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the New American Standard Version or Lockman

oundation and had spent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?

wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the New Revised Standard Version or the National

ouncil of Churches or Oxford and had spent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the New King James Version or Nelson book

ublishers and had spent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?

wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the New International Version or Zondervan and h

ent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?

wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the New Living Translation or Tyndale publishers

d spent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?

wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the New American Bible and their publishers and hent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?




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wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the English Standard Version or Crossway and had

ent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?

wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the Contemporary English Version and their publis

d had spent any time writing lengthy polemics against them?

wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of the Revised English Bible and Oxford University Pd the Churches that sponsored this in the UK and had spent any time writing lengthy polemics aga

em?

wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of New Century Version and had spent any time writi

ngthy polemics against them?wonder if you are equitable in your treatment of The Message and had spent any time writing lengt

olemics against their publishers? etc., etc., etc., ...

hink I already know the answer. According to you, the above Bible are wrong 6828 times, the NW

rong only 237 times, in other words, the NWT is almost 97% more correct (by your criterion) than

ove versions, yet all your energy has been directed against the NWT, which leads to the inescapab

nclusion that you have a devious agenda in mind, an agenda directed against Jehovah's Witnesses a

e NWT. (This explains why your book is available from web-sites hostile to Jehovah's Witnesses)

here is another way of looking at the above though. The above translated as they have, for the sake

eir target audience, and the same can be said for the NWT. Where the Zondervan (NIV and NASBudy Bibles have extensive (and often helpful) footnotes, yet these same footnotes fail to even capit

ORD where it refers to YHWH in the OT. On the other hand, the NWT has supplied its target audie

ith a Reference edition and an interlinear (AT NO CHARGE YET) explaining the facts in regards t

e Greek text used. There is not attempt to hide our translation philosophy in this regard, quite the

pposite in fact.

o top this off, the WTS also prints the KJV, ASV, Byington's Bible in Living English, and had

stributed the Jerusalem, New English, Good News and New American Bibles (amongst others) in opromote study and comparisons between various versions with differing styles and theories of

anslation. It has been my experience that my brothers use and own more versions and translations thy other religious group.

hen there is the fact that many of the Bibles listed above are "meaning-based" translations, and even

ost literal use some form of Dynamic Equivalence. The NASB is touted as the most literal, yet it

ooses the dynamic equivalent "LORD" in place of the divine name in the OT. The inclusion of the

vine name in the NT certainly counts as a meaning based equivalent, especially in light of the fact tHWH falls within the dictionary, lexical and semantic range of Kyrios.

nother note needs to be made in regards to the embellishment of Jesus' status in the NT, which has

ppened so much that it is now difficult to know exactly how many times the words "Jesus" and

Christ" actually appear. Take note:

IV Jesus = 1226 Christ = 499

JV Jesus = 943 Christ = 522

ASB Jesus = 881 Christ = 493

RSV Jesus = 1088 Christ = 45SV Jesus = 926 Christ = 534

arby Bible Jesus = 904 Christ = 507

oung's Literal Version Jesus = 932 Christ 529

esley N.T. Jesus = 951 Christ = 497




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od's Word Jesus = 1504 Christ = 516

ew Living Translation Jesus = 1404 Christ = 536

ouay Jesus = 932 Christ = 534

SV Jesus = 883 Christ = 501

ble in Basic English Jesus = 905 Christ = 496ood News Bible/TEV Jesus = 1543 Christ 502

ew Century Version Jesus = 1846 Christ 604

KJV Jesus = 941 Christ = 530

ow do we get from 883 occurences of the name "Jesus" (American Standard Version) to 1846 in thCV. It seems I have already mapped out your next project, Mr. Lundquist.

his is not a recent phenomenon.

ere are a few ancient examples:

hn 19:40, "They took the body of Christ" to "they took the body of God"uke 2:26 changed to "Christ, namely God." Old Latin ff

uke 9:20 "the Christ of God" changed to "Christ, God" Coptic

ark 3:11 "You are the Son of God" changed to "You are God, the Son of God." MS69

uke 7:9 "when Jesus heard this" changed to "when God heard this" 124

uke 8:28 "Jesus, Son of the highest God" changed to "Jesus, the highest God" 2766uke 20:42 "the lord said to my lord" changed to "God said to my God" Persian Diatesseron

Peter 1:2 changed to "in the knowledge of God, our Lord Jesus" P72

de 5 changed to "Jesus" or "the God Christ" who saved the people from Egypt P72

al 2:2 "Son of God" changed to "God the Son" MS1985

cts 20:28 "church of God" changed to "church of the Lord" or "church of the Lord and God" variou

Cor 10:5, "God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness" changed to "Chr

S81om 14:10, "we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God." changed to "judgment-seat of

hrist" 048, 0209 Byz etcatt 24:36, "But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son

ut the Father only." The Byx mss omit "neither the Son." Interestingly, the Codex Siniaticus origina

d "neither the Son", but was removed by a later scribe...and then was restored by yet another scribe

The New Testament manuscripts were not produced impersonally by machines capable of

flawless production. They were copied by hand, by living, breathing human beings who

were deeply rooted in the conditions and controversies of their day. Did the scribes'

polemical context influence the way they transcribed sacred Scriptures? The burden of

the present study is that they did....."

he Orthodox Corruption of Scripture by B. Ehrman, p. 3fact, the early scribes were more prone to omit than they were to add.

45 has 28 additions, but 63 omissions.

46 has 55 additions and 167 omissions.





hese changes did not stop early on:




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"When an intentional change affects the meaning of the passage, there is a demonstrable

tendency to move the meaning in the direction of the orthodoxy of the time, not away from

it. By 'demonstrable' I mean that even within the Byzantine tradition, the later witnesses are

inclined to change things in favor of giving more titles to Christ, not fewer"

D.A. Carson, The King James Version Debate, p. 62

must be remembered that these intentional scribal changes were made by those in the orthodox

osition, not by fringe "heretical" groups.

ut even here again, allegations went the other way.

"The number of deliberate alterations made in the interests of doctrine is difficult to assess.

Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Eusebius, and many other Church Fathers

accused the heretics of corrupting the Scriptures in order to have support for their special

views. In the mid-second century Marcion expunged his copies of the Gospel according

to Luke of all references to the Jewish background of Jesus. Tatian's Harmony of the

Gospels contains several textual alterations which lent support to ascetic or encratic views.

Even within the pale of the Church one part often accused the another of altering the text of

the Scriptures. Ambrosiaster, the fourth-century Roman commentator on the PaulineEpistles, believed that where the Greek manuscripts differed on any important points from

the Latin manuscripts which he was accustomed to use, the Greeks 'with their presumptuousfrivolity' had smuggled in the corrupt reading."

he footnote reads:

"Such changes prove that the autographs of the books of the New Testament were nolonger in existence, otherwise an appeal would have been made directly to them. Their

early loss is not surprising, for during persecutions the toll taken by imperial edicts aiming

to destroy all copies of the sacred books of Christians must have been heavy. Furthermore,

simply the ordinary wear and tear of the fragile papyrus, on which at least the shorter

Epistles of the New Testament had been written (see the reference to CARTHS in 2 John,

vs. 12), would account for their early dissolution. It is not difficult to imagine what wouldhappen in the course of time to one much-handled manuscript, passing from reader to

reader, perhaps from church to church (see Col. iv. 16), and suffering damage from the

fingers of eager if devout readers as well as from climatic changes." The Text of the New

Testament, 3rd Edition, by Bruce M. Metzger, p.201

o here (and further above) we have allegations of corruption from all circles. Some of this even bein

fluenced by anti-semitism. [Eldon Jay Epp follows this anti-Semitic conclusion on the book of Acte Western Text in his Theological Tendency, pp. 165-71; see also D.C. Parker's Codex Bezae: An E

hristian Manuscript and Its Text, pp. 189-92 and 279-86. These anti-Semitic tendencies have also b

ggested for the papyri in H. Eshbaugh's Textual Variants and Theology: A Study of the Galatians TPapyrus 46, JSNT 3 (1979) 60-72; and Mikael C. ParsonsA Christological Tendency in p75, JBL

986) 463-79].

ouple this with the fact that early Christian scribes were zealous to promote a cetain viewpoint, and

ve a dangerous mixture:

The scribe of P66 made nearly five hundred corrections to his own manuscript....the early

Christians did not necessarily treat the NT text as a 'sacred' text - i.e., as a fixed, written,

canonized text, sacred to the very letter...By contrast, the Jews had come to regard the OT

text with deep reverence and therefore copied it with extreme fidelity." p. 6, Early




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Manuscripts and Modern Translations of the New Testament, by Philip Wesley Comfort.

"The story of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament is the story of progression from

a relatively uncontrolled tradition to a rigorously controlled tradition....The general nature of

the text in the earliest period has long been recognized as 'wild,' 'uncontrolled,' 'unedited.'"

Colwell, Hort Redivivus: A Plea and a Program, pp 195, 166n3

"The plain fact of the matter is that early Christians did not take nearly the pains with their

Scriptures that the Jews did with theirs; and this is evidenced not only by the Christians

handling of the New Testaments documents but also in their handling of the LXX." D.A.Carson, The King James Only Controversy, p.116

"In the earliest time of our tradition, one can as a scribe still deal relatively freely with the

text of an author....Circumstances change fundamentally from the ninth century on. The

demands on exactness and discipline become incomparably higher in a scribal tradition

carried on chiefly by monks." B. Aland, "Neutestamentliche Textfortschung und

Textgeschichte"NTS 36 (1990) 339-40

he textual/corruptional debate continues to this day. A growing number of people feel that the later

yzantine text (Majority text) is a truer form of the autograph (pointing to the many corruptions of th

lexandrian texts), while the other side feels the older Alexandrian text is truer to the autographs,cause of age. The supporters of the Byzantine text that the King James is part of, want to preserve

riptures that defend the belief that "God was manifested in the flesh" (1 Tim 3:16) and the hard-cor

extus Receptus defenders want to preserve the trinitarian formula in the Comma Johanneum (1 John

7).

he supporters of the Alexandrian text realize that while there are corruptions in the older text, the ab

amples are cases of even clearer corruption. Again, the debate rages on. The differences between two text-types are judged to be between 60-85%. I believe they are closer, as many involve word ord

d embellishments in titles belonging to Jesus. But if you are arguing for preservation, and the majo

texts preserved are of a later date, then the inescapable conclusion lies in the fact the God must haeserved and preferred the later text over the older ones, which lies at odds with your argument.Ag

should be noted to others that these difference do not affect the overall message of the Bible, and it

is message, that was preserved by God.

he Divine Name and the LXX

ou repeat the statement that the LXX used the divine name, but only when it was used for Jews, no

hristians. The problem with this is, when Jesus was reading from the LXX, it was one made for Jew

here were no Christians then making copies of the LXX, as there were no Christians then, period. W

so have nothing in the writings of the Apostles indicating that were members of the EKKLHSIA

volved in the copying of the LXX. In fact, all copies of the LXX in the first century were made byws, for Jews, and were doubly enjoyed by Jewish Christians.

"My research is accomplishing just this, documenting and discussing this divine name's

surprisingly frequent appearance in Christian copies of originally Jewish onomastica

of the LXX, in definitely two and possibly up to four classical authors, in ecclesiatical

sources, and in the Mishnah. Taken together, this evidence indicates that some Jews

continued to use and indeed pronounce this Greek form of the divine name in the

Greco-Roman period, and this helps provide a background for understanding the name's

appearance in 4QLXX Levb." Presentation by Frank Shaw, Univ of Cincinnati at the 1999




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SBL/AAR conference

his leads to my next question. If later copies by an apostate church can remove the Tetragrammaton

om the LXX without any hint of discussion among the ANF of this heresy, then why is it so hard to

mit that this could have happened with the later copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures? Is it bec

e don't want to see it? Is it because we are trying to promote a later teaching of the Trinity?

n a side note, there is no indication that later copies of the LXX made by Christians were better, in

uite the opposite seems to be the case. Origen, after discussing several Apocryphal books in the LX

ade this statement:

"And, forsooth, when we notice such things, we are forthwith to reject as spurious the copies

in use in our Churches, and enjoin the brotherhood to put away the sacred books current

among them, and to coax the Jews, and persuade them to give us copies which shall be

untampered with, and free from forgery." The Ante-Nicene Fathers, IV, 387

301

"We can only assume that the New World Bible Translation Committee was aware of the

Nomina Sacra, yet chose not to bring this material into their textual apparatus to establish

the presence of the Tetragrammaton in a limited 237 instances within the Christian

Scriptures. The great number of occurrences of Nomina Sacra (surrogates) within the text ofthe Christian Scripture Greek manuscripts would preclude such an attempt. Any appeal to

the Nomina Sacra with the intent of establishing the presence of the divine name in the

Christian Greek Scriptures would, of consequence, identify the person of Christ with

Jehovah. If it were to be argued that the Nomina Sacra in the form of k" (for kuvrio") is

a derivative of hwhy, then it could be forcefully arguedwith a large number of examples

of k" referring to Jesusthat the inspired Christian writers used hwhy of Jesus

himself."

here is a very big difference between Nomina Sacra (which were not really surrogates as much as th

ere abbreviations) and the use of actual substitutions (surrogates, circumlocutions, Paleo-Hebraic

tters) in regards to the Divine Name. It is because of the use of circumlocutions for the Divine Nam

which as you know was even used in Shem Tob's Matthew) that differentiates, and therefore elevate

ove the abbreviated Nomina Sacra. The same Nomina Sacra that held words like "Man/human"

ANQRWPOS), Israel, David and mother also as sacred. I do not know of any occurences of the Nom

acra as being substituted for Hashem, Name, PIPI, or even as we have discovered, a triangle.

our argument is what happens when we fall into the trap of partitioning the Bible into the Old and N

estaments, when we really should be arguing from within the corpus of the entire Bible. If the name

esus" indeed replaces "Jehovah", then why exactly the name "Jesus?" Why simply another "Joshua

hy another Jesus Barabbas? Why another Jesus ben Sirach?

hen we take the Bible as a whole, without the man-made division, the name YHWH reigns suprem

d no other name can touch it.

rom "Hallelujah in the Christian Greek Scriptures:

"It is also interesting to note that the divine name [ALLHLOUIA] was not removed from

these four verses [Rev 19:1, 3, 4 and 6]. To anyone familiar with the language background

during the second and third centuries C.E., these four occurences of the word hallelujahwere obviously a reference to Jehovah. Why then, if there had been a heresy aimed at

removing his name, were these verses overlooked?"




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ou yourself acknowledge that Jerome was aware of the Name, and that the earlier copies of the LXX

ntained it. Yet later copies of the LXX that had removed the Name, as had Jerome's Vulgate, stillntained the word ALLHLOUIA at Psalms 135, 136, 146, 147, 147, 149, 150 and 3 Macc 7:13, Tob

:18. The reason for this is due to the fact that translators and copyists are generally less hostile to th

ame if it is part of another word or name. This is why translators, even of English versions that do n

nsistently use the Name, will use it as part of a place name at Gen 22:14 [Jehovah-jireh]; Ex 17:16

ehovah-nissi]; Jg 6:24 [Jehovah-shalom] and Ezek 48:35 [Jehovah-shammah]. And then there are th

mmon names of persons that contain parts of the Divine Name, like Jehoaddah, Jehoaddan, Jehoah

hoash, Jehohanan, Jehoiachin, Jehoiada, Jehoiakim, Jehoiarib, Jehonadab, Jehonathan, Jehoram,

hoshabeath, Jehoshaphat, Jehosheba, Jehoshua, Jehozabad, Jehozadak etc. It would be ridiculous to

ve to rename these, as for example, TheLORDshaphat.

the NWT consistent in its use of the Hebrew Versions?

o, and why should they be? The Greek texts in use today, be it the Nestle Aland or the United Bible

ocieties, Von Soden's etc., construct a critical apparatus, whereby certain scriptures in, lets say,

aticanus or Siniaticus are accepted or rejected based on what is deemed accurate or corrupted. Even

wo Majority Texts in publication (Hodges-Farstad vs. Robinson-Pierpont) disagree over 200 times.

ble Translators even pick and choose what scriptures they accept or reject in those texts. As we hav

en, Professor Wallace rejects the Nestle Aland text 500 times in his NET Bible. Let us take on

ample. Had we faithfully followed Shem Tob's Matthew, then the NWTTC could have rejected an

entioned of the Father Son and holy spirit at Matt 28:19. However, Shem Tob's reading of this text

mission of the three was rejected as inferior. One important mss, Codex Alexandrinus, reads the wo

irstborn" at Revelation 1:18, thereby watering down one of your favorite chapters as a "proof-text"e deity of Christ. This reading was rejected by the NWTTC, W/Hort, UBS etc., as an inferior readi

he Hebrew versions simply do not have any critical apparatus, so it was necessary, and required, to

cept and reject many occurences of the Divine Name, whereby creating our own apparatus, in a sen

estcott and Hort do not use every scripture as it is laid out in Sinaiticus or Vaticanus, and neither d

e NWTTC need to use faithfully every occurence of YHWH or the varying occurences ofAdon froe Hebrew versions, especially since the Hebrew versions are not the base text, but are used as

emplars for proof that it could be done in some circumstances. As we have seen above, bias can pl

rt as to how a translator might view a certain chapter. When a Hebrew version has, "Sanctify the C

Jehovah in your heart," (1 Peter 3:15) we realize that the translators bias (since some do come from

e Trinitarian Bible Society) also play a part. What is commendable though is that the NWT Refere

dition does not hide this fact, and includes this reading in the margin. This leads to another questionough.

re there Scriptures used of Jehovah that apply to Jesus, and does that make them the same or

qual?his is something Yes, there certainly circumstances in the Bible where Jesus and Jehovah have

riptures applied to each other. This kind of adaption is not uncommon, and dangerous if exegeted

nsistently by your average "evangelical Protestant."et us compare 2 Samuel 24:1 with 1 Chron 21:1:

Sam reads, "And again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David again

em, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah." ASV

Chron reads, "And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." ASV

re we here to conclude, by the argument mentioned in Lynn's book, that Jehovah and Satan are the




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me person or equal?

the book of Job we have the same situation ("and comforted him concerning all the evil that Jehov

d brought upon him" Job 42:11 ASV, when we know it was Satan).

he book "Alleged Discrepancies in the Bible" by John W. Haley had this comment:

"It is consistent with Hebrew modes of thought that whatever occurs in the world, under the

overruling providence of God, what he suffers to take place, should be attributed to his

agency."

he Jews obviously understood this."The main point of the Jewish law of agency is expressed in the dictum, "A person's agent is

regarded as the person himself." Therefore any act committed by a duly appointed agent isregarded as having been committed by the principle." The Encyclopedia of the Jewish

Religion, R.J.Z. Werblowski and Geoffrey Wigoder

GRB Murray (in _Gospel of Life: Theology in the Fourth Gospel_ ) cites the Jewish

halachic law as follows: "One sent is as he who sent him." He then adds: "The messenger

[the Shaliach] is thereby granted authority and dignity by virtue of his bearing the status of

the one who sent him. This is the more remarkable when it is borne in mind that in earlier

times the messenger was commonly a slave" (Murray 18).uruli adds:

"He, therefore, can fill any position in the God's universe, and represent his Father in any

purpose. This is something to keep in mind when we are looking at the various quotes that

are applied to Jesus. As we consider how the NT quotes the OT, we must stress that an

"ontological" identity between the persons mentioned in the quotes is not at all obvious." p.

195, Theology and Bias in Bible Translation by Rolf Furuli

ofessor Furuli then goes on to point out some examples of this. In Hosea 11:1 the reference is to Is

ut the same words are later applied to Jesus at Matt 2:15. In Jeremiah Rachel is described as weepin

ver her sons, but this is later applied to the children of Bethlehem.(Mt 2:17, 18) Paul applied Habak5, 6 in his sermon at Acts 13:40, 41, but the earlier application was to the Chaldeans, the later was

"Then there is the identification of John the Baptist with the prophet Elijah. Malachi 4:5prophecied that Elijah the prophet would come before the great and fear-inspiring day of

YHWH. Jesus quoted these words in Matthew 17:12 and said that "Elijah has already

come." Verse 13 tells us that the disciples perceived that he spoke about John the baptist. In

Matthew 11:14 Jesus states the matter clearly, 'He himself is Elijah who is destined to

come." There can hardly be a more way to express ontological identity that to say John the

baptist is Elijah! But this is not what is meant, because John was neither the resurrected nor

the re-incarnated Elijah. But John did the same work as Elijah, under circumstances whichwere comparable to

those of Elijah." Furuli, p 195

uchanan puts it nicely:

"Like other scholars of his time, the author was also capable of taking an Old Testamentpassage out of context and attributing it to the Messiah. For example in LXX Deut 32:43, in

which the object of worship for the sons of God according to the Proto-Massoretic text was

Israel, the author of Hebrews applied it to the first-born, namely Jesus (1:6). Since the term

"first-born" could be applied either to Israel (Exod 4:22) or to the Messiah, the author made




15/16

the shift. By the same logic, since the "Lord" was a title of respect used both for God and for

kings, such as Jesus, he may also have made the shift here to apply to Jesus the durability of

God in contrast to the temporal nature of the angels. If this were the case, then Jesus would

also have been thought of as a sort of demiurge through whom God created the heaven and

the earth.as well as the ages (1:2, 10).In either case it does not mean that Jesus was

believed to be God or was addressed as God."

Hebrews 1:10 Anchor Bible/Buchanan

Trustworthy Greek Text, P. 140:

"We are told that the Greek text of the Christian Scriptures is trustworthy for faith. Do we

accept these Scriptures as published in the Kingdom Interlinear Translation, or do we

acknowledge the alternate wording of the New World Translation in these 237 instances as

having precedence over the Greek text?"

my vehicle I always have a copy of the Revised Standard Version, and I often have a little pocket-

SV in my shirt pocket. To me, the RSV is a trustworthy Bible for faith, even though, it has wrongly

moved the Name from the Hebrew text 6828 times. The WTS also provides and prints other Bibles

ve also removed the Name, at the same time, we acknowledge what you are unwilling to do, that

HWH falls within the dictionary, lexical and semantic range of Lord/kyrios. It seems that Jehovah's

itnesses, and others, have a healthier view of preservation and inspiration. We even print the King

mes Version, which, as a 50's Awake magazine points out, contains 50,000 errors. Yet we still deem

is version trustworthy enough to print it.

t should be pointed out that providential preservation is not a necessary consequence to of inspirati

eservation of the Word of God is promised in Scripture, and inspiration and preservation are relate

octrines, but they are distinct from each other, and there is a danger in making one the necessary

rollary of the other. The Scriptures do not do this. God, having given the perfect revelation by verb

spiration, was under no special obligation to see that man did not corrupt it."

he Byzantine Text-Type & New Testament Textual Criticism, by Harry A. Sturz, p. 38

Note for all Opposers of the New World Translation:

ofessor Alan S. Duthie once wrote that the NWT was no more "full of heresies" than any other ver

et, considering the constant attacks on it, in print, and on the web, opposers are involved in an

abolical task...they are providing fodder for atheists and Muslims in their constant attack on the Bib

he New World Translation has not changed the message of God. The New International Version ha

anged the message of God despite having homosexuals working on it. Johannes Greber has not

anged the message of God, despite his new-ageism. Catholic Bibles have not changed the message

od, despite what Baptists are telling me. The sign at the Watchtower headquarters reads, "Read God

ord, the Holy Bible daily," it does not say to only read a certain version. Perhaps we should all beomoting a return to the Bible rather than promoting an agendaized partisan opposition against a cer

oup. God has obviously blessed the NWT with a distribution of 100 million copies worldwide, as hs also blessed the myriads of copies of other versions. Let us simply take comfort in that fact, inste

attacking it.

Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, theGod of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is mymemorial unto all generations. ASV

You must tell the Isrealites this, that it is JEHOVAH the God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham,




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The God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, who has sent you to them. This is my name forever; this is my title inevery generation." The New English Bible

*Pickering once called the Alexandrian witnesses "polluted" and as coming from a "sewer pipe."

Wilbur N. Pickering, "An Evaluation of the Contribution of John William Burgon to NT Textual

riticism: Th.M. thesis, DTS, 1968, p. 93]
