As the denomination's name implies, Jehovah's Witnesses place importance on the name Jehovah. Do they distinguish between Jehovah, Yahweh, the Tetragrammaton, and so on, or do they think these are all acceptable versions of God's name? Also, is there any emphasis placed on how to pronounce 'Jehovah', or is the pronunciation considered non-essential?
Do Jehovah's Witnesses think there is an important difference between saying 'Jehovah' and 'Yahweh'?
asked Feb 17, 2021 at 21:56
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Around the world Jehovahs witnesses pronounce the divine name in many many ways– User 14Feb 18, 2021 at 3:06
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For a start you can have a look here– User 14Feb 18, 2021 at 3:20
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Related question and answers here– User 14Feb 18, 2021 at 4:21
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2"The Tetragrammaton" is not used as God's name, rather it's the name given to the Hebrew word for God's name. It literally means "the four letters". When people are talking about how to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, they're talking about how to pronounce God's name in Hebrew.– user32540Feb 18, 2021 at 12:22
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3@KayleeA Jehovah's Witnesses do not reject Christ. They firmly believe Jesus is the Christ, and they accept only the Bible as the basis for all of their beliefs.– user32540Feb 19, 2021 at 7:24
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1 Answer
Jehovah's Witnesses use whatever form of God's name that is common to Bibles in each language. In modern Hebrew, Jehovah's Witnesses use the "Yahweh" pronunciation. In English, the most common pronunciation is Jehovah. This pronunciation has been used for centuries in English and can be traced back to the Tyndale Bible, the first Bible in English to use Jehovah ("Iehouah") as God's name. "Jehovah" was also popularized by the King James Version, where it uses the name at Psalm 83:18, as well as in a few other scriptures. (But in many modern versions of the KJV, it is now removed there also.)
If someone uses the pronunciation of God's name from another language, we will not think that it's necessarily wrong, but it will sound weird. It's important to be consistent so that we can form a personal connection with that name and the Person that it represents.
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Is the name Jehovah's Witnesses, then, reflective of it's U.S. (read that English) origin? Or is the religion called Yahweh's Witnesses (for example) elsewhere? Feb 18, 2021 at 12:51
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@MikeBorden “Jehovah’s Witnesses” is the name of the denomination only in English, and then each language has a translation of that where they use God’s name in that language. On jw.org you can change the language of the website between over 1,000 languages and see how the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” changes in the website heading.– user32540Feb 18, 2021 at 13:01
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"It's important to be consistent so that we can form a personal connection with that name and the Person that it represents." This is interesting - it seems to suggest what's important isn't the letters or pronunciation, but a consistent name that allows a personal connection and that a community can use. Do JWs believe there is a 'proper pronunciation' of the name, but that we just don't know what it is? Feb 18, 2021 at 18:35
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2@AnthonyBurg JWs don't believe there is a single universal proper pronunciation. Rather, each language has a proper pronunciation according to that culture. We would say that "Jehovah" and "Yahweh" are both proper pronunciations for English because both are used in the English community (though Jehovah is much more popular). It's true that we aren't sure about the original Hebrew pronunciation, but for English speakers we aren't concerned with speaking Hebrew. The same principle applies for all the other names of people in the Bible.– user32540Feb 19, 2021 at 7:11