[B-Greek] question

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Mon Dec 8 11:51:11 EST 2003


In a message dated 12/8/2003 11:34:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
brian_magnuson at juno.com writes:
I am doing some work concerning the Jehovah's Witnesses since a dear
friend and family I am acquainted with are caught up in this cult and I
wonder if it would be appropriate for me to ask a question here. I'll ask
it and then someone can tell me...I hope..if it wasn't an appropriate
question.
Quoting from the book "Questions for Jehovah's Witnesses," 
"A footnote in the New World Translation on 1 Cor. 11:23 informs us that
John Christian Reichardt's 1846 version of THE NEW TESTAMENT in
Hebrew(J14) uses the tetragrammaton YHWH in place of LORD. What Franz
does not tell you is that Reichardt also uses the tetragrammaton in place
of LORD at 1 Cor. 12:3. Would it not be equally true and applicable here?
Therefore, 1 Cor. 12:3 should read: "AND NOBODY CAN SAY : "JESUS IS
YAHWEH!" EXCEPT BY HOLY SPIRIT."

Like you, I'm not totally sure that this is appropriate to this forum.  We do 
have participants of differing persuasions and try not to get into a food 
fight.  One part which might be answered regards why one might use YHWH in the OT 
and not in the NT.  This involves translation philosophy.  Do we translate or 
do we transliterate?  If, however, we consider YHWH as a name, then perhaps 
it is appropriate to carry it over as such into our translation.  Then the 
question becomes "How do we pronounce this?"  Since the choice "Jehovah" is 
obviously not correct since it is the conjunction of the vowels for ADONAY (lord) 
with the tetragrammaton, do we pronounce it as "Yahweh" or "Yahu" or otherwise?  
I suppose there is no absolute solution to this since we don't know precisely 
how it was pronounced.  In regard to how we "English" this in 1 Cor, however, 
I would think that it could not be considered correct to introduce the 
tetragrammaton there or a pronunciation based thereon since Paul would certainly 
have been capable of writing such had he so desired (and why only 1 Cor 11.23? 
Why not all instances of KURIOS in the NT?).  Further than this I cannot go 
under the protocol for the list -- indeed, perhaps this is too far already.  

gfsomsel



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