The Divine Name — Jehovah and the Tetragrammaton
As taught in the Jehovah's Witness tradition
Why the Watchtower tradition centres God's personal name as the heart of true worship.
The theology proper of the Jehovah's Witness Christian tradition rests entirely upon the identification, exaltation, and declaration of the Divine Name. Within this tradition, the supreme being is not understood as an anonymous deity or a generic "Lord," but as a specific, personal God whose unique name—rendered in English as Jehovah—must be central to all worship and theology. The fundamental theological inquiry of the tradition is highlighted in the introductory apparatus of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (2013 Revision), which begins its thematic exploration of scripture with "QUESTION 1 Who Is God?". For the Jehovah's Witness tradition, the answer to this question is inextricably linked to the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter Hebrew representation of the Divine Name.
By the end of this lesson
- Identify the Tetragrammaton יהוה and its likely vocalisations
- State the JW position on the centrality of the divine name
- Read Exodus 3:14-15 carefully — what God says his name IS
- Note the explicit disagreement: mainstream Christianity, including the early Greek manuscripts of the NT, consistently uses Kyrios ("Lord") for both Father and Son
Scripture
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