The Watch Tower Society identify their followers as Jehovah’s Witnesses. By what name did early Christians identify themselves? Were they known as ‘Jehovah’s,’ or ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’? Even Jehovah’s Witnesses admit, ‘ We simply do not know how God’s ancient servants pronounced this name in Hebrew,’ saying their pronunciation is mere convention. - The Divine Name in Hebrew Scriptures . See also The Name: it isn't Jehovah on the Reachout website. If it’s so very important, why hasn’t the pronunciation been preserved, alongside the name? Followers of the Way The earliest Jesus followers were followers of ‘the Way.’ Paul, in his defence before the governor Felix, confessed to being one of their number (Acts 24:14; cf. Acts 9:1,2; 19:9,23; 22:4;24:22) This name and title comes from Jesus’ own teaching, ‘I am the Way…’ (John 14:6) The Bible tells us, ‘in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.’ (Acts 11:26) This reflects their beginning to have a distinct identity th
The Witnesses conclude that there is no immortality of the soul, no consciousness after death. To find the truth we must be acquainted with the Greek and Hebrew words. The Hebrew word nephesh literally means 'a breathing' creature but is used widely. Psykhe is the Greek word denoting the breath, the breath of life, then the soul in all its meanings. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word ruach is 'wind' and by resemblance breath. Primarily the Greek word pneuma denotes the wind, but also breath and then especially the spirit which like the wind is invisible, immaterial and powerful. The Society says that the word can mean the person or the life of the person, and take no account of the other different meanings that many Biblical Greek and Hebrew scholars are aware of. They conclude from Joshua 11:11 that the soul cannot be the part of man that survives death because it is struck by the sword. However, the word nephesh is used here as the person and so no evidenc