Was God's Name Removed from the New Testament? A response to the New World Translation.

The New World Translation (NWT) bible, produced by Jehovah's Witnesses, inserts the name “Jehovah” into the New Testament 237 times. The vast majority of bible scholars do not agree that the name should be added, since the Name does not appear in any of the approximately 5700 manuscripts of the Greek Scriptures (New Testament) in existence[1].

Yet translators of the NWT defend the addition of the name by saying that at one point in history, the Divine Name was removed from manuscripts of the new testament. One particular argument, contained in the appendix to the NWT, says:

“Early Jewish writings indicate that Jewish Christians used the divine name in their writings. The Tosefta, a written collection of oral laws that was completed by about 300 C.E., says with regard to Christian writings that were burned on the Sabbath: “The books of the Evangelists and the books of the minim [thought to be Jewish Christians] they do not save from a fire. But they are allowed to burn where they are, they and the references to the Divine Name which are in them.” This same source quotes Rabbi Yosé the Galilean, who lived at the beginning of the second century C.E., as saying that on other days of the week, “one cuts out the references to the Divine Name which are in them [understood to refer to the Christian writings] and stores them away, and the rest burns.” - Appendix A5, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures 2013. [2]

At first glance this seems to be confirming that the Divine Name (originally YHWH יְהוָה ) was in fact written in the New Testament manuscripts, which were subsequently burned. Is this an accurate interpretation of the contents of the Tosefta?

The Hebrew Tosefta in question was written circa 3^rd Century and quotes Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Yosé. Rabbi Tarfon lived between approximately 70AD to 135AD[3]. This Tosefta was in fact a set of rules written by Jews in regard to what could or could not be done on the Sabbath[4]. The burning of scrolls which were written or copied by “heretics” was permitted. 

You will notice that when quoting the Tosefta the NWT writers add to the text, indicated by [brackets], the words “thought to be Jewish Christians”. In actuality, there is significant evidence that these documents may be other writings. Daniel Boyarin[5] takes the books to be Torah scrolls (possibly belonging to Christians). Since the Jews treasured their own copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, they would burn scrolls copied by others, which were seen as corrupted. Marvin R. Wilson suggests the term 'minim' as denotes all “dissidents, apostates and traitors” rather than Christians in particular[6].

If the “minim” may not be Christians and if the books are not those of the gospels (Greek Scriptures), the entire argument of the NWT translators falls into question. In fact, Moritz Friedlander made the observation that attempts to identify these books with Christian gospels in which the Divine Name does not occur are "strained"[7]. It is far more likely that the books were copies of the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures, in which the Name is found ubiquitously.

More evidence is found in the work of Karl Georg Kuhn (‘Judentum Urchristentum Kirche’, 1964)[8]. Kuhn provides numerous reasons why he does not consider these “books” to be the Christian gospels, not least the fact that the word used in the Tosefta to denote these writings is “gilyonim”. He states that these ‘gilyonim’ should be understood not as gospels but as marginal notations cut off from Biblical [Hebrew scripture] texts. 

One Name or Many?

In the unlikely event that the Tosefta was in fact referring to the books of the Christian gospels, we may ask a question regarding the “Divine name” mentioned in the passage. Many translations of this Tosefta say “divine names” plural[9]. In early Christianity, “divine names” (nomina sacra) included the name of Jesus and the words “Lord”, “Christ” and others[10]. The divine names mentioned may not have been the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) at all.

Early Manuscript Evidence

In light of this evidence, it becomes pertinent to consider whether it is in fact realistic to assert that the Name was ever found in the Greek New Testament manuscripts. Even the earliest manuscripts dating to the 2^nd century do not contain the Name. Papyrus P46[11] dated to 175AD contains sections of many NT books. Of note is Romans 4 verse 3 which quotes Genesis 15:6. One would expect to see the Tetragrammaton in that verse, but we do not. Manuscript P66[12] (200AD) contains the majority of the book of John and does not contain the name.

Therefore, the alleged destroying of the name from the manuscripts would have needed to take place :

1. After the last New Testament book was written
2. Before 150 AD (circa).

Of particular note is that we have many Christian writings dating from this time period. Polycarp (lived circa 69AD to 155AD) wrote extensively. We have his writings, which are dated to around 100-140AD[13]. Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John who was with Jesus. Polycarp never once uses the name YHWH. Whilst he writes extensively against heresies, his criticisms do not include any reference to any heretics who want to remove the Divine Name from scripture. If apostate Christians were removing the Name, surely early Christians would write about this major problem? Not only did Polycarp (and his contemporary, Ignatius) not mention any such conspiracy, he quotes extensively from the gospels and never includes the Divine Name.

Historically there is no evidence whatsoever that such a widespread conspiracy was carried out to remove the name YHWH from Greek New Testament manuscripts. This is why most scholars agree that it never happened. Rather, the NT writers continued the tradition of writing Kurios, or “Lord” (as seen in the Septuagint LXX). Moreover they emphasised the name Jesus, which means "Jehovah is Salvation" thereby making clear that exalting Jesus exalts the Father.

To Conclude

When the New Testament books were written starting from around 50AD, each book was copied many, many times[14]. In the years between 50 and 100 CE literally hundreds if not thousands of copies were made and distributed over a vast area of the world. If there were a conspiracy to remove the Name, these apostate Christians would have had to collect every manuscript scattered over hundreds of miles to ensure the Name was fully removed. This would be an impossibility, especially since the early Christians didn't have a postal system which functioned like ours[15]. Thus, were the Name in the manuscripts, it would be logical to expect that some manuscripts would survive containing it. Similarly, if the Name were “blotted out” of existing manuscripts (a likely tactic as scrolls were expensive) we would have evidence of such alterations.

As it stands however, we have manuscripts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries containing significant portions of the NT books and none of them contain the Name[1].

It is my belief that the Name was never written in the NT books by the authors and that "guessing" where it should appear is a serious error by the NWT. There is much evidence that the NT writers quoted verses from the Old Testament about Jehovah and applied them to Jesus. A good example is that of Romans 10:13 wherein Paul applies a quote from Joel 2:32 to Jesus. The early church called upon the name of Jesus as documented in 1 Corinthians 1:2. Inserting the name “Jehovah” into the New Testament has no sound basis and can lead to grave misunderstanding of the NT text. One can only speculate as to the reasons for this obfuscation by the translators of the New World Translation. One thing is certain: their reasons for adding the name into the New Testament are dubious, have little scholarly support and rely upon flimsy assumptions. For this reason alone the NWT translation is viewed with scepticism in scholarly circles.

Written by Dawn Ellison
www.youtube.com/c/witnessforjesus 

[1] The Tetragrammaton in the Christian Greek Scriptures, 3rd ed. (Cedar Springs, MI: Institute for Religious Research, 2011) cited at http://wit.irr.org/was-name-jehovah-originally-used-in-new-testament#_irr_end9

[2] New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (2013) Appendix A5. https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/study-bible/appendix-a/divine-name-christian-greek-scriptures/

[3]  Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin, 71a and ^ Ta'anit 3:9; Bava Metziah 3:3; Hagigah 18a cited at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbi_Tarfon

[4] The Gilyonim https://wikimili.com/en/Gilyonim

[5] Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines - The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity (2006) pg 57-58

[6] Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, page 67

[7] Friedlander Der vorchristliche jiidische Gnosticismus (1899) cited in Pearson in ‘Gnosticism, Judaism and Egyptian Christianity’ (1990) cited at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilyonim

[8] Kuhn, D, cited in ‘The Written Gospel’ edited by Markus N. A. Bockmuehl, Donald Alfred Hagner, 2005, page 210

[9]  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6677-gilyonim

[10] Bruce Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible, pp.36-37 cited at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomina_sacra

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_66

[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_46

[13] The Writings of Polycarp http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/polycarp.html

[14] Barker, Copying the Old and New Testament Manuscripts at http://helpmewithbiblestudy.org/5Bible/TransCopyingTheOTNTManuscripts_Barker.aspx#sthash.6KInHydW.eyBWD6wb.dpbs

[15] https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-mail-1992142