What's in a name? II

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"Proceeding on this same basis (which evidence now shows to have been actual fact) he adds: `Supposing a Christian scholar were engaged in translating the Greek Testament into Hebrew, he would have to consider, each time the word Kurios occurred, whether there was anything in the context to indicate its true Hebrew representative; and this is the difficulty which would arise in translating the N.T. into all languages if the title [personal name] Jehovah had been allowed to stand in the [Septuagint translation of the] O. T. The Hebrew Scriptures would be a guide in many passages: thus, whenever the expression "the angel of the Lord" occurs, we know that the word "Lord" represents Jehovah; a similar conclusion as to the expression "the word of the Lord" would be arrived at, if the precedent set by the O. T. were followed; so also in the case of the title "the Lord of Hosts." Wherever, on the contrary, the expression "My Lord" or "Our Lord" occurs, we should know that the word Jehovah would be inadmissible, and Adonai or Adoni would have to be used.' (Synonyms of the Old Testament, 1897, p. 43.) It is on such a basis that translations of the Greek Scriptures (mentioned earlier) containing the name of Jehovah have proceeded." - p. 10, Vol. 2, Insight .

So recent discoveries have tended to verify (not disprove) the earlier conclusion of scholars who believed both "Testaments" are equally inspired and, therefore, must both use the personal name of God.

"Recent discoveries in Egypt and the Judean Desert allow us to see first hand the use of God's name in pre-Christian times. These discoveries are significant for NT [New Testament] studies in that they form a literary analogy with the earliest Christian documents and may explain how NT authors used the divine name. In the following pages we will set forth a theory that the divine name, [YHWH] (and possibly abbreviations of it [Yah, IAO]), was originally written in the NT quotations of and allusions to the OT [Old Testament] and that in the course of time it was replaced mainly with [kurios, `Lord']. This removal of the Tetragram[maton], in our view, created a confusion in the minds of early Gentile Christians about the relationship between the `Lord God' and the `Lord Christ' which is reflected in the MS tradition of the NT text itself." - George Howard, University of Georgia, writing in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 96, 1977, p. 63.

Another piece of evidence concerning the use of the Divine Name by the inspired Christian writers may be found in the ancient Jewish writings of the Talmud:

Some have criticized [the restoration of the divine name to the NT in the New World Translation] as unwarranted. However, there seems to be support for the New World Translation in an unlikely source: the Babylonian Talmud.

The first part of this Jewish religious work is entitled Shabbath (Sabbath) and contains an immense body of rules governing conduct on the Sabbath. In one section, there is a discussion as to whether it is proper to save Bible manuscripts from a fire on the Sabbath, and then the following passage appears: `It was stated in the text: The blank spaces [gilyohnim] and the Books of the Minim, we may not save them from a fire. R. Jose said: On weekdays one must cut out the Divine Names which they contain, hide them, and burn the rest. R. Tarfon said: May I bury my son if I would not burn them together with their Divine Names if they came to my hand.' - translated by Dr. H. Freedman.

Who were the minim? The word means `sectarians' and could refer to the Sadducees or the Samaritans. But according to Dr. Freedman, in this passage it most likely refers to Jewish Christians. So, what were the gilyohnim, translated `blank spaces' according to Dr. Freedman? There are two possible meanings. They could be the blank margins of a scroll or even blank scrolls. Or - in an ironic application of the word - they could be the writings of the minim, as if to say that these writings are as worthless as blank scrolls. In dictionaries this second meaning is given as `Gospels.'<sup>[[6]]</sup> In harmony with this, the sentence that appears in the Talmud before the above-quoted portion reads: `The books of Minim are like blank spaces [gilyohnim].'

Accordingly, in the book Who Was a Jew? by Lawrence H. Schiffman, the above-quoted portion of the Talmud is translated as follows: `We do not save from a fire (on the Sabbath) the Gospels and the books of the minim ("heretics"). Rather, they are burned in their place, they and their Tetragrammata. Rabbi Yose Ha-Gelili says: During the week, one should cut out their Tetragrammata and hide them away and burn the remainder. Said Rabbi Tarfon: May I bury my sons! If (these books) would come into my hand, I would burn them along with their Tetragrammata.' Dr. Schiffman goes on to argue [like Dr. Freedman above] that the minim here are Jewish Christians.

Is this portion of the Talmud really speaking about the early Jewish Christians? If so, then it is strong evidence that the Christians did include God's name, the Tetragrammaton, in their Gospels and writings. And it is extremely likely that the Talmud is discussing Jewish Christians here. There is scholastic support for such a view, and in the Talmud the context appears to add further support. The section following the above quote from Shabbath relates a story involving Gamaliel and a Christian judge in which parts of the Sermon on the Mount are alluded to. - pp. 30-31, The Watchtower, November 1, 1993.

Why would "Christian" copyists later remove the Hebrew name of God from their Greek manuscripts of the OT and NT?

The very first Christians (including those who wrote most, if not all, of the NT) used the Hebrew Scriptures. (Even for those few who might have used the Septuagint, the Name of God was still found in Hebrew letters in its manuscripts of that time in Judea.)

"In this period [first century AD] churches were still regarded as synagogues, whose members .... professed monotheism in the same terms as did the Jews. They used the Hebrew Scriptures, and took Messianism, the eschatology (even angelology), and the ethics of Judaism for granted" - pp. 121-122, The Rise of Christianity, W. H. C. Frend, Fortress Press, 1985.

However, at some point (probably around the time of the Jewish Revolt of 135 A.D.) the Gentile Christians took over. The Scriptures came to be Greek rather than Hebrew, and an actual anti-Jewish sentiment began to predominate. The Septuagint was now being used exclusively, but the anti-Jewish Gentile "Christian" copyists actually removed God's name whenever they saw the "despicable" Hebrew letters of the Divine Name (the Tetragrammaton [YHWH, Jehovah] and its shortened form [YH, Jah]) that were still being used in the original Jewish manuscripts of the Septuagint. They usually replaced the name with "Lord" or "God" in the copies they made.

... the church was by this time [around the middle of the 2^nd century AD] a predominantly Gentile body. According to Christian writers in the second and third centuries, relations between Christians and Jews apparently became increasingly hostile. [p. 103]

"After the Jewish revolts against Rome (AD 66-74, AD 132-135) most Christians dissociated themselves from the Jews. The Jewish Christians' refusal to support the revolts caused them to be regarded as national enemies. From this time few Jews were converted to Christianity.

"Increasingly Christians came to regard Jews as deliberate haters of the good. When the church became recognized by Constantine, legal discrimination against Jews increased and they were gradually deprived of all rights." [p. 594, The History of Christianity, Lion Publishing, 1990.]

* * * * *

It was the generation following the destruction of the Temple which brought about a final rupture between Jews and Christians .... In the third rebellion against Rome [132-135 A.D.], when the Christians were unable to accept bar Kochba as their Messiah, they declared that their kingdom was of the other world, and withdrew themselves completely from Judaism and everything Jewish. The alienation process was completed. Judaism and Christianity became strangers to each other .... A wall of misunderstanding and hate was erected by the narrow zealotries of the two faiths. [pp. 152, 153, Jews, God and History, Max I. Dimont, A Signet Book, 1962.]

* * * * *

"[Bar Kochba] ... tortured and killed the Christians who refused to aid him against the Roman army." [p. 42, Greek Apologists of the Second Century, Robert M. Grant, The Westminster Press, 1988.]

"Another Christian apologist, Justin [Martyr], tells how ... Bar Kochba, the leader of the insurrection, ordered Christians alone to be executed if they would not deny and curse Jesus the Messiah." [Ibid.]

"After the war [some time after 135 A.D.] the Jerusalem church, once Jewish, consisted only of Gentiles."[Ibid.][7]

We can see one clear example of the very unChristian hatred for the Jews and everything Jewish (including the "Jewish" name of God, Jehovah) by the 2^nd century Gentile "Christians" by examining their treatment of an extremely important custom. Jesus had commanded them to keep an observance memorial of his death like he had done with his disciples at the "Last Supper" on the Passover. The first Christians, then, observed the Memorial of Christ's death every Nisan 14^th evening on the Passover (which most often did not fall on a Saturday or Sunday) by eating the Memorial Bread and drinking the Memorial wine. At some point this observance, commanded by Jesus, was greatly altered. It came to be observed at sunrise, only on a Sunday morning, and deliberately scheduled never to be at the time of the "hated" Jewish Passover. (It also later came to be called "Easter" in the northern lands of Christendom - see the HOLIDAYS study.)

When did this change come about? Well, we know that at the infamous Nicene Council (325 A.D.) a date was officially assigned (and enforced) "throughout the world" that was intentionally always different from the date of the Jewish Passover. Why? So "that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews" - p. 859, Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 7, 14^th ed.

We don't know exactly when this anti-Jewish reaction against the original Christ-commanded Memorial actually began in earnest (a good guess, however, would be 135 A.D. or shortly thereafter). But we do know that "By 180 A.D. the latter custom [`Easter' celebrated on the non-Passover date and always on a Sunday] prevailed generally" and that Pope Victor I (189-198 A.D.) "demanded uniformity and threatened to excommunicate" the minority of churches which still hung onto the original Jewish Passover date. - p. 190, Vol. 6, Encyclopedia International, Grolier, 1966.

A few churches still clung to the Apostolic custom for a while but were treated as heretics by the newly "orthodox" majority.

"It is true that from the middle of the second century onwards there is a strong reaction towards standardization in both faith and order; diversities in dogmatic formulation, in matters of liturgical practice (such as the observance of Easter), and in the text of Scripture began to be smoothed out.... it is painfully evident that those [Christians] who celebrated Easter on the same day as the Jewish Passover [Quartodecimans] were not motivated by special friendliness towards Judaism [Chadwick then refers to a strong anti-Jewish `Easter' sermon by Quartodeciman Bishop Melito (ca. A.D. 160-170)] .... but there can be little doubt that the Quartodecimans were right in thinking that they had preserved the most ancient and Apostolic custom. They had become heretics simply by being behind the times." - p. 85, The Early Church, Henry Chadwick, Dorset Press, 1986 printing.