Why is Jehovah's name missing from the New Testament?

Does the Watchtower's theory foster doubt in the Bible's reliability?

In part one we discussed the Watchtower's theory that unscrupulous men in the early church removed Jehovah's name from all the copies of the Greek New Testament. We discussed that to believe this theory one must deny Jehovah's sovereign ability to protect his word through the ages. Believing the Watchtower's theory would not result in faith in the New Testament but foster a doubt in its reliability. After all, if men were able to completely wipe out Jehovah's name from the New Testament, then what else did they remove or what did they add? Far from producing trust in the accuracy of the New Testament, the Watchtower's theory only opens the door to distrust and all kinds of abuse. As Christians, we maintain the accuracy of the entire Bible. We also trust the faithfulness of the God who produced his word and sovereignly protected it throughout the centuries.

Is Jesus the reason?

But the question still remains, if Jehovah God is Sovereign over his inspired word and faithfully protected its transmission to us today, why doesn't the Greek manuscript contain God's name? We believe the answer is found in the words of Jesus Himself. In John chapter 17 Jesus' prayer to the Father is recorded. Verse 11 in the New World Translation says, "...I am coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them on account of your own name which you have given me..." Jesus said that God's own name had been given to him! What is God's own name? If you are a Jehovah's Witness, you are taught that God's own name is Jehovah. Although the Society admits in their booklet The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever on page 15 that the name Jesus means Jehovah is Salvation, they never teach their followers that the Bible says that God's own name has been given to Jesus. How did Jehovah give his own name to his son? Hebrews 1:4 tells us in the New World Translation, "So he has become better than the angels, to the extent that he has inherited a name more excellent than theirs." Jesus inherited his name from his father! No angel could inherit the name Jehovah, and Hebrews chapter one certainly refutes the Watchtower's teaching that Jesus was created as an angel.

Is there a transition of name?

The transition of the power and authority of the Old Testament name of Jehovah to the New Testament name of Jesus reveals God's full plan of salvation. Acts 4:12 says, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." When the Watchtower rejects Jesus' full inheritance of the name Jehovah, they are in essence rejecting the Father as well. Jesus said clearly in John 5:23 "...all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."

Why does the New Testament not contain the name of Jehovah? We believe that it does - in the name of Jesus! If the Watchtower had been consistent in their substituting "Jehovah" in place of "Kurios", the Greek word for Lord, then Philippians 2:9-11 should read in their Bible: Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven, and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, to the glory of God the Father.

Go back to part one: Who removed Jehovah's name from the New Testament?

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