Editing New World Translation (section)

=== Use of ''Jehovah'' ===
{{main|Jehovah}}
{{see also|Names and titles of God in the New Testament}}

The name ''[[Jehovah]]'' is a translation of the [[Tetragrammaton]] ({{langx|he|יהוה}}, transliterated as ''YHWH'', though the original pronunciation is unknown). The ''New World Translation'' uses the name ''Jehovah'' 6,979 times in the Old Testament.<ref>[http://www.jw.org/en/news/headlines/?v=2552828400#mid702013141 Revised ''New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101144808/http://www.jw.org/en/news/headlines/?v=2552828400#mid702013141 |date=2013-11-01 }}. Accessed 14 October 2013.</ref> According to the Watch Tower Society, the Tetragrammaton appears in "the oldest fragments of the Greek Septuagint".<ref name=insight>''Insight on the Scriptures'', Vol. II p. 9, 1988; Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania</ref> In reference to the ''[[Septuagint]]'', biblical scholar [[Paul E. Kahle]] stated, "We now know that the Greek Bible text as far as it was written by Jews for Jews did not translate the Divine name by [[Kyrios]], but the Tetragrammaton written with Hebrew or Greek letters was retained in such MSS (manuscripts). It was the Christians who replaced the Tetragrammaton by Kyrios when the divine name written in Hebrew letters was not understood any more."<ref>''The Cairo Geniza'', Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1959, p. 222</ref> However, according to professor Albert Pietersma, since pre-Christian times ''Adonai'' and the Tetragrammaton were considered equivalent to the Greek term ''kyrios''. Pietersma stated, "The translators felt no more bound to retain the tetragram in written form than they felt compelled to render distinctively Hebrew el, Elohim or Shaddai."<ref>''De Septuaginta: Studies in Honour of John William Wevers on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday'', Albert Pietersma, 1984, pages 98-99</ref> He also considers that old manuscripts containing the tetragram, like the [[papyrus Fouad 266]], "is evidence of a secondary stage."<ref>''De Septuaginta: Studies in Honour of John William Wevers on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday'', Albert Pietersma, 1984, pages 99-100</ref>

The ''New World Translation'' also uses the name ''Jehovah'' 237 times in the New Testament where the extant texts use only the Greek words ''kyrios'' (''Lord'') and ''theos'' (''God'').{{sfn|Gutjahr|2017|pp=655-656}}<ref>Bowman, Robert M. ''Understanding Jehovah's Witnesses.'' Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. 1991. p. 114</ref> The use of ''Jehovah'' in the New Testament is very rare, but not unique to the ''New World Translation''.<ref>Translations in English with similar renderings include ''[https://archive.org/details/aliteraltransla00unkngoog A Literal Translation of the New Testament ... From the Text of the Vatican Manuscript]'' (Heinfetter, 1863); ''[https://johnruffle.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the_emphatic_diaglott.pdf The Emphatic Diaglott]'' ([[Benjamin Wilson (biblical scholar)|Benjamin Wilson]], 1864); ''[https://archive.org/details/epistlespaulinm01stevgoog The Epistles of Paul in Modern English]'' ([[George Barker Stevens|George Stevens]], 1898); ''[https://archive.org/details/epistlespaulinm01stevgoog St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans]'' (Rutherford, 1900); ''The Christian's Bible — New Testament'' (LeFevre, 1928) and ''The New Testament Letters'' ([[William Wand|Wand]], 1946).</ref> [[Walter Ralston Martin|Walter Martin]], an evangelical minister, wrote, "It can be shown from literally thousands of copies of the Greek New Testament that not once does the tetragrammaton appear."<ref>Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults Revised, Updated, and Expanded Anniversary Edition, Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1997, p. 125.</ref> However, the translators of the ''New World Translation'' believed that the name ''Jehovah'' was present in the original manuscripts of the New Testament when quoting from the Old Testament, but replaced with the other terms by later copyists. Based on this reasoning, the translators consider to have "restored the divine name", though it is not present in any extant manuscripts.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Watchtower, August 1, 2008 | publisher = Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania | year = 2008 | location = Brooklyn, New York | pages = 18–23 | url = http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2008567 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Insight on the Scriptures|volume=2|page=267|chapter=Lord}}</ref>