An exploration to Jehovah’s Witnesses’ theology
Coming up next…Jesus on a stake, the 144.000 chosen ones, straight up blasphemy, and more!
לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת־שֵׁם־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lᴏʀᴅ thy God in vain
Err…YHWH?
In the New World Translation (NWT), JW replaces every capital „LORD“ to what they think is the name of the God Almighty, Jehovah.
Whilst in the Hebrew version of NWT, they brutally replaced the vocalisation of every tetragrammaton (YHWH/YHVH) to יְהֹוָה / YəHoVa(h), which actually uses the niqquds of Adonai („my Lord“, since the original pronunciation has been lost around the Hellenistic period due to Jewish taboo), making it fits their doctrine of God’s name.
It is worth to mention that NWT is also The ONLY Hebrew translation of the Christian Bible where they modified the original Hebrew part (Old Testament) with more modern expressions, even under the fact that all modern Hebrew speakers can perfectly understand the Hebrew Bible without any issues.
Take Genesis 1:3 for a quick example:
Masoretic text
[…connection, And/Then…] Say-imperf.3sg-masc Elohim Be-cmd-3sg-masc Light [tense converter waw]-Be-cmd-3sg-masc Light
Whilst NWT
[…connection, And/Then…] Elohim Say-pst-3sg-masc Be-cmd-3sg-masc Light [connection waw]-Come.to.be-3sg-masc Light
Issues regarding the Trinity
Academically, JWs are considered unitarians, they also believe that Jesus as the promised Messsiah, the Christ, the Saviour, died on a stake instead of a cross. Where the Holy Spirit is not a person but a force from the „Almighty God“, which to them is Jehovah himself only.
However, I’ve actually, through their explanation, got an image of how these persons work in their theology:
I did my best to imagine…
A little dialogue
JW = JW’s Daegu Namsan congregation; S = me.
JW:[…discussion about the cross vs torture stick] So God forbids idols, symbols and worshipping others than him.
S: Which „god“ are you referencing to here?
JW: the Jehovah God.
S: So you don’t worship Jesus?
JW: No we don’t.
S: Then what’s the problem of using symbols (whether a cross or anything) to give respect to our saviour, who redeemed all our sins through his death?
JW:…
But luckily enough for me, I received a free copy of their New World Translation Bible in Korean and in English, from my observation, JW’s community here in Korea (and possibly many other countries), has less of a “cult” feeling compared to how they behave in the US, members are welcoming and friendly.
My thoughts
I will be straightforwad on this topic: I do not consider JW as Christians per se, as they reject the doctrine of trinity so even by surface analysis, anyone who does not worship the Christ as God are not Christians.
