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Hi, Derrick —
I would venture to say because we
hold the Name sacred, and because
no one knows for sure how to render
It into English.
The Jews, being pious, at one point,
ceased to pronounce the Divine Name.
(This way, they were sure, not to
use it vain.) This caused its vowels
to be lost. Until recently,
vowels in Hebrew words were not written
down; the consequence being that
knowledge of how it was to be pronounced
was lost. Some took the vowels from Adonai — which was always pronounced
in place of the Divine Name when
it was uttered — and applied
them to the consonants. This is where
the Jehovah Witnesses get Jehovah,
but these were not the original vowels,
so almost assuredly Jehovah is
not the Divine Name.
On top of this, we can't even agree
on the consonants. Jehovah Witnesses
use (J and V) but most scholars today
would use (Y and W).
However, the Jehovah Witness' own Aid
to Bible Understanding says,
"The first recorded use of
this form [Jehovah] dates from
the 13th century C.E. [after Christ].
Raymundus Martini, a Spanish monk
of the Dominican order, used it
in his book Pugeo Fidei of the
year 1270. Hebrew scholars generally
favor ‘Yahweh' as
the most likely pronunciation"
(pp. 884-885). |
Catholic Answers notes:
'New Testament
Greek always uses the word Lord, and
never Jehovah, even in
quotes from the Old Testament (OT).
Encyclopedia Judaica, Webster's
Encyclopedia, Jewish Encyclopedia,
Encyclopedia Britannica, Universal
Jewish Encyclopedia and countless
others agree that the title Jehovah is
erroneous, grammatically impossible,
and was never used by the Jews.'
— Stumpers for the Jehovah's Witnesses |
So
the New Testament authors didn't
think it was important to use God's
Divine Name in their Scriptures.
Given how sacred the Name is, translators
probably just don't bother to use
a word whose details are so sketchy.
Eric
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