Why is YAHWAH taken out of the Bible?

Answer 1

Answer #1:

The four letter word known as the Tetragrammaton is in the Hebrew Scriptures

almost 7000 times! Surprisingly, many Bible translations today do not contain the

divine name at all. Why? A superstitious idea arose among the Jews that it was

wrong to pronounce that name. This resulted first in avoiding spoken use of the

divine name among the Jews, then in removal of God's personal name from Greek

manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures. Eventually, in most translations of The Bible the

divine name was completely replaced by expressions such as "Lord" and "God." It is

noteworthy that only the most vital name of all-Jehovah-was tampered with; other

Bible names were not. Yet, it is vital for all mankind to know the divine name. (Ro

10:13)

This involves much more than just knowing what God's personal name is. It includes

knowing also the person represented by the name and living in a way consistent

with the purposes connected with that name. It is the responsibility of all who

worship the true God to be diligent in making his name known to others, as Jesus did.

(Joh 17:6, 26) Jehovah God promises to bless those who know, use, and honor his

great name.-Psalms 91:14.

Answer #2:

The usage of "superstitious" and "tampered" in Answer #1 is offensive to Jews.

Please consider using more neutral language. It is part of Judaism not to pronounce

God's name (with exceptions that don't apply today). This is no more superstitious

to us than Christian beliefs are to Christians.

The usage of "tampered" is also logically indefensible. The Divine name was never

"tampered" with. Once the Torah was translated into Greek, the Greek texts were

no longer in Jewish hands. Trying to blame the keepers of the original text for

changes made by later translators is just plain silly.

Jews were not the ones who replaced the Divine name with stand-in

expressions such as "Lord". As Answer #1 mentions at its start, "The four letter

word known as the Tetragrammaton is in the Hebrew Scriptures almost 7000

times!" That's "is," present tense. The Hebrew text has never changed.

One final argument must be anticipated and answered. The source of Answer #1

might say "Yes, but nobody understands the text any more, so it's safe to leave

it there." It's important to put that argument out on the table, in order to point

out that in all likelihood, there are more speakers of Hebrew, and more regular

daily students of Hebrew texts, today in 2013 than have ever lived before. They're

fine with the Divine name in the holy texts. Those who never actually learned it or

learned it much, and who need a translation to grasp what's going on, are the ones

who were less comfortable with it, and replaced it with the less-in-your-face euphemisms.