Thursday, August 21, 2008

Jehovah; Name Out of Favor?

I met with Kyle, the new worship director of our church, this morning. I find him very likeable and easy to work with. I explained to him that I am perhaps too old to have such an active part in worship planning and worship teaming. He didn't agree, so here I am still planning services and caring out the high calling of helping God's people worship Him on given Sundays. Now I have someome to help me do the planning and the preparation and carry out the execution. I feel I have a partner in crime.....well.....you what I mean. As we worked together this morning we talked about the theme for the Sunday we are leading.....it is the third commandment which is not to take God's name in vain. I suggested doing something with all the names of Jehovah. He explained that one of his professors didn't like that name because it was nonsensical letters just put together. HUH???????? I said, "Explain this to me, Kyle." He said, "Well, I don't think the word Jehovah is in the Bible. Huh again. He pulled up Bible Gateway which we both rely on for info like that and clicked the NIV version and keyed in the word. Not one. I said, "Click on the King James version." He did and they popped up all over the place. I learned something new today. So along with other theological understandings that have changed over the years, I guess the name "Jehovah" has also fallen out of favor with the learned. I'm not a theologian but on the surface of things, I have a difficult time with that. Somebody would have to explain the problem with that name a whole lot more convincingly for me to buy it. I wonder what a good Old Testament believing Jew would say about such a thing.

We could agree on using many different names for Jesus; ie....Rock, Lily of the Valley...Bright and Morning Star etc. I will do some research on that. I know I have many of them written in the cover of one of my Bibles so I'll check that out. I had to chuckle a bit. I don't have a problem with the difference of opinion, I just think it is amusing that at our first planning meeting, an issue that truly expresses a generational gap would raise its head.

I have expressed to many of my readers that you need to comment on what I write so that I know how you all feel or what you believe about a situation. I'm up to a challenge...we can also agree to disagree. So, you who are brave may comment on what you think on the "Jehovah" issue. I'll be interested in hearing from you.

2 comments:

Grandma Patty said...

Gayle,

Today's blog got me out of my chair and checking out the Bibles around this house (all the while humming Jehovah Jirah)... First I went to my favorite, 35 year old Bible. No Jehovah in the Concordance! Then on to my Life Application Study Bible that I use for WIW - no Jehovah. On to Phil's NIV - no Jehovah. Then the New Geneva Study Bible - no Jehovah. On to the Everyday Bible; New Century Version - Yes! There is Jehovah. Then I wondered what word was Jehovah replaced by? On to the Parallel Bible - that has King James, NIV, Living Bible, and Revised Standard side by side. Jehovah was still the word of choice for King James and The Living Bible (surprise!) the other 2 translations had used the word Lord. Gayle, I guess you and I may be the last generation to remember back to our Sunday School days and picture some sweet old Sunday School teacher reciting verses in a dutch accent with the thee's, thou's, thus's, haths, and Jehovah's of the King James Version. Then on the the dictionary, Jehovah: Adoni, My Lord, YAHWEH. Now I'm humming Amy Grant's El Shaddai..

Patty

Cathy said...

I took a class at Calvin and I remember the prof telling us the same thing, no Jehovah in the NIV Bible. I hated that class, all we did was question everything I ever knew to be true about the Bible. It was one of those deals where the prof wasn't telling us not to believe the Bible, just teaching us to question everything, and search for truth.

I remember hearing that some verses were omitted from the NIV all together...wow did that stir up a controversy!! I'm thinking I heard that at Sunday coffee time at my Grandpa Hoekstra's house, they never had much use for the NIV.

Do you think God allows some of these translation issues to keep us on our toes, or to teach us how to search out truth? Is it just part of sin? Sinners are translating the Bible, and therefore, there will be discrepencies? Won't there be some interesting conversations in heaven some day when we can ask these questions to the one who knows the answers?