The organisation states in its own publications both that ‘Yahweh’ is favoured by most Hebrew scholars and that ‘We simply do not know how God’s ancient servants pronounced this name in Hebrew’; it retains ‘Jehovah’ because the form is familiar in English.
Claim ID claim-bible-jehovah-form-concededConcerns 2013Organisation's explanation
The organisation’s position or later explanation: The Watchtower of 1 March 1991 adds that ‘scholars are by no means in agreement that the form “Yahweh” represents the original pronunciation’ and that ‘the pronunciation is not of the utmost importance at this time’. Appendix A4 makes the same point by quoting the scholar A. F. Kirkpatrick, writing in 1930: ‘the really important point is not the exact pronunciation, but the recognition that it is a Proper Name, not merely an appellative title like “Lord”’.
2013 · Appendix A4 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“Some feel that the name was pronounced “Yahweh,” whereas others suggest different possibilities. . . . However, there is no reason to be dogmatic. We simply do not know how God’s ancient servants pronounced this name in Hebrew.”
The appendix states that the Tetragrammaton “appears nearly 7,000 times in the Hebrew Scriptures” and gives the organisation’s reasons for using the form “Jehovah”: that it “has a long history in the English language”, first appearing in English in Tyndale’s 1530 Pentateuch as “Iehouah”, and that Rotherham (1911) and Kirkpatrick (1930) preferred it as the familiar English form. On the meaning it says: “Thus, the understanding of the New World Bible Translation Committee is that God’s name means ‘He Causes to Become.’ Scholars hold varying views, so we cannot be dogmatic about this meaning.”
Provenance and verification note for New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), Appendix A4: The Divine Name in the Hebrew Scriptures
Confidence note. Full appendix fetched from JW.org and read on 19 September 2026; all quoted wording confirmed from the page text.
Notes. Useful because the organisation itself concedes both that the pronunciation is unknown and that scholars differ on the meaning it assigns to the name.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID.src-nwto-nwtsty-a4-divine-name-hebrew
1988 · pp.5, 8 · pars. 4, 23 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The Tetragrammaton occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text printed in Biblia Hebraica and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. In the Hebrew Scriptures the New World Translation contains the divine name 6,979 times, because the translators took into account, among other things, the fact that in some places the scribes had replaced the divine name with ʼAdho·naiʹ or ʼElo·himʹ.”
Earlier in the same article the organisation states: “‘Jehovah’ is the best known English pronunciation of the divine name, although ‘Yahweh’ is favored by most Hebrew scholars.” Taken together the two statements show that the organisation openly records both that its preferred form is not the scholarly favourite and that its Hebrew Scriptures text carries the name more often than the printed Hebrew text carries the Tetragrammaton.
Provenance and verification note for Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2, Jehovah (sections “Correct Pronunciation of the Divine Name” and “Importance of the Name”)
Confidence note. Article opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026; both quotations confirmed and located by the document’s embedded page markers (pages 5 and 8).
1 March 1991 · pp.26-30 · pars. 14, 17, 20 (pp. 28-30) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“True, no early surviving Greek manuscript of the “New Testament” contains the personal name of God. But the name was included in the New World Translation for sound reasons, not merely on a whim.”
The article is the organisation’s fullest published answer to the charge that the New World Translation is falsified. It compares the criticism to sixteenth-century attacks on Luther’s Bible, defends the renderings at Luke 23:43 (“Truly I tell you today”), Matthew 26:26 (“This means my body”) and John 1:1 (“the Word was a god”), and answers the objection to the form “Jehovah” by saying that “scholars are by no means in agreement that the form ‘Yahweh’ represents the original pronunciation”. It offers this explanation of the criticism: “the New World Translation is criticized because it is published by Jehovah’s Witnesses, who outspokenly declare that many of Christendom’s doctrines are not found in the Bible.”
Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower, The “New World Translation”—Scholarly and Honest
Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full; the issue date was confirmed by locating the article in the Online Library’s listing for The Watchtower of 1 March 1991, and page numbers were taken from the document’s embedded page markers.
Notes. This is the article the site should quote when stating the organisation’s case on the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures: it concedes the manuscript position and argues from inference.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID.src-nwto-w-1991-0301-scholarly-honest
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