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The Bible and the translation · Claim record

No surviving Greek manuscript of the New Testament contains the Tetragrammaton, in either Hebrew or Greek characters, at the places where the New World Translation reads “Jehovah”.

Claim ID claim-bible-jehovah-no-ms-evidenceConcerns 2020Context
Context · 2020 Verified

No surviving Greek manuscript of the New Testament contains the Tetragrammaton, in either Hebrew or Greek characters, at the places where the New World Translation reads “Jehovah”. In die Skriflig / In Luce Verbi, 2020New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), 2013

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation's own Appendix C1 does not dispute this. It states: “Today, however, no manuscripts of the ‘New Testament’ from the first century C.E. are available for us to examine. So no one can check the original Greek manuscripts of the ‘New Testament’ to see whether the Bible writers used the Tetragrammaton”, and argues that copyists from the second or early third century onward substituted Kyrios or Theos.

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Peer-reviewed / scholarly Verified

In die Skriflig / In Luce Verbi, “Rendering the Divine Name in Romans 10:13”

2020 · pp.vol. 54, no. 1 · A. Tim Span, Stuart T. Rochester and Fika J. van Rensburg (Faculty of Theology, North-West University, South Africa) · AOSIS Publishing (open access); DOI 10.4102/ids.v54i1.2560

“There are no extant Greek New Testament manuscripts that contain the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew or Greek characters, and the multiplication of late Hebrew versions carries little weight. The Greek corpus of New Testament manuscripts and all early versions fail to yield an original New Testament Tetragrammaton, and the J versions offer little extra.”

A peer-reviewed, open-access article evaluating George Howard's 1977 hypothesis — the hypothesis on which the New World Translation's practice partly rests — through the test case of Romans 10:13. The authors conclude: 'An original Tetragrammaton lacks documentary and contextual support in Romans 10:13.'

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The full text of the article was opened on scielo.org.za on 19 September 2026 and the quoted sentences read in context. The journal is peer-reviewed and open access; the article carries a DOI.

Corroborated by. src-nwtv-nwtsty-c1

Notes. The article is written from a confessional Reformed standpoint, which the site should say plainly when citing it. Its factual statement about the manuscript corpus is not in dispute among textual critics, including those who are sympathetic to Howard.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwtv-span-2020

Primary JW publication Verified

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), “Appendix C1: The Restoration of the Divine Name in the “New Testament””

2013 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“Today, however, no manuscripts of the “New Testament” from the first century C.E. are available for us to examine. So no one can check the original Greek manuscripts of the “New Testament” to see whether the Bible writers used the Tetragrammaton. The Greek manuscripts of the “New Testament” that would have a bearing on this issue are copies that were made from about 200 C.E. onward.”

The organisation's own appendix states plainly that the case for restoring the divine name rests on inference rather than on manuscript evidence. It then poses the translator's choice: 'Will he follow the Greek text that uses Kyʹri·os or The·osʹ instead of the Tetragrammaton, or will he endeavor to ascertain where the Tetragrammaton would have appeared in the original Greek manuscripts?'

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Appendix C1 opened in full on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026 and read from beginning to end.

Corroborated by. src-nwtv-nwt-a5, src-nwtv-span-2020

Notes. This is the fairest and most useful single quotation on the subject: the organisation itself does not claim manuscript support.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwtv-nwtsty-c1

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-bible-jehovah-no-ms-evidence/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.