hoghead1 wrote: Some scholars did make a suggestion that perhaps
the earliest Greek manuscripts did. However, their case is purely circumstantial and was based on rabbinical references to Christian writings containing the Divine Name being burnt. It is not know, however, if this meant the NT.
Since we do not have the earliest Greek manuiscripts and most certainly do not as yet have the the originals, ALL arguments, including your own are circumstantial.
The argument that the writers of the Christian bible did in fact incorportate the Divine name in their quotations of the Hebrew bible and their allusions to specific Hebrew passages is not only based on the fact that early christian writing are known to have contained the Tetragrammaton (although this is one of the several reasonings).
The New World Translation Committee presents some of these arguments in the appendix to the translation, which reads
The New World Bible Translation Committee determined that there is compelling evidence that the Tetragrammaton did appear in the original Greek manuscripts. The decision was based on the following evidence:
Copies of the Hebrew Scriptures used in the days of Jesus and his apostles contained the Tetragrammaton throughout the text. In the past, few people disputed that conclusion. Now that copies of the Hebrew Scriptures dating back to the first century have been discovered near Qumran, the point has been proved beyond any doubt.
In the days of Jesus and his apostles, the Tetragrammaton also appeared in Greek translations of the Hebrew Scriptures. For centuries, scholars thought that the Tetragrammaton was absent from manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Then, in the mid-20th century, some very old fragments of the Greek Septuagint version that existed in Jesus day were brought to the attention of scholars. Those fragments contain the personal name of God, written in Hebrew characters. So in Jesus day, copies of the Scriptures in Greek did contain the divine name. However, by the fourth century C.E., major manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint, such as the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, did not contain the divine name in the books from Genesis through Malachi (where it had been in earlier manuscripts). Hence, it is not surprising that in texts preserved from that time period, the divine name is not found in the so-called New Testament, or Greek Scripture portion of the Bible.
Jesus plainly stated: I have come in the name of my Father. He also stressed that his works were done in his Fathers name
The Christian Greek Scriptures themselves report that Jesus often referred to Gods name and made it known to others. (John 17:6, 11, 12, 26) Jesus plainly stated: I have come in the name of my Father. He also stressed that his works were done in his Fathers name."John 5:43; 10:25.
Since the Christian Greek Scriptures were an inspired addition to the sacred Hebrew Scriptures, the sudden disappearance of Jehovahs name from the text would seem inconsistent. About the middle of the first century C.E., the disciple James said to the elders in Jerusalem: Symeon has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name. (Acts 15:14) It would not be logical for James to make such a statement if no one in the first century knew or used Gods name.
Early Jewish writings indicate that Jewish Christians used the divine name in their writings. The Tosefta, a written collection of oral laws that was completed by about 300 C.E., says with regard to Christian writings that were burned on the Sabbath: The books of the Evangelists and the books of the minim [thought to be Jewish Christians] they do not save from a fire. But they are allowed to burn where they are, they and the references to the Divine Name which are in them. This same source quotes Rabbi Yos the Galilean, who lived at the beginning of the second century C.E., as saying that on other days of the week, one cuts out the references to the Divine Name which are in them [understood to refer to the Christian writings] and stores them away, and the rest burns.
Some Bible scholars acknowledge that it seems likely that the divine name appeared in Hebrew Scripture quotations found in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Under the heading Tetragrammaton in the New Testament, The Anchor Bible Dictionary states: There is some evidence that the Tetragrammaton, the Divine Name, Yahweh, appeared in some or all of the O[ld] T[estament] quotations in the N[ew] T[estament] when the NT documents were first penned. Scholar George Howard says: Since the Tetragram was still written in the copies of the Greek Bible [the Septuagint] which made up the Scriptures of the early church, it is reasonable to believe that the N[ew] T[estament] writers, when quoting from Scripture, preserved the Tetragram within the biblical text.
CONCLUSION: Since we are not in possession of the original text or of the first (earliest) copies made, the decision as to whether they originally contained the name of God will by necessity have to be based on circumstantial evidence. There is a strong argument in favor of the name having originally been in the texts in question and the fact that many other translators and not a few bible scholars have come to similar conclusions of New World Translation committee, indicates that their conclusion is a legitmate one.
