Are the biblical writings the word of a god?

[SallyF]

“ALL Scripture is inspired of God.� These words at 2 Timothy 3:16 identify God, whose name is Jehovah, as the Author and Inspirer of the Holy Scriptures.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101990061


Whoever it was that wrote 2 Timothy 3:16 has made this claim.


How may we objectively determine that they are telling the truth?


How may we objectively determine what constitutes Jehovah-inspired "scripture"?

[Atlastitsdone]

“ALL Scripture is inspired of God.� These words at 2 Timothy 3:16 identify God, whose name is Jehovah, as the Author and Inspirer of the Holy Scriptures.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101990061


Whoever it was that wrote 2 Timothy 3:16 has made this claim.


How may we objectively determine that they are telling the truth?


How may we objectively determine what constitutes Jehovah-inspired "scripture"?

I take it Timothy here saying "inspired" means in recognition of or remembrance of(?).

Truth can be a matter of perception and for TIMOTHY his God's name was Jehovah and if I were to agree with HIS teachings it would infact be the truth. If not it would just be a story telling myth anyway.

[Zzyzx]

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[Replying to post 9 by Tcg]

Well, nothing other than the fact that the English language had not yet been developed. The name Jehovah was created 5 or 6 centuries after the books of the NT.

Really? I did not know that. So what does that mean in relation to what I am arguing?

Is 'Jehovah' an English word?

After a bit of research:

A Detailed History of the name "Jehovah"

Researched (and greatly appreciated) for The Church of Yahweh By Jeroen Ashton

In 1278 a spanish monk, Raymundo Martini, wrote the latin work PUGIO FIDEI (Dagger of faith). In it he used the name of God, spelling it Yohoua. Later printings of this work, dated some centuries later, used the spelling JEHOVA.

Soon after, in 1303, Porchetus de Salvaticis completed a work entitled VICTORIA PORCHETI AVERSUS IMPIOS HEBRAEOS (Porchetus' Victory Against the Ungodly Hebrews). He spells God's name IOHOUAH, IOHOUA and IHOUAH.

Then, in 1518, Petrus Galatinus, a Catholic priest born in the late 1400's, published a work entitled DE ARCANIS CATHOLICAE VERITATIS (Concerning Secrets of the Universal Truth) in which he spelled God's name IEHOUA.

Now, the direct answer to your question: the name "Jehovah" first appeared in an English BIBLE in 1530, when William Tyndale published a translation of the Chumash (the first five books of the Bible). In this, he included the name of God, usually spelled IEHOUAH, in several verses (Genesis 15:2; Exodus 6:3; 15:3; 17:6; 23:17; 33:19; 34:23; Deuteronomy 3:24. Tyndale also included God's name in Ezekiel 18:23 and 36:23 in his translations that were added at the end of THE NEW TESTAMENT, Antwerp, 1534), and in a note in this editon he wrote: "Iehovah is God's name... moreover as oft as thou seist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing) is is in Hebrew Iehovah." (Please note as I told you previously, there was no "J" in English at this time; the J is a product of a stylized I; thus giving us the current Jehovah rather than the Old English Iehovah. The "u" used in the above names is also a reminder that there was no "v" in Old English, as you can read David in the original King James version was written "Dauid".)

In 1534 Martin Luther published his complete translation of the Bible in German, based on the original languages. While he used the German "Herr" (Lord or Sir) for the Tetragrammaton, in a sermon which he delivered in 1526 on Jeremiah 23:1-8, he said, "The name Jehovah, Lord, belongs exclusively to the true God."

Subsequently, Jehovah was used not only in the "Authorized" King James version of 1611, but the Spanish VALERA version of 1602, the Portugese ALMEIDA version of 1681, the German ELBERFELDER version of 1871, and the American Standard Version of 1901. It appears that the Jerusalem Bible was the first one to used Yahweh instead of Lord and Jehovah.

http://www.yhwh.com/jehovah.htm

[Mithrae]

(Please note as I told you previously, there was no "J" in English at this time; the J is a product of a stylized I; thus giving us the current Jehovah rather than the Old English Iehovah. The "u" used in the above names is also a reminder that there was no "v" in Old English, as you can read David in the original King James version was written "Dauid".)

http://www.yhwh.com/jehovah.htm

Small point of trivia for all folks, late 16th/early 17th century English like Shakespeare and the King James bible are early modern, not 'old English.'

[William]

Well now that this has been established, wherein does this change what I wrote in post#8 ?

[Mithrae]

[Replying to post 8 by William]

If this were so, there would be no reason at all why Jesus, - let alone all the NT authors - would not have simply and clearly referred to their GOD as "Jehovah". If it was Jehovah they were speaking of, why then did they just not refer to that GOD by that name?

I mean, if 8 million odd members of the JW Organization can do so without any difficulty, why did these biblical authors of the NT refrain from doing so themselves?

The Hebrew god supposedly introduced himself to Moses as "I am who I am" (Exodus 3:14) and explicitly forbade the creation of any kind of images to represent him. Though many scholars consider this a false etymology for the name Yhwh, it's a nice concept that even the very name let alone the true nature of god is largely unknowable to mere humans.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_ ... daism#YHWH
  The exact pronunciation is uncertain because—although there is nothing in the Torah to prohibit the saying of the name[11] and Ruth shows it was being pronounced as late as the 5th century BCE[12][n 2]—it had ceased to be spoken aloud by at least the 3rd century BCE during Second Temple Judaism[14] and vowel points were not written until the early medieval period. . . .
  
  Rabbinical Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest . . . . As the Temple has not been rebuilt since its destruction in 70 AD, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read Adonai ("My Lord") during prayer and while reading the Torah and as HaShem ("The Name") at other times.[19][20] Similarly, the Vulgate used Dominus ("The Lord") and most English translations of the Bible write "the Lord" for YHWH and "the Lord God", "the Lord God" or "the Sovereign Lord" for Adonai YHWH instead of transcribing the name. The Septuagint may have originally used the Hebrew letters themselves amid its Greek text[21][22] but there is no scholarly consensus on this point. All surviving Christian-era manuscripts use Kyrios [Κυ�ιος, "Lord") or very occasionally Theos [Θεος, "God"] to translate the many thousand occurrences of the Name.

It's quite ironic that this unpronounceable, traditionally taboo and scripturally designated stand-in for the unknowable has become a focal point for at least one Christian sect to proclaim "the name of God." But the early Christians at least seem to have stuck with earlier Jewish traditions of using simply 'god' or 'lord' when referring to the deity of Abraham, Moses and so on.

Personally I think that in the 21st century His Noodliness captures the real purpose of the 'divine name' at least as well as the pious substitutes which have become hallowed by time as quasi-idolatrous 'names' in themselves.

[SallyF]

How may we objectively determine what constitutes Jehovah-inspired "scripture"?

Evidently we can't.


Yet believers INSIST they dealing with the "Word of God".

[William]

[Replying to post 15 by Mithrae]

It is interesting that your post never mentions the word "Jehovah" or even shows the reader how Jehovah was derived from YHWH.

What does appear to be the case is that these are not representation of any NAME of GOD but rather TITLES.

But my question remains unanswered;

Well now that this has been established, wherein does this change what I wrote in post#8 ?

[Mithrae]

[Replying to post 15 by Mithrae]

It is interesting that your post never mentions the word "Jehovah" or even shows the reader how Jehovah was derived from YHWH.

Possibly because that had been discussed three posts earlier.

But my question remains unanswered;

I suppose so, strictly speaking: The answer is that short of admin/moderator actions, there's not much that will change what you wrote in post #8.

[Jagella]

How may we objectively determine that they are telling the truth?

How may we objectively determine what constitutes Jehovah-inspired "scripture"?

We really don't know what Jehovah or any god may have written because we have no gods that we have knowledge of that have written anything. If any gods exist, then maybe they don't write or even bother to get anybody to write for them. We simply don't know.

But even if we assume that Jehovah exists and wants to communicate with us, then I think Jehovah would be insulted if we conclude he authored the Bible. I would be insulted! The Bible is a very strange and ambiguous book that has confused millions of people for thousands of years. If Jehovah is perfect, then I cannot see how he would author such an imperfect book. If he authored a book, then I'd expect it to be crystal clear in its message and that it would be readily available for all to understand.

So with a little bit of simple logic, we can conclude that the Bible is nothing more than the work of petty, insecure, and very imperfect men.

[Elijah John]

Firstly - There is no mention by the writer of the Timothy script, that 'God' = "Jehovah".

I think it's a safe assumption, don't you? Or else Paul replaced YHVH with "Christ"

But who else would it be? Zeus? Baal? Pan? Gaia? Mother Earth? Osiris? Diana?

The writer of Timothy was presumably Paul. And Paul, for all his faults, fallibility and theological error, was primarily a man in the Abrahamic tradition, a Jew.