Jehovah's Witnesses - Origin of the Name, Part 2

The following statements in the first two paragraphs are either direct excerpts or paraphrased from the Encyclopedia Britannica, aka, Britannica, online edition, or referenced there.

The "millennialist denomination" known as Jehovah's Witnesses, grew out of the 19th century Adventist movement in the United States, and has since spread worldwide. The organization was founded by Charles Taze Russell in 1872 under the name the International Bible Students Association. Russell was a controversial Adventist teacher who rejected belief in hell as a place of eternal torment and adopted the theology of Arius/Arianism which denies the divinity of Jesus or His personhood of God. He had predicted that God's kingdom would come on earth in 1914; that misfire was later changed to a belief that in 1914 the last days began. Russell would found the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1884 in Pennsylvania, making himself president. The headquarters of the Society would transfer to Brooklyn, New York in 1909. In 1917, Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford would succeed Russell as president of the Society. 

It was Rutherford who would, in 1931, change the group's name to Jehovah's Witnesses in order to emphasize its members' belief that Jehovah (or Yahweh)- a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (יהוה), which is the sacred covenant name of God in His covenant relationship with the nation of Israel, is the only true God and that the people formerly known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society were his specially chosen followers. The Hebrew people would later come to consider the name, "Yahweh", too sacred to utter by human lips, and would refer to Yahweh (or Jehovah adapted to English) as The Name (HaShem). 

Below is a copy of the text of scripture from which Judge Rutherford adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses. The translation used here is the Names of God version which translates the Hebrew tetragrammaton and which also uses the anglicized Hebrew names and titles used for God. 

In nearly all other versions of the Bible found on Biblegateway.com, the name of Yahweh or Jehovah is rendered "LORD". A couple of translations inaccurately render the tetragrammaton as "Adonai" - which may be a fallback on the use of the word "LORD" which shows up in some translations as "Lord". Adonai is a Hebrew title and name of God which refers to His supremacy and Sovereignty over all things, identifying Him as the only true God. Other names and titles of God in the passage below are "Elohim", which is a name that conveys God to be the Creator, but does so with the suffix "him" - a plural identifier - to show His superlative primacy, His fullness as Creator, Sustainer. ("El" is the Hebrew word for God that either stands alone or is joined to or is a contraction of God and other names and titles, e.g., El Roi, El Shaddai, etc. The Hebrew language uses the plural of "El", i.e., "Elohim" to point to His supremacy and that there is none above Him.) "Qedosh Yisrael" means "The Holy One of Israel."  

The message in Isaiah 43 is a continuation of Isaiah 42, where we read of God's charges against Israel for its unfaithfulness and idolatry - worship of other gods, as well as His judgment. Probably not a coincidence, yet curious, that "Judge" Rutherford selected this passage where Yahweh or Jehovah is holding "court" with His people Israel in not very flattering edicts. As the dialogue continues in chapter 43, He reminds them of their covenant with Yahweh, His desire to have them be His people exclusively. Because they violated the covenant with Yahweh, we see Him in this trial reiterating the vow to reclaim them, because they will be dispersed to various countries as a result of His punishment for their sins. He will gather them together again. This was demonstration both of God's unexplicable love for the nation which He created, and the fact that the Savior and Redeemer Messiah and Christ would come through God's nation of Israel. He does not abandon them but allows them to feel the heat of His wrath which He warned them about more times than one can count. In His covenant with the nation, in the Bible book of Deuteronomy, He lays out the rewards and punishment that would result in consequence to how they pursued or failed to pursue Yahweh, who delivered them from Egypt. Yahweh calls them as "witnesses" who are fully aware of what they have done, to testify to the fact of their unfaithfulness - in other words, God calls them as witnesses in this court scene - witnesses against their own wickedness and the truth of God's reiteration of the Law and covenant which they had broken. That is, they are witnesses for the Prosecution. 

Israel had ins and outs with Yahweh; there were some years that they were faithful, but many more where they threw Him over to worship the gods of the surrounding nations (i.e., be like the world around them), and offer blood sacrifices to them - sometimes even sacrificing their own children. Yet, Yahweh declares that He will not cast them aside forever despite their wickedness, but that a remnant, whom He would preserve, will be faithful to Him. 

In the verses previous to verse 10 where Yahweh declares Israel as His witnesses to all He had been and done, He also calls to the stand all of the nations to be witnesses to all He had been and done to the nation of Israel. There was a time when the surrounding nations greatly feared the god of the Hebrews because of the amazing conquests and provisions He made on behalf of His covenant people - especially the miraculous deliveries from the hands of their enemies. But as Israel's sins multiplied, Yahweh - according to the covenant He made with them - would gradually withdraw His protection and favor, making the nation of Israel vulnerable to those same nations they once emulated and others who would eventually overpower Israel and take them captive. In the course of the trial, Israel would have to relent and testify that all that Yahweh Elohim, their Creator and Covenant God, said was true. Chapter 44 continues the trial. Then Yahweh testifies against the idolatry that Israel practiced. 

Again, it is very curious that Judge Rutherford would pull out from all of scripture this  singular designation. Maybe he only read the one verse and took it out of context? Was it a self-righteousness or perceived justification of his position that Jesus was not co-equal to their God? Perhaps it was a proof for him of the Arianism advocated by the denomination, a testimony for him that the "Old Testament" God of Creation was perceived to be a God separate from the Son who Rutherford and Russell said was created by God and thus a creature, and the Holy Spirit, whom the denomination claims only to be a force or a power and not a person (again, scripture knocks out those claims, too). Even further, the very first chapter of the Old Testament decries that position, as does the proper translation of John 1 and Colossians 1. 

The nation of Israel as a people did not grasp the fullness of God, but rather put Him on an equal footing with the gods of the nations round about them. If only they had gained the intimacy with Yahweh that He desired with them, O what riches and revelations they could have enjoyed! They were stuck in the narrow monotheistic mindset of a single personhood rather than the revealed Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, never having grown beyond that place. That is why Jesus was foretold as a stumbling block for Israel, because His coming topples the narrow mindset as He fully identifies the relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17-18; Acts 4:11; 1 Corinthians 1:23) Thus, the first century Jewish Pharisees and religious leaders saw Jesus' claims to co-equalness with God as blasphemy - because they had never grasped the fullness of who God is.

I have written this not out of meanness, revenge or another motive meant to disparage. I am solely endeavoring for things to make sense in light of what God's Word says. (see also Part 1 of my searching here.)

So, without further ado, here is chapter 43 from the Names of God version:

Isaiah 43

 Names of God Bible Translation                                                                               
43 Yahweh created Jacob and formed Israel. Now, this is what Yahweh says:

 Do not be afraid, because I have reclaimed you.

    I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through the sea, I am with you.
    When you go through rivers, they will not sweep you away.
    When you walk through fire, you will not be burned,
    and the flames will not harm you.
3 I am Yahweh your Elohim, Qedosh Yisrael, your Savior.
    Egypt is the ransom I exchanged for you.
    Sudan and Seba are the price I paid for you.
4 Since you are precious to me, you are honored and I love you.
    I will exchange others for you.
        Nations will be the price I pay for your life.

5 Do not be afraid, because I am with you.
    I will bring your descendants from the east
        and gather you from the west.
6 I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
    and to the south, “Do not keep them.”
    Bring my sons from far away
    and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
7 Bring everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made.
8 Bring the people who are blind but still have eyes,
    the people who are deaf but still have ears.
9 All nations have gathered together, and people have assembled.
    Who among them could have revealed this?
    Who among them could have foretold this to us?
        They should bring their witnesses to prove that they were right.
            Let the people hear them. Then they will say that it is true.

10 “You are my witnesses,” declares Yahweh.
    “I have chosen you as my servant
    so that you can know and believe in me
        and understand that I am the one who did this.
    No god was formed before me,
    and there will be none after me.
11 I alone am Yahweh,
    and there is no savior except me.
12 I have revealed it to you, I have saved you,
    and I have announced it to you.
        There was no foreign god among you.
    You are my witnesses that I am El,” declares Yahweh.
13 “From the first day I was the one who did this.
    No one can rescue people from my power.
    When I do something, who can undo it?”
14 This is what Yahweh, your Go’el, Qedosh Yisrael, says:

For your sake I will send an army to Babylon.
    I will bring back all the Babylonian refugees
        in the ships that they take pride in.
15 I am Yahweh, your Holy One,
    the Creator of Israel, your Melek.

Despite the People of Israel’s Past Sin, the Lord Will Forgive Them

16 Yahweh makes a path through the sea
    and a road through the strong currents.
17 He leads chariots and horses, an army and reinforcements.
    (They lie down together and do not get up again.
    They are extinguished and snuffed out like a wick.)

This is what Yahweh says:

18 Forget what happened in the past,
    and do not dwell on events from long ago.
19 I am going to do something new.
    It is already happening. Don’t you recognize it?
        I will clear a way in the desert.
        I will make rivers on dry land.
20 Wild animals, jackals, and ostriches will honor me.
    I will provide water in the desert.
    I will make rivers on the dry land for my chosen people to drink.
21 I have formed these people for myself.
    They will praise me.

22 Jacob, you have not prayed to me.
    Israel, you have grown tired of me.
23 You did not bring me sheep for your burnt offerings
    or honor me with your sacrifices.
    I did not burden you by requiring grain offerings
    or trouble you by requiring incense offerings.
24 You did not buy me any sugar cane with your money
    or satisfy me with the best part of your sacrifices.
    Rather, you burdened me with your sins
    and troubled me with your wrongdoings.

25 I alone am the one who is going to wipe away your rebellious actions
    for my own sake.
        I will not remember your sins anymore.
26 Remind me of what happened.
    Let us argue our case together.
        State your case so that you can prove you are right.
27 Your first ancestor sinned,
    and your priests rebelled against me.
28 That is why I will corrupt the leaders of the holy place.
    I will claim Jacob for destruction.
    I will set up Israel for ridicule.                   

 

 *the faith choir known as The Pentecostals of Alexandria, speak to God's faithfulness in the testimony at verses 1, 2 and 4. "I Am Not Afraid"