Should We Use God’s Name?

IN 1902, The Presbyterian and Reformed Review reported on the release of the 1901 American Standard version of the Bible, a revision of the 17th-century King James Version. In its article the journal said regarding the propriety of consistently using God’s name, Jehovah, in the English Bible:

“We cannot understand how there can be any difference of opinion as to the rightness of this step. This is the Lord’s personal name, by which He has elected to be known by His people: the loss suffered by transmuting it into His descriptive title seems to us immense. To be sure there are disputes as to the true form of the name, and nobody supposes that ‘Jehovah’ is that true form. But it has the value of the true form to the English reader; and it would be mere pedantry to substitute for it Yahwé or any of the other forms now used with more or less inaccuracy by scholastic writers. We account it no small gain for the English reader of the Old Testament that he will for the first time in his popular version meet statedly with ‘Jehovah’ and learn all that ‘Jehovah’ has been to and done for His people.”

Many other English Bible translations use “Jehovah” or a form of God’s name. Similarly, God’s personal name is found in numerous non-English Bible translations, examples of which can be seen on this page. God told Moses regarding his name, Jehovah: “This is my name to time indefinite, and this is the memorial of me to generation after generation.” Surely, therefore, there is no question about the propriety of using God’s name today!​—Exodus 3:13-15.

[Pictures on page 31]

Psalm 83:18 as it appears in various languages

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