Does Jehovah always refer to the Father? It occurred to me that it might also refer to the Godhead in its fullness.\u00a0 Does anyone know and if so, how can we know?\u00a0 What biblical evidence is there for this?<\/p>\n\t
This is really hard to prove since Young’s Literal Translation uses the word Jehovah 5,787 times and in the American Standard Version, it occurs 5,822 times.\u00a0 Those are a lot of passages to look up.\u00a0 It also only occurs in the Old Testament, which would narrow down its potential use.\u00a0 Several scholarly works (of which I am not <\/b>one) point to its literal meaning as “He who is”.\u00a0 Those same works go into great detail as to how it can be interpreted in slightly different ways (e.g., creator, I am, etc) depending on its use.<\/p>\n
Now couple that with the fact that many prophecies of the Old Testament have more than one meaning (i.e., some refer to the coming struggles of Israel and the parallel struggles of Jesus on the cross at the same time). It is, therefore, possible that passages in the Old Testament that use the word Jehovah could mean both the Father and the Son.\u00a0 So, for example, take Psalm 1:6 from the American Standard Version, “For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; But the way of the wicked shall perish<\/em>“.\u00a0 Does that apply to only the Father or to any of the three?<\/p>\n Another one to try is Psalm 27:1, “Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?<\/em>”\u00a0 I can easily see this as a\u00a0 reference to the Father, but it is potentially for the Son as well.\u00a0 It may be that it is true for the Son because the Son mimics the Father or it may be that the intention all along was that it applied to both equally for all time.<\/p>\n There is one passage in which Jehovah clearly refers to the Son. ““In that day,” says the LORD, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. … And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn”<\/em>” Zechariah 12:4, 10). Notice that Jehovah (LORD) says they will look on Me whom they pierced. But is referring to Jesus as stated in John 19:31-37.<\/p>\n With nearly 6000 passages to check, I think it would be a daunting task to evaluate each one for its potential to mean more than the Father.\u00a0 If you could find a passage about Jesus in the New Testament that quotes a passage in the Old Testament that uses the word Jehovah, then I think you would have clear proof.\u00a0\u00a0 Short of that, I think the best you could say is that it could possibly apply to more than one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Does Jehovah always refer to the Father? It occurred to me that it might also refer to the Godhead in its fullness.\u00a0 Does anyone know and if so, how can we know?\u00a0 What biblical evidence is there for this? Answer: This is really hard to prove since Young’s Literal Translation uses the word Jehovah…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[346,76,87],"class_list":["post-8854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-god-the-father","tag-terminology","tag-trinity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19484,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-refer-to-god-as-jehovah-in-a-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":8854,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong to refer to God as Jehovah in a prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong or scripturally incorrect to refer to God as Jehovah?\u00a0 For instance, when you pray to Him, to address Him as Jehovah.\u00a0In Matthew 6:9, Jesus is showing the disciples how to pray.\u00a0He starts with \"Our Father in Heaven.\" Since\u00a0Jesus never refers to God as Jehovah and when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52474,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-lord-in-amos-7-refer-to-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":8854,"position":1},"title":"Does “the Lord” in Amos 7 refer to Jesus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey Mr. Jeffery, I noticed in the vision in Amos 7 that Amos had at two different times referred to God as the Lord (no caps and not as Jehovah). It also appears that Amos is visually seeing the Lord (no one has ever seen Jehovah fully), so could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1390,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-gods-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":8854,"position":2},"title":"What is God’s name?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is God's name? The Jehovah's Witnesses tell me it is \"Jehovah,\" but that appears less than ten times in my Bible. Answer: The name \"Jehovah\" appears eight times in the King James Version of the Bible. It is not used in the New American Standard Bible or the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16165,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-should-yhwh-be-pronounced-correctly-and-not-yeshua\/","url_meta":{"origin":8854,"position":3},"title":"Why should YHWH be pronounced correctly and not Yeshua?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have just read your web page:\u00a0\u00a0Understanding the Tetragrammaton: Pronouncing YHWH. If your conclusion is accurate, then we should not be using the name Jesus, correct?\u00a0 To apply your conclusion or principle to YHWH, consistency, and accuracy being paramount with me, means that the use of Jesus it wrong\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2625,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-ywhw-translated-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":8854,"position":4},"title":"Why is YWHW translated LORD?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know the New World Translation is not a reliable translation, but why have the other Bible translations changed the original YHWH to LORD? Answer: When a translator encounters a word, he is faced with two choices: he can translate the word or he can transliterate the word. To\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13426,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-name-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":8854,"position":5},"title":"The Name of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Exodus 3:10-17 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have gone out into the world declaring that God\u2019s name is \u201cJehovah.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A reader of our website wrote to ask why this claim is made since he was only able to find less than ten instances of the name \u201cJehovah\u201d in his Bible.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}