Transcripts: Enjoy Life Forever!

Transcript: Does God have a name?
[A man sitting on a bench, a man reads a Bible]
Presenter: Does God have a name?
[As he turns the pages slightly nods]
The Bible mentions the names of many gods.
[Above his head float pictures of various gods]
The nations surrounding ancient Israel worshipped deities named Ashtoreth, Baal, and Molech. The first-century Christians lived among people who worshipped such deities as Artemis, Hermes, and Zeus, and the names of those gods are recorded in the Bible.
[1 Corinthians 8:5]
The Bible acknowledges that there are many gods. But the name of one God appears in ancient manuscripts of the Bible far more times than the names of all the other gods combined.
[In a library the man reads Bibles]
If you read modern Bibles, you will still find the names of the other gods.
However, many Bibles have removed the name of the most frequently mentioned God.
The name of that God appears some 7,000 times in the oldest versions of the Bible. Who is the God whose name has been removed from the Bible?
[On a wall four gold Hebrew letters fade into dust]
The first part of the Bible, often called the Old Testament, was written in Hebrew and a related language, Aramaic. In Hebrew, God’s name is represented by four letters. Hebrew is read from right to left. In English, those four letters are rendered by the consonants YHWH.
[An archaeologist unearths a clay fragment with God’s name on it]
The original vowel sounds used in God’s name are unknown, but the four letters representing God’s name appeared throughout ancient Bible manuscripts and have been inscribed in many other locations.
[In a church hangs an old painting containing the tetragrammaton]
In English, a popular rendering of God’s name is Jehovah another rendering is Yahweh.
Some Bibles use one of these forms of God’s name at Psalm 83:18 and in several other places. A number of other translations, such as the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, restore God’s name to the locations in which it originally appeared.
[The man reads God’s name in the New World Translation]
Since God had his personal name included in the Bible some 7,000 times, he no doubt wants us to know and use that name.
[He looks up from the Bible contemplatively]
In the Law God gave to Israel, he told Moses to write: ‘Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah’
[Deuteronomy 6:4]
Jesus quoted that passage from the Law, so he obviously knew and used God’s personal name. In one of his final prayers before his death, Jesus said to Jehovah God: ‘I have made your name known.’
[John 17:26]
(Logo: Black capital letters JW.ORG inside a white box. Copyright 2014 Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania)