---
title: God Must Be Called Jehovah
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/doctrines/jehovah-name/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/doctrines/jehovah-name.md
type: doctrine
perspective: Summary of a Jehovah's Witness (Watchtower) teaching, with Protestant counter-arguments
topics: [Deity of Christ]
aliases: [Jehovah, God's name, divine name, YHWH, Yahweh, Tetragrammaton, Jehovah's name, God's personal name, name of God, using God's name, Jehovah pronunciation, J-references, divine name NT, Kyrios vs Jehovah, name essential to salvation, hallowed be thy name, Jehovah's Witnesses name, Adonai, Adonai substitution, Lord substitution, never speak God's name, don't pronounce YHWH, Hebrew word for Lord, Jehovah mispronunciation, Jehovah hybrid, how Jehovah was invented, Adonai vowels YHWH consonants, Jehovah origin, Jehovah history, medieval hybrid name, yod he vav he]
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# God Must Be Called Jehovah

## Watchtower Teaching

JWs teach that using God's personal name — rendered 'Jehovah' — is essential to true worship. They claim that Christendom has suppressed the divine name and that restoring it is central to their mission. The NWT inserts 'Jehovah' 237 times into the New Testament, despite there being no manuscript evidence for the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) in any surviving Greek NT manuscript. The name 'Jehovah' is itself a medieval hybrid of the consonants YHWH with the vowels of Adonai.

## Key Implication

Knowing God is not about syllables — it is about relationship. Jesus taught his disciples to pray 'Our Father' (Matthew 6:9), not 'Our Jehovah.' The New Testament authors, writing under inspiration, used Kyrios (Lord) and Theos (God) — never the Tetragrammaton. If using 'Jehovah' were essential to salvation, the inspired NT writers failed to include it even once. The Watchtower's insertion of 'Jehovah' into the NT relies on 'J-references' — Hebrew back-translations made centuries after the original Greek, which universally read Kyrios. This is not restoration; it is fabrication. The irony is that 'Jehovah' is not even the correct pronunciation of YHWH — most scholars prefer Yahweh.

## Watchtower Sources

- What Does the Bible Really Teach?, ch. 1
- The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever, 1984
- Reasoning From the Scriptures, pp. 195–199

## Counter-Arguments (8)

- [Call Upon the Name of the Lord Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/call-upon-name.md) — The OT worship phrase applied to Jesus [Deity of Christ]
- [The 237 Additions — Zero Manuscript Evidence](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/tetragrammaton-insertion.md) — Not one Greek NT manuscript contains Jehovah's name — so why does the NWT insert it 237 times? [NWT Translation]
- [No New Testament Command to Use 'Jehovah'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jehovah-name-no-NT-mandate.md) — The NT's only command about the saving name redirects it to Jesus [Deity of Christ]
- [Every Title For Yahweh Is Given To Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/yahweh-titles-applied-to-jesus.md) — Isaiah 44:6 / Acts 4:12 / Romans 10:9 / Hosea 13:4 / Revelation 22:13 [Deity of Christ]
- [The Messenger of the Covenant](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/malachi-3-1-messenger.md) — Malachi 3:1 — Jehovah comes to His own temple as the messenger [Deity of Christ]
- [The Angel That Bore Jehovah's Name](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/acts-7-38-angel-name.md) — Acts 7:38, Exodus 23:20-23 — an angel who forgives sin and demands absolute obedience [Deity of Christ]
- [The Salvation-Name Dilemma](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/salvation-name-dilemma.md) — Old Testament — only Jehovah's name saves. New Testament — only Jesus' name saves. [Deity of Christ]
- [Yeshua — His Name Is "Jehovah Saves"](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/yeshua-jehovah-saves.md) — Matthew 1:21 — the bridge between the two saving names [Deity of Christ]