---
title: Matthew 6:9
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-6-9/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-6-9.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 6:9
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 6:9

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> So then, this is how you should pray:  ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified"
- NWT (2013 revision): "Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified"

## JW Usage

JWs cite the opening of the Lord's Prayer — "let your name be sanctified" — as evidence that Jesus made hallowing Jehovah's name a priority for his disciples. The verse is treated as the apostolic warrant for the wider Watchtower emphasis on the Divine Name and for the NWT's restoration of "Jehovah" 237 times across the New Testament. The argument is: if Jesus prayed for the name to be hallowed, the name must matter — and the form "Jehovah" must therefore be the right one to use.

## Protestant Usage

Jesus tells his disciples to address God as "our Father in the heavens" — the very form he himself used in Gethsemane and on the cross. The petition that the name be sanctified is a prayer that God's name (his character, his reputation, his honour) be set apart in worship and conduct. Honouring God's name and inserting a specific form of it 237 times into the Greek New Testament are different things. There is no NT command anywhere that the form "Jehovah" is the saving or worshipping name — every apostolic command about a name to call upon, be baptised into, or be saved by points to Jesus (Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9, Phil 2:10-11). The verse asks for the name to be honoured; it does not prescribe which form of it must be used.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders hagiasthētō to onoma sou as "let your name be sanctified" — a passive imperative that preserves the Greek form, slightly more wooden than the consensus "hallowed be your name" (KJV, ESV, NASB). What matters apologetically is what the NWT does NOT do here: insert "Jehovah." Jesus addresses the Father as "Father" and refers to "your name" without naming the form. The selectivity matches the wider NWT pattern — when the context makes the address christological or filial, the natural reading is preserved; when kyrios in Greek can plausibly refer to the Father, the NWT inserts "Jehovah." The Lord's Prayer is the clearest place Jesus could have named the form "Jehovah" if it mattered, and he did not.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [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]