As far as the evidence shows, no. Thousands of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament survive, some from as early as the second and third centuries, and not one of them contains the Tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters YHWH, or any Greek form of the name such as “Jehovah” or “Yahweh”. Where the apostles quote Old Testament verses that contain the name, they use the Greek word Kyrios, “Lord”, as the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, generally did in the copies Christians used. English Bibles that print “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” in the New Testament are therefore making an editorial choice, not reproducing the Greek text. That does not mean the name vanished. The New Testament does something more remarkable with it: it takes the Lord of the Old Testament passages and identifies him, again and again, with Jesus Christ, while still distinguishing the Son from the Father.
What the manuscripts show
The New Testament is the best-attested writing of the ancient world. Its Greek text survives in papyri, in great codices of the fourth and fifth centuries, in thousands of later copies, in early translations into Latin, Syriac and Coptic, and in countless quotations by early Christian writers. Scholars compare these witnesses to recover the original wording, and the editions printed from the nineteenth century onwards rest on that work.
Across all of this material, the divine name is absent. When a New Testament writer refers to God, he uses Theos, “God”, or Kyrios, “Lord”, or speaks of “the Father”. When he quotes a verse that in Hebrew contains YHWH, the Greek has Kyrios. This is consistent across authors as different as Matthew, Paul, Luke and the writer of Hebrews. A claim that the name stood in the original text and was later removed everywhere, leaving no trace in any copy, translation or quotation, would require a change of astonishing scope, and there is no evidence that it happened.
How the apostles quoted the Old Testament
The first Christians read the Old Testament mainly in Greek. By the time of the apostles, Jewish readers generally avoided pronouncing the name and said Adonai, “my Lord”, in its place; the Greek equivalent was Kyrios. The practice of the English LORD in small capitals descends from this custom (see Why most English Bibles print LORD).
A clear example is the opening of the Gospels. Isaiah announced a voice preparing the way of Jehovah:
The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God.
— Isaiah 40:3 (ASV)
Matthew quotes it of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus:
This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’”
— Matthew 3:3 (BSB)
Where Isaiah has the name, Matthew has “the Lord”. And the Lord whose way is prepared turns out to be Jesus.
What the New Testament does with Kyrios
Once this pattern is noticed, it appears everywhere. Joel promised deliverance to those who call on the name of Jehovah:
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered; for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape, as Jehovah hath said, and among the remnant those whom Jehovah doth call.
— Joel 2:32 (ASV)
Paul quotes the verse in Romans, and the Lord on whom people call is the Lord Jesus confessed in the same passage:
that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
— Romans 10:9-13 (BSB)
In Philippians, Paul takes Jehovah’s oath in Isaiah 45:23, that every knee will bow to him, and applies it to Jesus:
Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
— Philippians 2:9-11 (BSB)
Hebrews 1:10 goes further still, applying to the Son a psalm addressed to Jehovah as creator of the heavens and the earth. Had the New Testament writers used the name itself in these places, the effect would have been the same: the Son shares the one divine name. The entry on the name in the New Testament traces more examples.
The New World Translation, described fairly
The New World Translation, produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses, inserts “Jehovah” into its New Testament more than two hundred times. Its translators reason that when the apostles quoted Old Testament verses containing the name, they would have kept it, and that later copyists replaced it with Kyrios. They point to some Hebrew translations of the New Testament, made centuries later, which use the name in such places.
Mainstream scholars respond that this is a hypothesis about a lost original rather than a reading found in any manuscript, and that later Hebrew translations reflect their translators’ choices, not the Greek text. There is a further difficulty. In passages such as Romans 10, inserting “Jehovah” tends to separate the Lord Jesus from the Lord on whom people call, whereas the Greek holds them together. This site is independent of the Witnesses and holds the mainstream view, while recognising that their concern to honour the name is sincere.
Where Christians differ
Scholars do discuss evidence that some early Greek copies of the Old Testament, made by and for Jewish readers, wrote the name in Hebrew letters within the Greek text rather than translating it. Fragments of this kind survive, and early Christian writers such as Origen and Jerome mention Greek copies in which the name appeared in Hebrew letters. Some have asked whether the apostles’ own copies might have done the same. Even if so, it would show how the Old Testament was copied, not that the apostles wrote the name into the New. Christians also differ over whether modern translations should print “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” in Old Testament quotations; most keep “Lord”, following the Greek.
For reflection
Read Romans 10 and Philippians 2 side by side with Joel 2 and Isaiah 45. Notice how the apostles, far from hiding the name, place Jesus within it. Pray to the Father in the name of the Son, and call on the Lord with the confidence Paul describes. Then share that reading with others in your church, and let the Scriptures, not a single word, set the shape of your faith.
References
- Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881).
- Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), entry for kyrios.
- Henry Barclay Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (1900).
- Jerome, Letter 25, to Marcella (fourth century).
- The Preface to the American Standard Version (1901).
Lexicon answers from the Bible and public-domain reference works. It is a study aid and is not affiliated with any organisation.