Hostility to God's Name?
At present, there is no current translation of the Bible in the Afrikaans language (spoken by South Africans of Dutch descent) that contains God's name. This is surprising, since many translations into the tribal languages spoken in that country use the name freely. Let us see how it came about.
On August 24, 1878, a strong plea was made at a meeting of the Society of True Afrikaners (G.R.A.) that a translation of the Bible be made in the Afrikaans language. Six years later, the matter was brought up again, and eventually it was decided to go ahead and translate the Bible from the original tongues. The work was entrusted to S. J. du Toit, Superintendent of Education in the Transvaal.
A letter of instruction to du Toit included the following guideline: "The proper name of the Lord, Jehovah or Jahvê, should be left untranslated [that is, not substituted for by Lord or God] throughout." S. J. du Toit translated seven Bible books into Afrikaans, and the name Jehovah appeared throughout.
Other South African publications, too, at one time contained God's name. For example, in De Korte Catechismus (The Short Catechism), by J. A. Malherbe, 1914, the following appeared: "What is God's preeminent Name?" The answer? "Jehovah, which is written LORD with capital letters in our Bibles. This [name] was never given to any creature."
In Die Katkisasieboek (a catechism published by the Federated Sunday School Commission of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa) the following question appeared: "May we then never use the name Jehovah or LORD? That is what the Jews do . . . That is not the meaning of the commandment. . . . We may use his Name, but never in vain." Until recently, reprints of Die Halleluja (a hymnbook) also contained the name Jehovah in some hymns.
However, du Toit's translation was not popular, and in 1916 a Commission for Bible Translation was appointed to see to the production of an Afrikaans Bible. This Commission had a policy of omitting from the Bible the name of Jehovah. In 1971 the Bible Society of South Africa published a "tentative translation" of a few Bible books in Afrikaans. While the name of God was mentioned in the introduction, it was not used in the text of the translation. Similarly, in 1979 a new translation of the "New Testament" and Psalms appeared and it likewise omitted the name of God.
Moreover, since 1970 mention of the name Jehovah has been removed from Die Halleluja. And the sixth printing of the revised edition of Die Katkisasieboek, published by the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, now also omits the name.
In fact, the efforts to eliminate the form Jehovah are not limited to books. A Dutch Reformed church in Paarl used to have a cornerstone on which were inscribed the words JEHOVAH JIREH ("Jehovah Will Provide"). A picture of this church and its cornerstone appeared in the October 22, 1974, issue of the magazine Awake! in the Afrikaans language. Since then, the cornerstone has been replaced by another with the words DIE HERE SAL VOORSIEN ("The LORD Will Provide"). The scripture citation and the date on the cornerstone have been left the same, but the name Jehovah has been removed.
Hence, many Afrikaners today are unaware of God's name. Church members who do know it shy away from using it. Some even argue against it, saying that God's name is LORD and accusing Jehovah's Witnesses of inventing the name Jehovah. |
