The New World Translation (the Bible produced by the Jehovah’s
Witnesses) inserts the name “Jehovah” into the New Testament in 237
places where the original Greek actually reads “Lord.” On the surface,
this might seem like a rather minor error to be dealing with. After
all, most English Bibles do the opposite, putting the title “LORD” in
place of the name YHWH in the Old Testament, and we consider that to be
a legitimate approach to translation. If YHWH really is God’s
name, why would it be wrong to use an English form of that name (like
Yahweh or Jehovah) in the New Testament, especially in Old Testament
quotes or in passages clearly talking about God? There are, however,
several reasons that this Jehovah’s Witness practice is problematic and
needs to be addressed:
1. It often interrupts the flow of the passages and shrouds the
meaning. There are many passages where the author is using the word
“Lord” throughout the whole section in a consistent way. In these
cases, translating the word as “Lord” in some verses and as
“Jehovah” in others disrupts the author’s flow of thought and
changes the meaning of the passage. Notice, for example, the
difference between these two translations:

“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your
heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with
the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the
mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says,
“Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no
distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all,
abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on
the name of the Lord will be saved,” (Romans 10:9-13).

“For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you
will be saved. For with the heart one exercises faith for
righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for
salvation. For the scripture says: “No one who rests his faith on him
will be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and
Greek. There is the same Lord over all, who is rich toward all those
calling on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be
saved,” (Romans 10:9-13 NWT).

In the first translation (an actual rendering of what the Greek
Manuscripts really say) we see that we are to declare with our mouth
that “Jesus is Lord” and that “anyone who “calls upon the name of the
Lord will be saved” because both Jews and Greeks have the same Lord.
The Lord is Jesus. It is Jesus we confess with our mouth. It is Jesus
we call upon. Jesus is the Lord of both Jews and Greeks, and they are
all to confess Him. This is the consistent and straightforward teaching
of the text. But Jehovah’s Witness doctrine cannot accept this
teaching because that would mean that Joel 2:32, “Whoever will call on
the name of the Lord will be saved,” is being applied to Jesus. Joel
was talking about the one true God of Israel. Thus, the plain reading
of Romans 10 is that Jesus is the one Lord, the same Lord whom Joel
told us to call upon. Jesus is Jehovah God. When they change the text,
however, to make calling Jesus “Lord” and calling on the name of
“Jehovah” two entirely separate things, they hide the otherwise clear
reference to Christ’s deity. This is what the New World Translation
does.
2. The reasoning Jehovah’s Witnesses use to justify their translation
actually calls the whole New Testament into question. The Jehovah’s
Witnesses don’t just claim to be using the word “Jehovah” for
clarity or to distinguish God from other lords. They go much
further, claiming that scribes changed the text. They insist that
the original New Testament writings all had the name YHWH in them,
but that later scribes chose to replace the name “YHWH” with the
word “Lord.” Think of what it would mean if scribes could make this
change so completely in every Greek manuscript, in every early
translation into Latin, Coptic, Syriac, etc., and in every New
Testament quote by any other author in even the most obscure of
personal letters, and leave no evidence behind. If we accept this,
it doesn’t stop at the one word. We have to assume that the scribes
could have changed literally anything. This radical thinking about
history and manuscripts has much larger consequences than the
Jehovah’s Witnesses realize. They are, in fact, accusing the entire
New Testament of being completely untrustworthy and casting all of
Scripture into doubt. This is a very important claim to address.
3. The Centrality of their “Jehovah” doctrine also makes this worth
addressing. It is central to the Jehovah’s Witness identity that
they alone have a biblical appreciation of and reverence for
Jehovah’s name and that they have restored its proper use. They
also trust the New World Translation above other translations, in
part, because of its approach to the divine name. The fact that the
Jehovah’s Witnesses are actually mistaken in their simplistic
approach to God’s name and that their Bible is so often incorrect
and unbiblical in how and where it uses that name is a significant
blow to the Jehovah’s Witness claim to be the unique and
distinctive people called out for God’s name. This seemingly small
error actually has tremendous weight in the Jehovah’s Witness
community.