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Appendix M: Jehovah in Missionary Translations
The Kingdom Interlinear Translation (1969 edition, pages 22-25) lists 38 missionary translations which use the name Jehovah. The Malagasy translation is used as one such example. (See page 22 of KIT.) The following page is from the Malagasy Bible concordance. Note that either Jehovah or Jehovah Ô occur only 16 times in the entire Christian Greek Scriptures.
The reader may be left with the impression by the Watch Tower Society that these 38 missionary translations use the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures with a frequency similar to the New World Translation when they say,
Many modern-language missionary versions, including African, Asian, American, and Pacific-island versions of the Greek Scriptures, use the name Jehovah liberally, as do some European-language versions.[1]
An example from the Malagasy Bible indicates that the frequency is not liberal, but, rather, is quite limited. In the Malagasy Christian Scriptures, only 16 verses which are derived from Hebrew Scripture quotations use the divine name. However, one such verse (Hebrews 1:10) is clearly describing the Lord (Jesus) in the New World Translation whereas the Malagasy Christian Scriptures addresses him as Jehovah Ô.
Many Missionary translations were done in the 1800's and were strongly influenced by the King James version. A supplementary column was added which identifies the word used by the King James Bible. When "Jehovah" appears as a footnote reference, it is marked with an asterisk (*) by the word used in the main text.
By comparing reference order in this missionary translation concordance, it is apparent that Asa is Acts and Joda is Jude.[2] The other Bible book names are easily determined by spelling similarity and sequence. The following Malagasy Bible references use Jehovah in the Christian Scriptures:
| Malagasy Bible | New World Translation | King James Bible | |
| Matt. 21:42 | Jehovah | Jehovah | *Lord |
| Matt. 22:44 | Jehovah | Jehovah | Jehovah |
| Matt. 23:39 | Jehovah | Jehovah | Lord |
| Mark 12:11 | Jehovah | Jehovah | *Lord |
| Mark 12:29 | Jehovah | Jehovah | Lord |
| Mark 12:29 | Jehovah | Jehovah | *Lord |
| Mark 12:36 | Jehovah | Jehovah | Jehovah |
| Luke 20:42 | Jehovah | Jehovah | Jehovah |
| Acts 2:25 | Jehovah | Jehovah | *Lord |
| Acts 2:34 | Jehovah | Jehovah | Jehovah |
| Romans 10:16 | Jehovah Ô | Jehovah | Lord |
| Romans 11:3 | Jehovah Ô | Jehovah | Lord |
| I Cor. 10:26 | Jehovah | Jehovah | *Lord |
| Hebrews 1:10 | Jehovah Ô | Lord | Lord[3] |
| Jude (1):9 | Jehovah | Jehovah | *Lord |
| Jude (1):14 | Jehovah | Jehovah | *Lord |
[1] "All Scripture is inspired of God and Beneficial," page. 327.
[2] Joda lists a chapter number in this Malagasy concordance. English biblical references usually list only the verse number for the short book of Jude.
[3] The Hebrew version J18 does not use יהוה at Hebrews 1:10.