Questions From Readers

● Why does the New World Translation at Matthew 6:9 read: “Let your name be sanctified,” whereas ever so many other English translations read “Hallowed”?—C. M., United States.

In rendering what is known as the Lord’s Prayer into English, the New World Bible Translation Committee adhered to a principle that was stated in the Foreword of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, namely, to restrict themselves as far as possible to one English word for each distinct word in the original Greek. The Greek word here is hagiazo, meaning “to set apart to a sacred use.”

The word “sanctified” is to be preferred to the word “hallowed” since it is used far more commonly. Not only that but, except for its use in our Lord’s prayer, hagiazo is always translated “sanctified” by the King James translators as well as the many others that use “hallowed” in this one instance; there are some twenty-five instances of such translation all told. So the New World Translation is only different in this instance because it alone is consistent. Why the King James translators chose to make an exception in the Lord’s Prayer and render hagiazo there “hallowed” we do not know. It may be that they thought it had a more pleasing sound. Certain it is that for the sake of literary effect they repeatedly took liberties, resulting in a beautiful piece of literature, but at the cost of consistency and accuracy. And quite likely others followed their example for the same reason.