Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
***
(Today’s Reading)
YHWH in the Old Testament
(Essay Installment 10)
Back to English Bibles
Let’s now return to the burning bush for the further explanation I promised you about how and why English Bibles translate YHWH as LORD.
Exodus 3:15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.
Recall that whenever you see “LORD” rendered in all caps like this, it means the underlying Hebrew word is YHWH. Recall also that this applies to the vast majority of English translations and not just the NASB 1995. All these English translations follow this convention because, as the NASB 1995 states, “This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name.” This Jewish reticence to vocalize YHWH was not present in Old Testament times, as you know well from the data I’ve given you on its ubiquitous presence in the Old Testament…if not from your own reading of it. This Jewish reluctance to speak the name of their own God arose in the centuries just after the Old Testament age ended. I’ll describe that development when I get to the installments that will cover “YHWH in the Intertestamental Period.”
As for the “The” that appears before “LORD” in Exodus 3:15 – as well as any other “the” that appears before “LORD” in an English translation of the Old Testament – you should not take it a sign that a definite Hebrew article was present in the text. Much to the contrary, no occurrence of YHWH in the Hebrew Bible is preceded by a definite article. In the Hebrew Old Testament, YHWH is treated as a proper name. Proper names didn’t take a definite article in ancient Hebrew just as they don’t in modern English. English, however, often prefers an article when a word functions like a title rather than a personal name. Since English translators render YHWH as “LORD” (a title-like substitute rather than a name), they frequently add “the” to make the English sound more natural.
Another fine point is that there are around 300 of the 6,820 occurrences of YHWH in the Hebrew text (which is less than 5% of the time) which occur next to an occurrence of the word Adonai (Lord). To avoid having the English text put “LORD” and “Lord” next to each other, the translators preserve the occurrence of Adonai as is, but then, instead of printing “LORD,” they print “GOD” (that is, Elohim in ALL CAPS) to indicate YHWH. To show you what that looks like, here’s an example of the normal rendering of YHWH, followed by two examples from the 5% exceptions I’ve been describing (where it’s “God” that is put in all caps instead of “LORD.”
Psalm 68:18 You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives; / You have received gifts among men, / Even among the rebellious also, that the LORD God may dwell there.
***
Psalm 68:20 God is to us a God of deliverances; / And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.
Psalm 69:6 May those who wait for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; / May those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel,
The part of Psalm 68:18 I’ve put in bold is translating “YHWH ELOHIM.” This demonstrates the way that 95% of YHWH occurrences in the Old Testament are translated. By contrast, the other two verses are examples of how the 5% of YHWH occurrences are translated. The bold part of Psalm 68:20 is translating “YHWH ADONAI,” and the bold part of Psalm 69:6 is translating “ADONAI YHWH.” If the translators didn’t treat the 5% of cases differently, the bold parts of those two verses would read “LORD Lord” and “Lord LORD” respectively.
There are other finer points I could make about YHWH being rendered in English, but the ones above are fine enough.
A Bible Reader's Website 