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
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(Today’s Reading)
YHWH in the Intertestamental Period
(Essay Installment 3)
Conclusion
The combined effect of the two intertestamental social trends I’ve described was swift, profound, and lasting. To this day, Jews will not say the name YHWH aloud, using substitute words instead. And to this day, translations of the Hebrew Scriptures around the world do not attempt to translate YHWH, using substitute words instead. And that’s why we see in our English Bibles today the all caps “LORD” sprinkled from one end of the Old Testament to the other. Even in the NASB 1995, we are not seeing the word “YHWH” being translated like all the other words; rather, we are following the Jewish practice, developed during the period between the testaments, of substituting a title for a personal name. (But for those who knew back then, and those who know today, it was a case of a title becoming a personal name. That is, “the Lord” became a way of referring exclusively to YHWH, as long as the context didn’t indicate “lord” was referring to some other kind of lord.)
Viewed together, the two trends of vocalization and translation become one trend of removing the name YHWH from public consciousness…all over the world. But the full effect was not immediate. When temple and synagogue readers first started substituting Adonai (Lord) for YHWH, everyone listening remembered what name was being replaced. Even Greek-speaking Jews knew, whether from personal memory or from the context of the passage being read, what name was being replaced. (And thus did the title “LORD” become a personal name of “YHWH” for those who knew, much like “Rock” (Peter) became a personal name for Andrew’s brother Simon.)
By New Testament times (1st century AD), the Romans had conquered the Greek world. Nevertheless, Greek remained the dominant language in that century. It was therefore natural for the New Testament authors, who themselves wrote in Greek, to quote more often from the Septuagint rather than from the Hebrew texts when citing an Old Testament passage. Since Jesus apparently gave His apostles no instructions to focus on the issue, the earliest Christians used the Septuagint without reservation – even more than they used the Hebrew texts. That made perfect sense, given the worldwide focus of the gospel.
Since the very earliest Christians were almost all Jews, they, too, retained knowledge of the divine name that was not showing up in their texts. But over time, as Christianity accepted more and more Gentiles into the faith, there came a point when Jewish memories became a small factor. Increasingly, the Christian population did not think “YHWH” when they read or heard “Lord.” This has had enormous implications for post-1st century Christian interpretation of the Bible.
Rabbinic Judaism looked back on the intertestamental period as a time when Jews “rightly” sought to “build a fence around the Torah” even though Intertestamental Jews might not have used those exact words. But the decision to suppress expression of YHWH became ingrained in Jewish religious thought along these lines. Even the NASB 1995 says of YHWH in its preface, “This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name.” But you have now seen that this sentiment took root in the Intertestamental period – not during the Old Testament age. Are we to suppose that the prophets who spoke and wrote the name YHWH far more than they spoke and wrote any other name were being irreverent toward it?
We will have to answer that question for ourselves…for the reason I gave at the beginning of this focus on the Intertestamental period:
Because there was no prophet to record the history of YHWH and Israel for the 400-500 years between the last writings of the Old Testament and first writings of the New Testament, we have to rely on other historical sources for that period. These other historical sources are sufficient to tell us what happened; we just won’t have the prophets to tell us what YHWH thought about those happenings.
I’ll dwell on this tomorrow.
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