Why Did the New Testament Authors Use ‘Lord’ Rather than ‘Yaweh’?

SI Filings
Bible, Theology & Philosophy
New Testament
God's Name
Deity of Christ

“it’s safe to say that they didn’t consider God’s name too sacred to use in transliteration. Finally, we can eliminate the idea that they did so out of fear of the Jews…. let’s explore some other possibilities.” - Text & Canon

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Discussion

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Ed Vasicek
Tue, 07/25/23 1:21 pm

I appreciate the author very much and the fine work he has done on this subject. IMO, the reason NT writers did not use Yahweh could have been as he suggests, custom from the LXX. But I think another possibility is more likely. Although he mentioned this in passing, it is much more likely that the early church wanted to be “Jewish friendly.” Since the early church was mostly Jewish until between 68-75A.D., many were (modified) Torah-observant Messianic Jews, as is made clear in Acts 21. Paul’s approach was probably universal — to the Jew FIRST. If such is the case, then it is obvious why they chose not to use God’s Name, Yahweh. In conversation, etc., the non-Messianic Jews even lessened the use of some of God’s titles, preferring “heaven” to “God” in many contexts. Even now, God is often referred to as “Ha Shem” (the Name) to avoid saying Elohim.

The Legacy Version of the Bible (put out by John MacArthur’s associates) uses God’s Name (Yahweh) and is otherwise a revision of the NASB. If I were starting again in ministry, that would probably be my version of choice for those reasons.

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Larry
Tue, 07/25/23 4:20 pm

Why is it that the Holy Spirit thought that Lord was an appropriate translation but a bunch of modern scholars disagree? What do they know that the Holy Spirit didn’t know?

Profile picture for user Ed Vasicek
Ed Vasicek
Wed, 07/26/23 6:09 pm

Larry wrote:

Why is it that the Holy Spirit thought that Lord was an appropriate word for God’s Name but a bunch of modern scholars disagree? What do they know that the Holy Spirit didn’t know?

That is a good point. But this point is just as good:

Why is it that the Holy Spirit thought Yahweh was an appropriate Name for God but a bunch of modern translators disagree? What do they know that the Holy Spirit didn’t know?

"The Midrash Detective"

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Larry
Sun, 07/30/23 3:59 pm

Ed, we are talking about the translation. The spirit-inspired translation used the word for Lord. He could have transliterated it like he did words. He didn’t.

Personally I think it is a mountain out of a molehill. This is a fight against the NT translation and centuries of English usage.