Subject: Why not use Yahweh for LORD? |
Bible Note: Greetings Jmscott2! Thanks for your response! There are several points I would make to your comments. 1) First of all, our English Bibles are translations. It is very rare that we simply write out the equivalent letters for a Hebrew (or Greek) word (this process is called transliteration). The reason is simple. The goal of translation is to put one language into another, not simply spell Hebrew words in an English manner. If one did this too much, the Bible would be filled with words which meant very little to English readers. 2) Secondly, no one is sure which vowel points were spoken with the word YHWH. Therefore, 'Yahweh', 'Jehovah', ect..., are all guesses. If I were to make the decision, I would prefer they just wrote 'YHWH' without any vowels. This would eliminate any possibility of mistake. 3) Finally, the point of my last post was very simple. The New Testament, along with the Old Testament, is the inspired Word of God. Thus, God Himself is the author. When God Himself quoted OT passages containing the name 'YHWH', He could have written out 'YHWH' or 'Yahweh' or 'Jehovah'. However, God Himself choose to translate His Divine name as 'kurios' or 'Lord'. Therefore, one can only conclude that it is an acceptable translation to God - since it is His translation. So, it wasn't people who made this decision. It was God Himself. Unless of course, you want to say that God didn't inspire the New Testament writers to translate 'YHWH' as 'kurios'! But, Scripture itself teaches us that 'all Scripture is inspired by God'. Therefore, I believe that if God translates His name as 'Lord' 50 times in the NT, then it is okay for us to do the same thing in our English translations. :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |