The word “LORD”, “Jehovah”, or “Yahweh” in the Old Testament is translated from the Hebrew YHWH.  As an aside, YHWH is known as the Tetragrammaton and the word Tetragrammaton comes from the Greek meaning literally “having four letters”.

Some translations translate YHWH as LORD (ESV, GNB, KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, NLT, and RSV), some as Jehovah (ASV, LITV, and MKJV), and some as Yahweh (JB).

How should YHWH be translated?  Which translations are correct?

To translate or to transliterate

When translators come across a difficult word, they can do one of two things.  They can translate the word, or they can transliterate the word.  Transliterate means to change the letters into the corresponding characters of another language.

The word Yahweh and the word Jehovah are both transliterations of YHWH.  Both are formed from YHWH with various vowels inserted to make it pronounceable.  The vowels in Yahweh come from a scholarly attempt to recover the original ancient pronunciation.  The vowels in Jehovah are copied from the Hebrew Adonai.  Adonai means Lord and only ever refers to God – never a man.

For example, the translators of the ASV decided to transliterate YHWH.  Wherever YHWH appears in the Old Testament, these translators transliterated YHWH to Jehovah.

In contrast to this, the translators of the NKJV decided to translate YHWH as LORD.  The translators chose all capitals as a convention to distinguish it from the translation of Adonai.  Thus, in the NKJV, whenever the word “LORD” appears it has been translated from YHVH, and whenever the word “Lord” appears (referring to God) it has been translated from Adonai.  An example of this is found is Psalm 110:1.

Psa 110:1  The LORD [YHWH] said to my Lord [Adonai], “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

The meaning of YHWH

But what does YHWH mean?  Most scholars agree that YHWH comes from a root word meaning “the Self Existent” or “the Eternal” or “the Existing One”.  Does this mean LORD is a bad translation?

Can YHWH legitimately be translated LORD?

Are there any examples in the Bible where YHWH is translated?  The answer is yes.  The authors of the New Testament frequently quoted from the Old Testament, and when they did so they translated the Hebrew into Greek.  Fortunately, there are occasions where they translated YHWH into Greek.   What is of interest is the Greek word they chose to do this.

Here are some examples.

Matthew 22:37 is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:5. 

Mat 22:37  Jesus said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD [kurios] YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

Deu 6:5  You shall love the LORD [YHWH] your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Mark 12:10-11 is a quote from Psalm 118:22-23.

Mar 12:10  Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE.
Mar 12:11  THIS WAS THE LORD’S [kurios] DOING, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?”

Psa 118:22  The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
Psa 118:23  This was the LORD’s [YHWH] doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.

Acts 4:26 is a quote from Psalm 2:2.

Act 4:26  THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD [kurios] AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’

Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD [YHWH] and against His Anointed, saying,

John 1:23 is a quote from Isaiah 40:3.

Joh 1:23  He said: “I am ‘THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS: “MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD [kurios],” ‘ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

Isa 40:3  The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD [YHWH]; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.

Romans 12:19 is a quote from Deuteronomy 32:35-36.

Rom 12:19  Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord [kurios].

Deu 32:35  Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; …
Deu 32:36  “For the LORD [YHWH] will judge His people …

Note that in these examples the writers, (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul), were inspired by God to translate YHWH as kurios.  In fact, the New Testament is consistent in translating YHWH as kurios.  So clearly kurios is an acceptable Greek translation of YHWH. 

The meaning of kurios

But what does kurios mean?  In the examples covered above kurios has been translated Lord.  Is this correct?  Let’s check some other examples.

Here is an example of Jesus speaking to the disciples.

Mat 10:24  “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master [kurios].

Here is an example in Peter’s letter.

1Pe 3:6  as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord [kurios], whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.

Thus we see that the Greek word kurios means Lord or Master.

Conclusion

Under inspiration of God the New Testament writers translated YHWH as kurios, and as we have seen kurios means Lord or Master.  Therefore, LORD is an acceptable English translation of YHWH.

The fact that the writers of the New Testament did not transliterate YHWH, but rather translated it, tells us something important. They didn’t view YHWH as a special name of God that had to be transliterated and carried letter for letter from Hebrew to Greek.  Rather, they viewed YHWH as descriptive of who God is – our Lord and Master.