Why do most English Bibles have LORD instead of Jehovah?

Answer 1

Jehovah is not the actual Name of God. The Jews used "initials" instead of writing the Holy Name of God, for fear of using the Holy Name or speaking it.

Jehovah is composed of the abbreviated forms of the imperfect, the participle, and the perfect of the Hebrew verb "to be" (ye=yehi; ho=howeh; wa=hawah). According to this explanation, the meaning of Jehovah would be "he who will be, is, and has been". But such a word-formation has no analogy in the Hebrew language

As the Divine name is an imperfect form of the archaic Hebrew verb "to be", Jahveh means "He Who is",

[On Mt. Sinai: The Lord said: I AM Who AM is my name.]


I. History OF JEHOVAH
The Fathers and the Rabbinic writers agree in representing Jehovah as an ineffable name. As to the Fathers, we only need draw attention to the following expressions: onoma arreton, aphraston, alekton, aphthegkton, anekphoneton, aporreton kai hrethenai me dynamenon, mystikon. Leusden could not induce a certain Jew, in spite of his poverty, to pronounce the real name of God, though he held out the most alluring promises. The Jew's compliance with Leusden's wishes would not indeed have been of any real advantage to the latter; for the modern Jews are as uncertain of the real pronunciation of the Sacred name as their Christian contemporaries. According to a Rabbinic tradition the real pronunciation of Jehovah ceased to be used at the time of Simeon the Just, who was, according to Maimonides, a contemporary of Alexander the Great. At any rate, it appears that the name was no longer pronounced after the destruction of the Temple. The Mishna refers to our question more than once: Berachoth, ix, 5, allows the use of the Divine name by way of salutation; in Sanhedrin, x, 1, Abba Shaul refuses any share in the future world to those who pronounce it as it is written; according to Thamid, vii, 2, the priests in the Temple (or perhaps in Jerusalem) might employ the true Divine name, while the priests in the country (outside Jerusalem) had to be contented with the name Adonai; according to Maimonides

As to the earlier tradition, Josephus (Antiq., II, xii, 4) declares that he is not allowed to treat of the Divine name; in another place (Antiq., XII, v, 5) he says that the Samaritans erected on Mt. Garizim an anonymon ieron. This extreme veneration for the Divine name must have generally prevailed at the time when the Septuagint version was made, for the translators always substitute Kyrios (Lord) for Jehovah

Answer 2

"don't panic" has given the right answer. "Jehovah" is a mistransliteration of the kethib YHWH which nobody knows how to pronoucce, with the vowel points from adonai, the kere or read-out form of the word.

By the late second temple period, YHWH was only pronounced once a year, by the high priest on Yom Kippur, so it hasn't been said since the first century and nobody now knows what it sounds like. English translations print LORD where the Jews would read YHWH as "Adonai" which means lord. They print lord or Lord where it just says Adonai.

Answer 3

Jehovah is actually a mistake. The Hebrew 'name' for G-d is four letters which are unpronouncable; any attempt to do so will be necessarily incomplete. It's actually quite a profound piece of theological practice, a constant reminder that some things are unknowable. Out of respect for that tradition, I won't write the letters here.

Because there needs to be a vocalisation for this unpronouncable name, the title "Adonai" (literally master, but translated as lord) is used. That's an old convention; I don't know how it originated, but it works quite well. LORD in capitals indicates this in English. 'Lord' indicates where 'adonai' is simply 'adonai.'

Hebrew vowels are designated by 'points', wee marks under the letters. In order to ensure that the 'name' isn't accidentally attempted, the vowels are for Adonai. Jehovah comes from trying to read this literally and make a word out of the four letters and the points/vowels for Adonai.

There is nothing sacred about 'Jehovah'. It comes from a misunderstanding of Jewish practice, like so much of Christianity.

Answer 4

The latter doesn't appear in the original language as Hebrew has no 'J' sound; and the word it represents was not vowelized properly by the Mesorets (purposefully), and they are the ones who gave the vowels to the Hebrew. SO, basically, it is not known how to pronounce it.

The Hebrew reading tradition was to say the hebrew word for L-rd when it was read. The KJV used the same technique but capitalized all letters to indicate whether it was G-d's proper name, or just a title being used.

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

Lord is the usual word in English, like Jehovah would be an Hebrew name or Allah an Arabic name.

Answer 6

The proper Hebrew word for I am is Ehyeh (Pronounced ā-yă), or I am that I am is Ehyeh asher ehyeh. I do not know where you get Jehovah or Yahweh from Ehyeh. They don't even sound close.

Regardless, language is not important, if it were John 8:58 "Before Abraham was, I am" would read I am in Hebrew not Greek.

We use LORD because it is synonymous with Adonai, which means Lord and was what most Israelites used in replace of YHWH.

Answer 7

Their own view of what is appropriate has been relied on as the basis for removing from the Holy Bible the personal name of its Divine Author, Jehovah, whose name appears in the original Hebrew הוהי YHWH more often than any other name or any title. They follow the example of the adherents of Judaism, of whom Jesus said: “You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.”—Matthew 15:6.

Answer 8

Mr.cal good answer.Jehovah wants us to call him by his name,so we can be his friend.you wouldn't call your close friend girl or boy or person,hey you,etc,this would be highly impersonal.we call our friends by their first name.this shows our closeness and love and respect for that person.turn to psalms 83:18-that people may know you whose name is Jehovah you alone are the MOST HIGH over all the earth.so you can see we must call him by his name because he wants people to know him.they took his name out because at the time some believed it was inappropriate to say GODS name.this is a manipulation by the devil to blind the minds of unbelievers.go to the web site listed by mr.cal.it will give you allot of info.also look in your phone book under kingdom halls,call and any of Jehovah's people will come and show you from the bible,because that's where it should be proven from.

Answer 9

Jehovah is an Anglicize misrendering and not the correct pronunciation of the original Hebrew Tetragrammation YHWH. The correct name is Yahweh which means God is the self-existing Eternal One. So if one uses Lord, Jehovah, God, Father etc. it is the same. In Matthew 11:25 Jesus began his prayers by saying "Our Father which is in Heaven..." not "Our Jehovah." Love, be bless.

Answer 10

Jehovah is not the real name of God, Lord is a title.I was taught Gods name was secret, i am starting to believe that, i have never seen anyone here say Gods name.