I. Important OT Terms
A. ˒āḏôn Basically denoting the right to command, this honorific title (found more than 300 times) was used: (1) as a courteous form of address (“Sir,” e.g., 2 S. 1:10); (2) when a subordinate addressed a person of superior rank, such as God (
Ps. 97:5;
Isa. 1:24), a king (
Isa. 26:13), a master (
Gen. 24:18), a father (31:35), or a husband (18:12). The form ˒aḏōnî (“my lord”) (pl ˒aḏōnay), a royal title (1 S. 29:8), is to be carefully distinguished from the divine title ˒aḏōnāy (“my Lord,” “Lord,” or “O Lord”), used over 130 times of Yahweh, especially in the Psalms and Isaiah (see I.C below).
B. YHWH These four consonants, which form the so-called tetragrammaton, are usually vocalized Yahweh. This form has been explained in various ways: (1) as a substantive from the root hwh (an old form of hyh, “be, become”) with the preformative y, meaning “the self-existent One”; (2) as an archaic imperfect qal form of hwh (equivalent to yihyeh), meaning “He exists” and alluding to the divine self-existence; (3) as the imperfect hiphil of this same root, meaning either “He who brings into existence” (a reference to the creative activity of God) or “He who causes to come to pass” (a reference to the divine providence); (4) as an abbreviation of yahweh ˒ašir yihweh (cf.
Ex. 3:14), “He brings into being whatever exists.”
Unlike ˒ĕlōhîm, a common or generic noun which is the general name for deity, Yahweh is a proper noun, the personal name of Israel’s God, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (
Ex. 3:15).
Ex. 6:3 implies, not that the patriarchs did not call God “Yahweh,” but that, knowing Him as ˒ēl šadday (
Gen. 17:1), they lacked knowledge of His character or nature as expressed by the name Yahweh.
C. ˒aḏōnāy Like ˒ĕlōhîm, this form is often explained as a plural of majesty, excellence, or intensity (lit “my Lords,” the special plural form distinguishing it from ˒aḏōnay, “my lords”). Others interpret ˒aḏōnāy as meaning “Lord of all” (e.g., Eissfeldt). In either case the form highlights the power and sovereignty of Yahweh as “Lord.”
The postexilic Jewish practice of substituting ˒aḏōnāy (or ˒ĕlōhîm) for Yahweh in the public reading or reciting of the Scriptures may have arisen from
Lev. 24:16, interpreted (erroneously) to mean that the simple utterance of the sacred tetragrammaton was a capital offense, or from the fear that to pronounce the divine name would be to reduce God to the status of a pagan deity who was addressed by a personal name.
This customary substitution of ˒aḏōnāy (“Lord”) for Yahweh, due to the reverential avoidance of the ineffable name of the God of Israel, explains: (1) why Greek-speaking Jews in the 1st cent A.D. (and probably before) regularly used Kýrios (“Lord”), the Greek equivalent of ˒aḏōnāy, to refer to God; (2) why the Masoretes in the 7th cent A.D. vocalized the consonants YHWH with the vowels of ˒aḏōnāy (which in turn produced the hybrid English form “Jehovah”); (3) why English Bibles commonly use “LORD” for Yahweh and Latin versions use Dominus. (Where the Hebrew is ˒aḏōnāy Yahweh [e.g.,
Gen. 15:2, 8], the AV, RSV, and NEB have “Lord GOD” [the ASV has “Lord Jehovah”] to avoid the repetition of “Lord.”)
. Vol. 3: The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised. 1979–1988 (G. W. Bromiley, Ed.) (157). Wm. B. Eerdmans.
Linear Mode
