Essays on Bible words

with important theological meanings

(Sometimes called ‘Key Terms’)

Yahweh

The Open English Translation translators maintain that the tradition of replacing God’s name with the substitution ‘LORD’ is not the most helpful for most English readers, and in fact can be quite misleading. Sadly, it’s become a well-established tradition in both English Bible translations and in English-speaking church services, so changing it now will feel odd for a time (but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make the effort).

The following notes are adapted from unfoldingWord’s notes for translators.

Facts:

The term ‘Yahweh’ is God’s personal name in the Old Testament. The specific origin of this name is unknown, but it’s probably derived from the Hebrew verb meaning, ‘to be’.

Following tradition, many older Bible translations (and even more recent ones that place tradition above accuracy and common sense) use the term ‘LORD’ or ‘the LORD’ to represent ‘Yahweh’. This old-fashioned tradition resulted from the fact that historically, the Jewish people became afraid of mispronouncing Yahweh’s name and started saying ‘Lord’ (Hebrew ‘Adonai’) every time the term ‘Yahweh’ appeared in the text. Modern Bibles write ‘LORD’ with all capital letters out of tradition and to distinguish it from ‘Lord’ which is a different Hebrew word and is translated as ‘master’ in the OET.
The Open English Translation Readers Version and Literal Version always translate this term as ‘Yahweh’ in agreement with the text of the Hebrew scriptures.
The term ‘Yahweh’ never occurs in the original text of the New Testament Messianic update; only the Greek term for ‘Master/Lord’ is used, even when quoting the Hebrew scriptures.
In the Hebrew scriptures, when God spoke about himself, he would often use his name instead of a pronoun. (In our Readers Version, we adjust this to way modern English uses pronouns.)
‘Yah’ is a shortened form of the name Yahweh that occurs in poetry and praise (e.g. Hallelujah = ‘Praise Yah’), and in some Hebrew names (e.g. Zechariah = ‘Yah remembers’).
Some traditions have used ‘Jehovah’ (we’d prefer the spelling ‘Yehovah’ or ‘Yehowah’) rather than ‘Yahweh’ for God’s name. Although we understand this to be less likely to be correct, we would consider that to still be better than replacing the name with ‘LORD’.

Other translation possibilities:

‘Yahweh’ could be translated by a word or phrase that means ‘I am’ or ‘existing one’ or ‘the one who is’ or ‘he who is present’.
This term could also be written in a way that is similar to how ‘Yahweh’ is spelled.
Some church denominations prefer not to use the term ‘Yahweh’ and instead use the traditional rendering, ‘LORD’. An important consideration is that this may be confusing when read aloud because it will sound the same as the title ‘Lord’. Some languages may have an affix or other grammatical marker that could be added to distinguish ‘LORD’ as a name (Yahweh) from ‘Lord’ or ‘master’ as a title.
Some might consider it best, if possible, to keep the name Yahweh where it literally occurs in the text, but other translations may decide to use only a pronoun in some places to make the text more natural and clear.
Introduce the quote with something like, ‘This is what Yahweh says’.

(Translation suggestions: How to Translate Names)

(See also: God, Lord)

Bible References:

Examples from the Open Bible stories:

9:14 God said, “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ Also tell them, ‘I am Yahweh, the God of your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is my name forever.’”
13:4 Then God gave them the covenant and said, “I am Yahweh, your God, who saved you from slavery in Egypt. Do not worship other gods.”
13:5 “Do not make idols or worship them, for I, Yahweh, am a jealous God.”
16:1 The Israelites began to worship the Canaanite gods instead of Yahweh, the true God.
19:10 Then Elijah prayed, “O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, show us today that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant.”

Word Data:

Strong’s: H3068, H3069, H3050.