Why don't Protestant Bibles have Jehovah/Yahweh?

[Omyo12]

• יהוה= YHWH in Hebrew
• Κύριος = Lord in Greek
• Dominus = Lord in Latin

The notion that the Divine Name is ineffable is a Jewish tradition upheld by the Church Fathers.

The LXX was the Old Testament to the earliest Gentile Christians.
In it, Κύριος was substituted in place of יהוה (some of the pre-Christian fragments found leave it untransliterated).

St. Jerome was very influenced by the LXX in translating the Latin Vulgate from the Hebrew.
He translated where the LXX read Κύριος as Dominus (the Hebrew reading יהוה).

The official Old Testament of the Eastern Churches is still the LXX and the official Old Testament of the Roman Catholic Church is the Latin Vulgate. So I can understand why Catholic and Orthodox English Bibles would read Lord.

So my question is, since Protestants prefer returning to the Hebrew (hence rejecting the Apocrypha),
why do they follow the tradition of rendering יהוה as Lord?

The Bible never says the pronunciation of יהוה was not to be uttered.

The King James Version even translates it Jehovah 7 times.

 

[Dan_Parker]

• יהוה= YHWH in Hebrew
• Κύριος = Lord in Greek
• Dominus = Lord in Latin

The notion that the Divine Name is ineffable is a Jewish tradition upheld by the Church Fathers.

The LXX was the Old Testament to the earliest Gentile Christians.
In it, Κύριος was substituted in place of יהוה (some of the pre-Christian fragments found leave it untransliterated).

St. Jerome was very influenced by the LXX in translating the Latin Vulgate from the Hebrew.
He translated where the LXX read Κύριος as Dominus (the Hebrew reading יהוה).

The official Old Testament of the Eastern Churches is still the LXX and the official Old Testament of the Roman Catholic Church is the Latin Vulgate. So I can understand why Catholic and Orthodox English Bibles would read Lord.

So my question is, since Protestants prefer returning to the Hebrew (hence rejecting the Apocrypha),
why do they follow the tradition of rendering יהוה as Lord?

The Bible never says the pronunciation of יהוה was not to be uttered.

The King James Version even translates it Jehovah 7 times.

I know this is directed towards Protestant denominations and not Jehovah’s Witnesses, so I will just make a brief comment and allow them to respond. I appreciate your comment that some pre-Christian fragments of the LXX have the Hebrew tetragrammaton in them. That is true, however there are also fragments during Christian times that go back to the first century and also those that are more recent:

The following is part of an appendix in the Reference Edition of the New World Translation

*** Rbi8 pp. 1562-1563 1C The Divine Name in Ancient Greek Versions ***
1C The Divine Name in Ancient Greek Versions
Over the past several decades many fragments of ancient Greek versions of the Hebrew Scriptures have been discovered wherein the divine name was found written, usually in Hebrew letters. This indicates that the divine name was used in Greek versions until well into the ninth century C.E. We are presenting ten manuscripts that contain the divine name, along with pertinent information.

• **LXXP. Fouad **Inv. 266 renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in square Hebrew characters - in this collection the Tetragrammaton occurs 49 times in identified places in Deuteronomy. In addition, in this collection the Tetragrammaton occurs three times in unidentified fragments, namely, in fragments 116, 117 and 123. This papyrus, found in Egypt, was dated to the first century B.C.E.
• **LXXVTS 10a **renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters - This leather scroll, found in the Judean desert in a cave in Naḥal Ḥever, was dated to the end of the first century C.E. The fragments of this scroll were published in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Vol. X, Leiden, 1963, pp.*170-178.
• ** LXXIEJ 12 **renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters () in Jon 3:3. This shred of parchment, found in the Judean desert in a cave in Nahal Hever, was dated to the end of the first century C.E. It was published in Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 12, 1962, p.*203.
• LXXVTS 10b renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters () in the following places: Zec 8:20; 9:1, 1, 4. This parchment scroll, found in the Judean desert in a cave in Naḥal Ḥever, was **dated to the middle of the first century C.E. **It was published in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Vol. X, 1963, p.*178.
• ) LXXP. Oxy. VII.1007 renders the divine name by abbreviating the Tetragrammaton in the form of a double Yohdh () in Ge 2:8, 18. This vellum leaf, dated to the third century C.E., was published in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part VII, edited with translations and notes by Arthur S. Hunt, London, 1910, pp.*1, 2.
• **AqBurkitt **renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters () in the following places: 1Ki 20:13, 13, 14; 2Ki 23:12, 16, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27. These fragments of the Greek text of the version of Aquila were published by F. Crawford Burkitt in his work Fragments of the Books of Kings According to the Translation of Aquila, Cambridge, 1898, pp.*3-8. These palimpsest fragments of the books of Kings were found in the synagogue genizah in Cairo, Egypt. They were dated to the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth century C.E.
• AqTaylor renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters () in the following places: Ps 91:2, 9; 92:1, 4, 5, 8, 9; 96:7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13; 97:1, 5, 9, 10, 12; 102:15, 16, 19, 21; 103:1, 2, 6, 8. These fragments of the Greek text of the version of Aquila were published by C. Taylor in his work Hebrew-Greek Cairo Genizah Palimpsests, Cambridge, 1900, pp.*54-65. These fragments were dated after the middle of the fifth century C.E., but not later than the beginning of the sixth century C.E.
• **SymP. Vindob. G. 39777 **renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in archaic Hebrew characters ( or ) in the following places: Ps 69:13, 30, 31. This fragment of a parchment roll with part of Ps 69 in Symmachus (68 in LXX), kept in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, was dated to the third or fourth century C.E. It was published by Dr. Carl Wessely in Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskunde, Vol. XI., Leipzig, 1911, p.*171.
• **Ambrosian O 39 **sup. renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in square Hebrew characters () in all five columns in the following places: Ps 18:30, 31, 41, 46; 28:6, 7, 8; 29:1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3; 30:1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 10, 12; 31:1, 5, 6, 9, 21, 23, 23, 24; 32:10, 11; 35:1, 22, 24, 27; 36:Sup, 5; 46:7, 8, 11; 89:49 (in columns 1, 2 and 4), 51, 52. This codex, dated to the end of the ninth century C.E., has five columns. The first column contains a transliteration of the Hebrew text into Greek, the second column has the Greek version of Aquila, the third column has the Greek version of Symmachus, the fourth column contains the LXX and the fifth column contains the Greek version of Quinta. A facsimile edition of this palimpsest, together with a transcript of the text, was published in Rome in 1958 by Giovanni Mercati under the title Psalterii Hexapli Reliquiae . . . Pars prima. Codex Rescriptus Bybliothecae Ambrosianae O 39 sup. Phototypice Expressus et Transcriptus.

Dan

 

[Omyo12]

*** Rbi8 pp. 1562-1563 1C The Divine Name in Ancient Greek Versions ***
1C The Divine Name in Ancient Greek Versions
Over the past several decades many fragments of ancient Greek versions of the Hebrew Scriptures have been discovered wherein the divine name was found written, usually in Hebrew letters. This indicates that the divine name was used in Greek versions until well into the ninth century C.E. We are presenting ten manuscripts that contain the divine name, along with pertinent information.

• LXXP. Fouad Inv. 266 renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in square Hebrew characters …
• LXXVTS 10a renders the divine name by the** Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters -** …
• LXXIEJ 12 renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters …
• LXXVTS 10b renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters …
• LXXP. Oxy. VII.1007 renders the divine name by abbreviating the Tetragrammaton in the form of a double Yohdh …
• AqBurkitt renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters …
• AqTaylor renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters …
• SymP. Vindob. G. 39777 renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in archaic Hebrew characters …
• Ambrosian O 39 sup. renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in square Hebrew characters …

Dan

Thanks for the info!

The problem is what I left in bold. It doesn’t seem that the Divine Name was translated into Greek.
It also doesn’t prove the Divine Name was in use since the Masoretic Text still has יְהֹוָה (with vowel markings) but the Jewish people never pronounce it.

Of course these are still traditions, so it doesn’t affect my question to Sola Scriptura Protestants.

 

[Dan_Parker]

Thanks for the info!

The problem is what I left in bold. It doesn’t seem that the Divine Name was translated into Greek.
It also doesn’t prove the Divine Name was in use since the Masoretic Text still has יְהֹוָה (with vowel markings) but the Jewish people never pronounce it.

Of course these are still traditions, so it doesn’t affect my question to Sola Scriptura Protestants.

I am not sure what significance can be placed on the name not being translated, but I do recall it was translated as IAW in some documents.

What is also significant is that Christians retained the divine name in those copies of the LXX for centuries.

Dan