In part one I said that I believe that the Scriptures in their original language, are the inerrant, infallable word of Elohim. I also said that translations are NOT inerrant nor infallable. So every English translation or any other language will have errors. I submit to you, that the only way to fully glean the truth of the Scriptures is to go back to the ORIGINAL LANGUAGE. That means studying the Scriptures in ancient Hebrew (known as Biblical Hebrew). When you do this, you will see the errors that the translators have made in their translations. I said in part one that I would deal with one of these errors in this part, and so that is what I intend on doing.
I am going to deal with the most important word in all of Scripture. This word has been totally ignored for the better part of 2000 years. It is this word that is at the very core of the Scriptures. What is this word you ask? Before I answer that, let me say this. This word is used 6,528 times in the Tanak (OT). The word in your English bible will read like this ” the LORD”. In the Hebrew manuscripts it is יהוה
This is the Personal Name of the Elohim of Israel, the Creator of all the earth. And this is the single biggest translation error made in all of Scripture. I want to suggest to you that we have been duped. I want to suggest to you that the Elohim of the Bible is not called “LORD, God” or any of those combinations. The scriptures are very clear that Elohim has a Name. In Isaiah 42:8 it says “I am יהוה, that is My Name, and My esteem I do not give to another, nor My praise to idols.” (Did you notice how his esteem (glory) is connected to his name??)
But the question is this; surely the translators know what they are doing and there must be a reason for them to translate יהוה into ‘the LORD’? And to that question I would say yes, there is a reason why they do it. You must understand that the original translators of the first English bible were trained to read and write Hebrew by Jewish Rabbis and Scholars. Why is that important? Because Jewish people are taught that the Name of Elohim is too Holy to utter or to speak. So every time they see the Name יהוה they will not speak it but will either say “haShem” or “Adonai”. There is absolutely no scriptural reason for doing this. This is a man made law and takes away from Elohim’s Name. Because the English translators were schooled by these Jewish Rabbis, when they came to translate the Scriptures, every time they saw the Name יהוה, they replaced it with “the LORD”. So this tradition has been past down from teacher to student and today it is an observed custom. But why translate as “the LORD”? They used that title because “Adonai” means Lord.
There are a number of problems with doing this. Firstly “lord” is a title and NOT a name. So how can they replace a Name with a Title? Doing this goes against the very rules of translation that are used in translating every language in the world, but when it comes to scripture and religious beliefs it gets changed to suite peoples agendas. You can ask any translator of any piece of writing (even the Scriptures) and they will tell you that every word is “translated” from the one language to the other, but Proper Nouns (names of people and places) are NEVER translated! Proper names are ALWAYS transliterated. What does that mean? In Hebrew the word for earth is Adamah. Now when translating Adamah into English, its equivalent to that word would be earth. That is a translation. But now if you take my name, for example, “Bernard” and go to Germany, China, Israel or any other country in the world, and somebody asks me my name, I will tell them “Bernard”. Because they can HEAR the way my name SOUNDS they can say my name albeit with an accent, and possibly with some difficulty. They will call me “Bernard” because that is my name. The problem comes in when I go to a country that does not use the same alphabet as us and they want to write my name. They will have to transliterate it from Bernard to a word that is as close to that as possible in their language. So when we speak it, it stays the same, but when it needs to be written in a language with a different lettering system, it needs to be transliterated.
So with the Name of Elohim, if the translators were following the proper rules for translation and not their religious bias, then His Name יהוה would have been transliterated into the English exactly like this, if using JUST the four letters of His name, “YHVH”. By doing that we would still have His name and not a Title. The pronunciation of His Name is a whole other debate that I am not going to get into. For me I pronounce His Name “Yehovah”. If you want to read a very informed piece of writing on the pronunciation of His name, I suggest 2 books. The first “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence” by Nehemiah Gordon. The second “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again” by Keith Johnson.
Some people will even try to tell you that “the LORD” is a direct translation of His Name. The problem with that is two fold. Firstly, that is breaking the universal laws of translation and secondly, His Name means “The same yesterday, today and forever”. It does not mean anything close to “the LORD”. Saying that, I would like to put this thought in. I believe that the enemy has used “the LORD” purposely and that “the LORD” is not just a title but is actually a translation of a name of “another” god. One of the gods that Israel kept on turning aside to, was the pagan god known as “Ba’al”. The name of that god means “the LORD” or “LORD”. So the question remains, which god have Christians been calling on for the better part of the last 2000 years? I want to leave a verse with you that has a very different meaning if you understand what His Name is, “Whoever calls on the Name of Yehovah shall be saved”.
In Part 3 I will deal with more reasons why we need to call Elohim (God) by His NAME that HE gave US.
Love Yehovah and live in peace.
Torah Restoration 