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I've never understood the need to list the name of God twice in the Old Testament. They kept writing: "The LORD God". I always thought it was weird. Why not just say "The Lord" or "God"?
But I realize now that the LORD is actually Jehovah (the name of a god), and God is just a title (Elohim)
So they are saying: Jehovah God. (Like saying: Teacher John, in case someone didn't know which teacher they were talking about).
Since many people believed in many gods, I guess the writer wanted to make sure all knew WHICH god he was talking about.
But for some reason it was translated as "The LORD" rather than Jehovah.
I've never understood the need to list the name of God twice in the Old Testament. They kept writing: "The LORD God". I always thought it was weird. Why not just say "The Lord" or "God"?
But I realize now that the LORD is actually Jehovah (the name of a god), and God is just a title (Elohim)
So they are saying: Jehovah God. (Like saying: Teacher John, in case someone didn't know which teacher they were talking about).
Since many people believed in many gods, I guess the writer wanted to make sure all knew WHICH god he was talking about.
But for some reason it was translated as "The LORD" rather than Jehovah.
It is forbidden for a Jew to say the name of God aloud. When reading scriptures out loud and they come to YHWH they say Adonai (Lord) instead. In English translations of the Old Testament, YHWH is often rendered as LORD (all caps) in accordance with that custom. When the English says God, the original would have been Elohim or one of the variants of that. LORD and God appear in the Bible much more often separately than together.
When the Masoretic Text - definitive Hebrew text of the Jewish scriptures - was assembled, written Hebrew had evolved to include vowel markings. Originally only consonants were written down. The vowel markings for the word YHWH were unknown since it was never spoken. Since it never was to be pronounced, the vowel markings for Adonai were added as a reminder to say Adonai. Trying to pronounce this compound word would result in something like Yehovah. Since the early Bible scholars were German this was written as Jehovah, J generally taking the place of Y in German.
Yep, I wouldn't make much of "Lord God", it is an affectation of the translators really AFAIK. A way of saying, "our Lord, God himself" or something along those lines. Technically a god can be god but not your lord ... a charge that a theist would make of an unbeliever such as myself, I suppose, as they always forget that you can't submit to the authority of a being that you don't have reason to believe even exists. "Lord god" is a way of acknowledging the god's lordship over you, and/or your fealty to the god.
But the combination Lord God appears only 59 times
Is this a big deal?
Since the books were written at different times, possibly reflecting a bit different beliefs, I guess I am referring to the time where that WAS used, namely in Genesis. In later writings maybe Jews did assume that there was only one God and there was no need to specify a name... But in Genesis, people lived under a different understanding of reality.
Since the books were written at different times, possibly reflecting a bit different beliefs, I guess I am referring to the time where that WAS used, namely in Genesis. In later writings maybe Jews did assume that there was only one God and there was no need to specify a name... But in Genesis, people lived under a different understanding of reality.
Don't forget Lord of Hosts.. Zechariah 8 King James Version (KJV)
8 Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,
2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.
3 Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain.
4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.
5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
6 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts.
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;
8 And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
It is forbidden for a Jew to say the name of God aloud. When reading scriptures out loud and they come to YHWH they say Adonai (Lord) instead. In English translations of the Old Testament, YHWH is often rendered as LORD (all caps) in accordance with that custom. When the English says God, the original would have been Elohim or one of the variants of that. LORD and God appear in the Bible much more often separately than together.
When the Masoretic Text - definitive Hebrew text of the Jewish scriptures - was assembled, written Hebrew had evolved to include vowel markings. Originally only consonants were written down. The vowel markings for the word YHWH were unknown since it was never spoken. Since it never was to be pronounced, the vowel markings for Adonai were added as a reminder to say Adonai. Trying to pronounce this compound word would result in something like Yehovah. Since the early Bible scholars were German this was written as Jehovah, J generally taking the place of Y in German.
Yes, I agree. When I visited the Jewish forum, they wouldn't even write the word, God. They wrote it as G-D.
I read that back during Biblical days, "lord" was a term everybody used for those of higher rank. So, God was as high as you could get back then, so "Lord" became the substitute for YHWH. In reading my Bible, I have found that "lord" (as we would use "sir") was used for higher ranking people as a sign of respect.
I had also read that the original translation (from somewhere) was something like Yehowah. The German one sounds better.
There were a number of gods in the Bible. Jehovah was ours and Jehovah proclaimed He was the one and only living God. It does seem strange that we settled on "God" since that was kind of a generic name for the various gods of the day. So, technically, His name isn't "Lord" or "God" or "Lord God" - even though that is what I call Him.
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