6: Why Is “LORD” Often In All Caps In The Bible?

Welcome back to the Ready for Eternity podcast, I'm Eddie Lawrence. Have you ever noticed that often the letters in the word

LORD are all uppercase in the Bible, and other times the

Bible only capitalizes the first letter? Both LORD in all caps and LORD with only the first letter capitalized refer to God, but why is there a difference?

In this episode, let's answer the question, why is LORD often in all caps in the

Bible? Bible translators use all capital letters when translating the four -letter

Hebrew name for God. Ancient Hebrew had no written vowels. Of course, they pronounced the vowels, but the written

Hebrew alphabet only had consonants. Because of this,

God's name was spelled YHWH in ancient

Hebrew. In English, YHWH is often accompanied with the vowels

A and E, resulting in Yahweh. During the later

Old Testament period, the ancient Jews came to believe that God's name was too holy to be spoken out loud, and as time passed, they actually forgot how to pronounce

God's name. Eventually, everyone who knew what vowels belonged in God's name had passed away, and because their alphabet lacked written vowels, they lost the knowledge of the correct pronunciation of God's name.

Translators of English Bibles have chosen to respect the Jewish custom of not spelling out

God's name. Therefore, rather than transliterating the Hebrew letters that are the equivalent of YHWH in English, they simply use the word

LORD in all capital letters. So, when you see LORD in all caps in the

Bible, it is referring to God's proper name. That we pronounce

YHWH. Scholars refer to God's four -letter name as the

TETRAGRAMMATON. We don't know with certainty what the correct pronunciation of the

TETRAGRAMMATON is. Likewise, the meaning of the TETRAGRAMMATON is difficult to nail down precisely.

Scholars believe its meaning is some variation of I exist because I exist, or I will exist because I will exist, or I am who

I am, I will be who I will be, and I am that which exists.

It is this name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. He told

Moses to tell those who asked his name that it is I am.

Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me,

What is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who

I am, and he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

Exodus 3 13 and 14 In the recent past, it was common to hear

God's proper name pronounced Jehovah by English speakers. This is actually a misnomer.

The word Jehovah was introduced into English Bibles by William Tyndale. Jehovah appeared in a few early

English translations, most notably the King James version. But where did this word

Jehovah come from? The Jews who wished to respect God's name would say

Adonai whenever they encountered the Tetragrammaton in the Old Testament scriptures.

Adonai is the Hebrew word for Lord. The Jewish scribes adopted a practice of adding additional letters to the name

YHWH in the scriptures.

Whenever they wrote the name YHWH, they placed the vowels from the word

Adonai in between the consonants of the Tetragrammaton. The result was

Y -A -H -O -W -A -H.

If you say this word out loud, it's easy to hear the beginnings of the

English word Jehovah. If it had been spoken out loud, it would have sounded like Y -A -H -O -W -A -H.

The Jews never pronounced this. It was just a made -up word which was used as a visual cue when someone was reading the scriptures out loud to say

Adonai instead of YHWH. So what does Lord in mixed case mean?

Lord with a capital L with the remaining letters in lowercase. The word Lord refers to someone of higher rank.

Lord was a term of respect similar to the way we may use Sir today, or maybe the way we would use the word

Boss, someone who's in a superior position. The Bible applies the word Lord to humans as well as to God.

The context of the passage will make it clear who is under consideration. Now you know the difference between Lord in all uppercase and Lord in mixed case.

And you know where the English word Jehovah came from. or reach out on Twitter.

That's all for now. Keep studying your Bible, growing closer to God, and getting ready for eternity.