Which "Lord" are we talking about?
The Name of God Almighty YHWH occur 6,828 times in the Hebrew scriptures, and is rendered as "the LORD" (all capital letters) whereas the Hebrew title Adoni (my Master) is translated "Lord" (small letters) in our English bibles. Thus, the well known prophetic verse Psalm 110:1 where YHWH spoke to the Messiah, David's adoni. is rendered as follows:
The LORD (YHWH) says to my lord (adoni):“Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
When the OT was translated into Greek sometime around the 3rd century BCE (the Septuagint), a new level of ambiguity arose because the entire Greek text used only capital letters. The word "KURIOS" was used to translate both YHWH as well as adoni, with no distinction whatsoever in the letter case. It thus became somewhat difficult to make out when the Septuagint was referring to the Name of God YHWH and when it was referring to the title of adoni or my Master.
This ambiguity spilled over into the NT Greek manuscripts when the apostles quoted from the Septuagint and continued the practice of using KURIOS to refer to both YHWH and Master, using only capital letters in all their writings.
Today, we have inherited this confusion in our English translations of the Greek NT, using only "the Lord" to refer to both YHWH as well as Master.
For example, Psalm 110:1, quoted by Jesus in his question to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:44, is rendered as follows (I have used all capitals, just like in the Greek text):
‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD,
“SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND,
UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET”’?
In view of this ambiguity over the use of "the Lord" I'd like to ask a question: How do we go about identifying references to YHWH in the NT and distinguishing them from references to the title (Master) for the Messiah?
(To be continued).
