Abstract
The Tetragrammaton has great significance in Judaism and Christianity. Hebraist George Howard has proposed a theory of New Testament documentary origins. On the basis of early Septuagint/Old Greek (LXX/OG) manuscript findings, Howard has suggested that the Tetragrammaton has played a part in the transmission history of the New Testament. The New Testament writers, according to Howard, would have retained the Tetragrammaton in their Old Testament citations. With the success of the Gentile mission, uninformed copyists replaced the Tetragrammaton with the Greek word κύριος [Lord]. The result was that passages that applied only to YHWH were now applied in error to both the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ so that the high Christology of the New Testament was, in part, artificially elevated through scribal corruption. A detailed response is in order to evaluate the validity of Howard’s thesis. As a test case, the LXX/OG quotation from Joel 2:32 (3:5) in Romans 10:13 is examined to determine the proper referent of the linked word Lord . Contextual and grammatical indicators point to Jesus as the ‘Lord’ in the passage. Combined with documentary evidence, the Tetragrammaton thesis fails to convince. The final section of research applies the findings to two Divine Name Bibles, and the suitability of the Tetragrammaton in anglicised or Hebrew characters, as a translation option, is evaluated.
Highlights
In 1977, George Howard published a theory which has exerted some influence in the areas of New Testament and Septuagint (LXX) studies (e.g. Howard 1992c; Trobisch 2000).1 Howard argues that the text of the New Testament has experienced a systematic scribal corruption with far-reaching textual and Christological implications
Captured in Romans 10:13 is the climax of Paul’s elevated Christology. In this verse comes the intersection of Old and New Testaments in the invocation of the Divine κύριος resulting in salvation for all
Jesus is the centre of saving faith; he is the ‘stumbling stone’ to the Jews, a role that YHWH has played in the history of Israel
Summary
In 1977, George Howard published a theory which has exerted some influence in the areas of New Testament and Septuagint (LXX) studies (e.g. Howard 1992c; Trobisch 2000). Howard argues that the text of the New Testament has experienced a systematic scribal corruption with far-reaching textual and Christological implications. Paul’s generalised statement in Romans 10:10 continues to emphasise the wide scope of salvation’s recipients: ‘for with the heart one believes (πιστεύεται), resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses (ὁμολογεῖται), resulting in salvation’ (based on NASV; NA28, [author’s own italics]) Paul continues what he started in Romans 1:16 (παντί) and 10:4 (παντί), and he continues this widening of the scope of salvation with the same word in verses (πᾶς), (πάντων, πάντας) and (πᾶς). In Romans 10:12, Paul brings together the two objectives of his rhetorical argument: ‘For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him’ (οὐ γάρ ἐστιν διαστολὴ Ἰουδαίου τε καὶ Ἕλληνος, ὁ γὰρ αὐτὸς κύριος πάντων, πλουτῶν εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους αὐτόν [ESV; NA28]). The placement of this well-known passage in a section (Rm 9–11) dealing with Israel and salvation would only accentuate the Divine Name connection
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