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Bible Dictionaries
Lord
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or LORD. The Heb. OT has three leading names for God: (1) ‘the name of four letters’ ( lelragrammaton ) JHWH (familiar to us in the incorrect form ‘Jehovah’; the real vocalization is almost certainly ‘Jahweh’ [see God, p. 299 b ]); (2) Adonai; (3) Elohim . By a misinterpretation of Leviticus 24:15 the Jews shrank from uttering the first of these, and added to its four consonants, in their reading of the OT, the vowels of either Adonai or Elohim . When the vowels of the former were added, the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] generally translate the word by ‘Lord’; when those of the latter, by ‘God’; using small capitals in each case. If, however, Adonai is originally in the text, they represent it by ‘Lord,’ using an initial capital only. Thus in the OT ‘Lord ‘represents Jahweh when it was read as Adonai; and ‘Lord’ represents Adonai when it stands in the original text. This distinctive printing is not observed in the NT. There are several other Hebrew words in the OT expressing the general Idea of lordship, which are rendered by ‘lord’ ( Genesis 45:8 , Joshua 13:3 , Ezra 8:25 etc.).
In the NT ‘Lord’ is used once as tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of Rabboni ( Mark 10:51 ), and five times of despotçs ( Luke 2:29 , Acts 4:24 , 2 Peter 2:1 , Judges 1:4 , Revelation 6:10 ); in all the latter cases the RV [Note: Revised Version.] has ‘ master ’ in text or margin. Elsewhere it represents kyrios , applying the title (1) to God ( Matthew 1:20 , Acts 5:19 etc.); (2) to Christ ( Luke 6:46 , John 20:28 etc.). Indeed, as applied to Christ, it is the highest confession of His Person ( 1 Corinthians 12:3 , Romans 10:9 , Revelation 19:16 ). The form ‘lord’ In NT indicates mere possession of authority ( Matthew 18:25 , Luke 16:8 etc.).
Charles T. P. Grierson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Lord'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/l/lord.html. 1909.
