God, YHWH, Jehovah, Adonai, LORD, Lord, and Jesus

Here is a quick Bible lesson on something potentially confusing, but I do a lot of editing and review for Bible teachers, and it seems this might be helpful to a lot of people to see this written concisely:

The word “LORD,” written in all caps in the Old Testament of our English Bibles, is a symbol for the Hebrew name of God revealed to Moses. In Hebrew, this name is represented by four consonants, which transliterated into English are YHWH. It means something to the effect of “I am who I am” and is sometimes written today as “Yahweh.” However, out of reverence, this name was typically neither pronounced nor written directly. Instead, ancient scribes would use a form such as “Jehovah” or “Yehowah.” These were not actual names but written symbols, created by combining the vowels of Adonai (a word meaning “lord” or “sir”) with the consonants YHWH. The name of God was not spoken aloud, and the symbol representing it was not intended to be pronounced either, as it was not an actual word. “Jehovah” then is not really God’s name but a symbolic representation of His name. When encountering the symbol for God’s name in the Old Testament, readers would say “Adonai” (meaning “lord”) or “Adoshem” (literally “the name of the Lord”). Calling Jesus “Christ the Lord” in Luke 2:11 carries the implication of calling Jesus “God.” Anyone who knew both Hebrew and Greek would see the equivalent for both Messiah and Adonai being used together in Greek (Christus kurious). This combination explicitly identifies the Messiah with the LORD of the Old Testament.

“no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

“in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15)

“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)