G-d or God?

[catholic_heart]

Hey, I've noticed that several people in this and other communities, when referring to God, omit the middle vowel. My assumption has always been that this is a mimick of the Jewish practice of removing the vowels from Yahweh and thus writing God's name as YHWH. I'm wondering why people do it with God? In the case of YHWH it is an attempt to

Comments

[gtrnvox]

While you are correct that G-d is not a direct translation of the Name, it is essentially the English Name, as it is a written as a proper noun -- in English that is either a place name or a personal name.

As an English-speaker I believe irreverent use of "God" or "Lord" is in direct conflict with the commands against using the divine name in vain; if not literally, then in the spirit of fearing the Lord.

However, in the Septuagint, θεός (theos; "God") is most often used as the equivalent of Adonai. And κύριος (kyrios; "Lord") is used in place of the four letters. Both would be considered appropriate to use instead of the divine name, no? Or would a modern Jew believe that the translators of the LXX did not go far enough?

The current use of an transliteration of the Name as appearing in the Bible is actually a little disturbing to me.

Are you referring to the common use of LORD in place of the name?

In Hebrew, we would use "Adonai" which is plural for "Adon" or "Lord" whenever the text reads Yud Hay Vav Hay because it is absolutely forbidden to speak G-d's name aloud.

I've been curious about this myself. Does this rise from the Septuagint translation of Leviticus 24:16? It's very different than the Masoretic text of the same verse, which forbids blaspheming the divine name (where here just naming the name is forbidden): And he that names the name of the Lord, let him die the death: let all the congregation of Israel stone him with stones; whether he be a stranger or a native, let him die for naming the name of the Lord. (Leviticus 24:16, LXX)

[pastorlenny]

The current use of an transliteration of the Name as appearing in the Bible is actually a little disturbing to me.

I believe that by "transliteration" he was referring to the use of YHWH or Yahweh or Jehovah, rather than "translation" of the tetragram as "Lord."

[gtrnvox]

There aren't many Bibles that use Yahweh/Jehovah, so I wondered if malasadas meant something else (since LORD is neither transliteration nor translation, but is the most common place marker in English Bibles).

[pastorlenny]

Might be because the Schocken translation came up in a slightly earlier post. Not sure if you saw that one.