You hit the right question, Timothew. Even if we all agree that kurios means “lord,” what does “lord” mean? Could it mean “YHWH” particularly? Or something else more specifically? All translation involves interpretation and this is an instance where the rubber of interpretation meets the road of translation. Just because “lord” is correct doesn't necessarily mean that some other rendering isn't just as correct or more correct. The word “lord” in Hebrew also means “master/husband/owner/sovereign” and has many other connotations. The thing is: all words have semantic ranges. In different contexts, the same word could mean something completely different. For instance, the verb love in “I love chocolate” means something completely different than “let's make love” or “do you love me?” And if someone were going to translate my English verb “love” into a different language, they would use different words for those three uses of the same English word in order to communicate effectively and precisely what “love” means in those three instances of English. So the trick of translation is understanding the subtleties, ambiguities, and cultural contexts that give semantic meaning to a word. Whether a translation is “bad” or not depends upon whether the word it uses makes sense or not in terms of that semantic meaning. As Radagast says, “kurios” is used both for YHWH and Yeshua in the New Testament. Whether it is to “show Christ's divinity” or not is a matter of interpretation, but the fact remains that “kurios” can carry the specific connotation of YHWH. So there may be instances where YHWH is, in fact, a better and more specific translation of “kurios.” Just like there are probably cases where using the same word to translate the English word “love” would be a worse translation, so there are probably cases where translating “kurios” as “lord” is a worse translation. But in order to know where these circumstances might or might not be operative, one has to look at the context.
Radagast said:
If the only reason someone uses something like Yahweh or Jehovah for “kurios” is because they have an a priori agenda to downplay some doctrine they disagree with, then this would certainly be a case of mistranslation. Translation is about finding the best meaning in the target language that mimics the meaning in the source language, not rejecting a meaning in the target language because it conflicts with your doctrine. However, if these groups use something like Yahweh or Jehovah for “kurios” because that is a possible or even likely meaning of the source language, then that is not at all a mistranslation. So, like always, the only way to really know is to look at the context.
As Radagast mentions, Romans 10:13 is referencing Joel 2:32 in the LXX, which is Joel 3:5 in the Hebrew. The LXX uses “kurios” as a translation of the divine name in Hebrew. Here is the Hebrew:
וְהָיָ֗ה כֹּ֧ל אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָ֛א בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְהוָ֖ה יִמָּלֵ֑ט
Now, look, every [one] who calls on the name of YHWH will escape.
In this case, then, a translation of Rom 10:13 using “Jehovah, Yahweh, YHWH, LORD, etc” would be perfectly acceptable and even, perhaps, more correct than simply “lord,” because it would be nothing more than a direct translation of the Hebrew, which the LXX (quoted by Paul) was using “kurios” to represent. It is not, by any means, a mistranslation, but an interpretative move by the translator (which all translators must make) to communicate the meaning of “kurios” in this verse as accurately as possible.
If someone wants to make the argument that “lord” better represents the meaning of the Joel 3:5(Hebrew) and 2:32(LXX) passage here in Romans, they would have to present an equally compelling argument for why the passage doesn't mean to actually speak about YHWH when it quotes the text referring to YHWH. If they are able to, then “lord” would certainly be at least just as good and perhaps even better than something like “Jehovah, Yahweh, etc.”
In either case, it remains a fact that something isn't a bad translation either because it says “lord” or “Yahweh,” but because of what the intended meaning is and how that best makes sense in English.
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, a royal title (I Sam. 29:8), is to be carefully distinguished from the divine title ADONAI (‘my Lord’
It is simply a HUGE mistake for the Bible says :
