Lexington Bishop: There's a reason why LORD is capitalized
Posted November 24, 2006
Episcopal Bishop Stacy Sauls sent the following note, explaining why "LORD" appears in all capital letters in parts of the Bible, but with only the first letter capitalized ("Lord") in other parts. (Alas, the bishop can't shed any light on why it appears with no capital letters in the New York Times.)
Happy Thanksgiving, Frank.
I actually assume you already know this given all your theological training, but “LORD,” actually in large and small caps, indicates that the underlying Hebrew is Yahweh. “Lord” indicates that the underlying Hebrew is adonai. I don’t really know about the King James version, but the usage is not unique to the King James. It occurs in the RSV and the NRSV. I’m not so familiar with other translations. In the RSV and NRSV, the usage is out of deference to Jews who will not pronounce the name of God.
That is the explanation of “Jehovah,” by the way. The Masoretes who supplied the vowels to the Hebrew text in the 8th or 9th century at a time when people were forgetting how to pronounce the Hebrew used the vowels for “adonai” where the consonants YHWH appeared, not because they were the correct vowels, but to prevent an unintentional pronunciation. When you put the vowels YHWH together with vowels from adonai, you get Jehovah. Our belief as to what the actual vowels for God’s name were is something of an educated guess.
As to the style rules, I have no knowledge or opinion about those. I can tell you that my practice is not to use gender exclusive pronouns referring to God and not to capitalize pronouns for Jesus.
One other thing. I didn’t know you were leaving until I saw your blog. I will miss you. Safe travels, and I wish you all the best in Little Rock.
+Stacy
The Rt. Rev. Stacy F. Sauls
Bishop of Lexington
P. O. Box 610
Lexington, Kentucky 40588-0610
Dear Frank,
Please read this:
http://transfigurations.blogspot.com/2006/11/raymond-dague-episcopal-bishop.html
This recent essay about the recent goings-on of Bp Sauls appeared on TitusOneNine blog also. This is a story that should be investigated. Who is the 11th circuit federal judge apparently assisting Sauls' task force in suing Windsor-compliant dioceses? If true, this is a violation of the legal code of ethics and will further the unraveling of the Episcopal Church.