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The claim is often made that the word "Jehovah" means "Lord". One stated: "Jehovah is taken from the Tetragrammaton it is a title meaning Lord." (The statement has been removed from the site from which it was taken) Another claims: "Yahweh, YHWH, Jehovah means Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4; Daniel 9:14)." In discussing Leviticus 20:8, one states: "Jehovah means 'Lord' and Mekoddishkem means 'sanctifies.'" Indeed, many scholars often present "Jehovah" as meaning "Lord", evidently based on the Jewish custom of changing the Holy Name to some form of the Hebrew word often transliterated from the Masoretic text as ADON (meaning "Lord"). Concerning Jehovah-Jireh in Genesis 22:14, Alexander MacLaren states that Abraham "named that place by a name that spoke nothing of his trial, but everything of God’s provision - ’The Lord will see,’ or ‘The Lord will provide.’" There are so many statements similar to these that one could find many, many times. But does "Jehovah" actually mean "Lord"?
Jehovah is definitely taken from the Hebrew Tetragrammaton that represents God's Holy Name, however, that name, being in verb form, and does not mean "lord". In Exodus 3:14, God reveals himself as EHJEH (many prefer Ehyeh) ASHER EHJEH, and EHJEH. EHJEH is believed to be the first person form of an active verb meaning "to be". While JEHOVAH in verse 15 is believed to be the third person form of the same verb, although many scholars treat the Hebrew tetragrammaton as being a "name", and thus present as being a noun. Most translations render the name in verse 14 as "I am", or "I will be", etc. Many translations render the third person form of the name in verse 15 as "the LORD". A few render it as "Jehovah", which is not a translation, but a transliteration of one of the forms of the Holy Name as found in the Masoretic text. The actual translation or meaning of Jehovah would mean "He is", "He will be", "He causes to be", etc. The verb in Hebrew that is often represented in English as "Jehovah" (or "Yahweh) definitely does not mean "Lord".
Evidently, however, the Jews had begun to substitute a form of ADON (Hebrew transliteration meaning "Lord", "Master", "Mister", "Sir", etc.) or in a form of EL (meaning "God", "mighty") for Jehovah. It is claimed that this was done so that, out respect for the Holy Name, it would not be pronounced. Some claim that this was done to avoid mispronouncing the Holy Name. The truth also is, that pronouncing the Holy Name with ADONAY, ELOHIM, HASHEM, etc., does not avoid pronouncing the Holy Name, but rather one is actually pronouncing the Holy Name as being whatever word they, in effect, would change the Holy Name to. While it is often claimed that pronouncing the Holy Name with other words is out of respect for God, but we cannot see how changing the Holy Name to "Lord" shows respect for God. It would like changing your name to "Sir","Lord", etc., and never calling you by your name. Would you consider being called "Sir"as being your name instead of your name to be showing respect to you? There is, of course, nothing in the Bible whereby God has commanded that anyone to change his eternal Holy Name to other words that do not even mean the same thing.
Some have noted that the Greek Septuagint renders the long form of EHJEH in Exodus 3:14 with Greek words that could rendered as "I am the Being". The short form is rendered simply as "the Being". From this, it is claimed that the name Jehovah means "Existence", or "the Eternal Being". Thus some render the Holy Name as "the Eternal". We cannot agree with this for several reasons. Both EHJEH of Exodus 3:14 and JEHOVAH of Exodus 3:15 are actually in verb form, and thus should not be "translated" with a noun. Regarding the Septuagint, one should realize that the Septuagint, as we have it, is the result of editing done by Christians. We do not have the actual Jewish Greek manuscripts from which the Greek Septuagint, as we have it, was based. All we have that many attribute to being the earlier Jewish Septuagint are a few fragments. One of the Greek fragments from Dead Sea includes Exodus 3:14, but as yet, we have not been able to obtain how this fragment renders Exodus 3:14. We know the later "Christianized" version renders it with the Greek that is often translated as "I am the Being", but this does not mean that the original Jewish Greek translation was in this manner. We have seen some claims that the Dead Sea Greek fragment of Exodus 3:14 is different from the later Christianized version of the LXX (Septuagint), but so far we have found nothing that actually reveals what the Greek fragment says. If anyone has more information on this, please let us know in the comments below.
Nevertheless, while many scholars speak of "Lord" as being a "translation" of the Holy Name, technically, it is not a "translation" of the name, but, as many scholars point out, it is claimed to be a "substitute" for the Holy Name. Actually, in practice, it is actually a "changing" of the Holy Name to "Lord" or "the Lord", and we believe that this should not be done. We do not believe Jesus or his apostles changed the Holy Name to other words, despite that fact that the Greek New Testament manuscripts, as we have them, have the Holy Name changed to forms of the Greek words often transliterated as KURIOS (Lord) or THEOS (God). We do not have the actual original writings of the New Testament authors; all we have are later edited copies of those writings. Evidence does show that names that Christian copyists considered holy were changed, evidently to keep the New Testament writings from being destroyed either by the Romans or the Jews.
For links to some of our studies related to the above, see our page: The Holy Name in the New Testament
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