A Journey Through the Bible: Mark 1

Mark 1:2-3—“As it is written in the Prophets: Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’” This is a quotation from Isaiah 40:3. When citing Old Testament passages, the New Testament writes most often quote the Septuagint, which was a 2nd century B.C. translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. Isaiah, and the other Old Testament authors, wrote nearly exclusively in the Hebrew language, and in that tongue (as translated into English), Isaiah 40:3 reads, “The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God.” This is the American Standard Version’s rendition. I cite it here because of the word “Jehovah.” The passage—Mark 1:2-4 being witness—refers to the work of John the Baptist who was “prepare the way of the Lord”—Jesus, of course. But note that Isaiah 40:3 refers to Him as “Jehovah.” This causes great angst among those, especially Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe that Jesus was a created being, not an eternal one with the Father. Obviously, “Jehovah” is God, and Isaiah 40:3 by referring to Jesus as “Jehovah” classifies Him as eternal deity. We don’t think of Jesus as “Jehovah,” (and the Jehovah’s Witnesses certainly don’t), but when we understand the Hebrew terms for “God,” it is clear that the name Jehovah can certainly apply to Him.

The Hebrews had four basic terms for the Eternal Deity. “El” is most often translated “God” in our versions. It basically signifies “strength.” Any time you see a Hebrew name with “el” in it, there is some reference to God—Israel, Bethel, Emmanuel, and so forth. "El-Shaddai" in the Hebrew is usually translated “God Almighty.” The was the name specially known to the patriarchs. The Hebrew word “Adonai” is translated “Lord” in our versions, which is not really a good translation. It is a difficult word to translate, but the concept is perhaps most accurately stated in God’s pronouncement to Moses “I AM THAT I AM.” When you see the term “Lord” in the Old Testament, it will almost always be a translation of Adonai (I refer mainly here to the old King James Version and old American Standard Version). But when you see the word “LORD” in capitals in the old KJV (the New KJV does not do this), it is the Hebrew word “YHWH”, usually referred to today as “Yahweh.” But, to make the distinction between "Adonai" and “YHWH,” the old ASV translates the latter “Jehovah” (the New American Standard and New International Versions follow the old KJV and translate it “LORD”). The word denotes, in effect, a “covenant” God; in other words, it was “YHWH“ (Jehovah) who made a “covenant” with the Israelites through Moses, not El or Adonai. To return to Isaiah 40:3, Jesus obviously had/has a significant part to play in any “covenant” God makes with man, especially in this New Testament age. So it is in all wise proper and correct to refer to Him as “Jehovah.” The New Testament, of course, was written in Greek, so the word “Jehovah” is never found in the ASV’s translation of the New Testament. This information is simplified for my purposes here, but it catches the major idea of deity in the Old Testament.