The short answer is that the Hebrew name Jehovah has no separate Greek equivalent. When Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek — the version we call the Septuagint — they did not coin a Greek form of the Tetragrammaton. They used the ordinary Greek word kurios, meaning “Lord” or “master.” So the meaning of Jehovah in Greek is carried by kurios: the self-existent, covenant-keeping God is called Lord in Greek.
That single fact explains a great deal about how the New Testament speaks. The writers who quote the Old Testament in Greek quote the Septuagint, and where the Hebrew had the divine name, the Greek text before them had kurios. The name was not lost; it was translated by a title that the Greek-speaking church already used for Jesus Christ.
What does the Septuagint actually do with the divine name?
The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible begun in the centuries before Christ, chiefly in Alexandria. Its treatment of the Tetragrammaton, the four consonants YHWH, is the key to the whole question.
In the earliest manuscripts the name was sometimes written in Hebrew letters inside the Greek text, and sometimes represented by Greek letters that transliterated it. But in the copies that the church read and copied, the standard rendering is kurios. The same word also translates the Hebrew Adonai, which is what Jewish readers said aloud instead of the divine name.
This is why the distinction between the name and the title can blur in Greek. In Hebrew, Jehovah is the proper name and Adonai is a title. In Greek, both come out as kurios. The translator’s choice preserved reverence and readability, but it folded two Hebrew words into one Greek one.
A dictionary of the Bible puts it plainly: the Greek word kurios, a supreme master, is in the Septuagint “invariably used for ‘Jehovah’ and ‘Adonai.’” That is the linguistic fact behind the question.
Why did the translators choose kurios instead of a Greek form of the name?
Several factors seem to have converged.
First, Jewish practice. By the time of the Septuagint, the divine name was treated with such reverence that it was not pronounced in ordinary reading. Readers said Adonai instead. A translation meant to be read aloud in Greek-speaking synagogues naturally used the word that stood in for the name.
Second, the meaning of kurios fits. The Hebrew name, as Exodus 3:14 suggests, conveys the unchanging, eternal, self-existent God — the “I am that I am.” Kurios carries the sense of rightful authority and ownership. It is not a perfect equivalent, but it is a true one: the One who is, is also the One who rules.
Third, Greek had no ready-made proper name for the God of Israel. Translators could have transliterated the four letters, and sometimes they did. But kurios allowed the text to be read, chanted and understood without stumbling over a name that was no longer spoken.
Does the Greek word kurios mean the same as Jehovah?
Not exactly, and the difference is worth seeing clearly.
Jehovah is a name. It identifies the God of Israel as the God who revealed himself to Moses and entered into covenant with his people. Kurios is a title. It says that this God is master and Lord.
When the Septuagint uses kurios for Jehovah, it is not erasing the name. It is confessing something about the One who bears it. The God whose name is above every name is the Lord of all.
This is why the New Testament can apply Old Testament Jehovah passages to Jesus without embarrassment. Consider how Paul, quoting the Greek Bible, speaks of Israel’s God:
It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.” — Romans 9:29 (BSB)
The phrase “Lord of Hosts” translates the Hebrew Jehovah Sabaoth, the LORD of armies. In the Greek text Paul used, that is kurios. The title has carried the name across the language barrier.
How does the New Testament use this Greek word for Jehovah?
The New Testament writers, quoting the Septuagint, regularly use kurios where the Hebrew had the divine name. Two examples show the pattern.
James, warning the rich who withhold wages, writes:
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. — James 5:4 (BSB)
Again, “Lord of Hosts” stands where the Hebrew name Jehovah Sabaoth would stand. The Greek word kurios is doing the work of the divine name.
Revelation takes the same language into the worship of heaven:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” — Revelation 4:8 (BSB)
The thrice-holy God is called kurios ho theos ho pantokrator — Lord God Almighty. The vocabulary of the Septuagint has become the vocabulary of Christian worship.
This is also why the earliest Christian confession is simply “Jesus is Lord” (kurios). The word that Greek-speaking Jews used for Jehovah is the word the church uses for the risen Christ. That is a very large claim, and the New Testament makes it deliberately.
Does this mean the name Jehovah disappears in Greek?
In one sense, yes. There is no Greek word that is the name Jehovah in the way that YHWH is the name in Hebrew. The Septuagint and the New Testament do not give us a Greek proper name for God; they give us kurios.
In another sense, no. The name does not vanish; it is carried by the title. When a Greek-speaking Christian read “the Lord” in the Psalms, he was reading about the God of Israel, the One whose name is Jehovah. The reference is the same; only the form of words has changed.
The Hebrew name itself is preserved in a handful of places in the English Bible tradition. The King James Version and the American Standard Version keep the form “Jehovah” in verses such as Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18, Isaiah 12:2 and Isaiah 26:4. Elsewhere they print LORD in small capitals to signal that the Hebrew text has the divine name. That convention is a reminder that something stands behind the English word “Lord.”
What does this mean for how we read the Bible today?
The practical upshot is simple. When you see “the LORD” in small capitals in an English Old Testament, the Hebrew has the divine name. When you see “Lord” in the New Testament quoting the Old, the Greek behind it is usually kurios, and the Old Testament passage behind that often has the divine name.
That chain — Hebrew name, Greek kurios, English Lord — is not a loss. It is a translation history, and it shows how the early church held together two truths: the God of Israel is the Lord of all, and Jesus Christ is that Lord.
Reading with this in mind deepens passages that might otherwise pass quickly. The Shema, the great confession of Israel, speaks of the LORD our God. The New Testament applies that same lordship to Jesus. The Greek word kurios is the hinge.
If this raises questions for you, take them to Scripture and to prayer, and to a pastor or trusted believer who can read alongside you. The name of God is not a puzzle to be solved once and filed away; it is an invitation to know the One who bears it. As the psalmist says:
May they know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, are Most High over all the earth. — Psalm 83:18 (BSB)
That verse is one of the few places where the English Bible prints the name itself. It is a good place to begin.
Questions readers ask
Is there a Greek word that means Jehovah?
No single Greek word is the equivalent of the Hebrew name Jehovah. The Septuagint and the New Testament use kurios, meaning “Lord” or “master,” wherever the Hebrew text has the divine name. So kurios carries the meaning of Jehovah in Greek, but it is a title rather than a proper name.
Why does the New Testament say “Lord” instead of “Jehovah”?
The New Testament writers usually quoted the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, and that version rendered the divine name as kurios. Following the text they had, they wrote “Lord” where the Hebrew had the name. This also let them apply Old Testament Jehovah passages to Jesus, who is called Lord throughout the New Testament.
Does the Septuagint ever write the divine name in Hebrew letters?
Yes. Some early Septuagint manuscripts preserve the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew or paleo-Hebrew characters within the Greek text. Others use a Greek transliteration. But the copies most widely used and copied by the church use kurios, and that is the reading the New Testament reflects.
What does Jehovah mean, and how does kurios relate to that meaning?
The name Jehovah is connected in Exodus 3:14 with the idea of the self-existent, eternal God — “I am that I am.” Kurios means “Lord” or “master,” so it emphasises God’s authority and ownership rather than his self-existence. The two are complementary: the One who is, is also the One who rules.
Lexicon answers from the Bible and public-domain reference works. It is a study aid and is not affiliated with any organisation.