One of my most surprising lessons from seminary.

It's not about theology.

Jan 05, 2026

Since graduating with my seminary degree last month, I’ve gotten one question consistently: “What’s the most surprising thing you learned?”

It’s hard to answer. There are many things I learned that surprised me. But I’ve found myself answering the question with something somewhat unexpected. It isn’t about theology or apologetics. Instead, it has to do with one word: Yahweh.

Yahweh is the name God gives himself at the burning bush while talking to Moses. It means “I Am” and is referred to as “the divine name.”

And our modern translations of the Bible don’t use it enough. In fact, many of them have edited it out. And I think we’re suffering because of it.

That is one of the most surprising, and yet important, things I learned in seminary. See, in many translations of the Bible (from the KJV to the ESV), Yahweh is replaced with “LORD.” There are several reasons for this, but the Google explanation is a good one:

The Hebrew name for God, YHWH (the Tetragrammaton), was replaced with “LORD” (in all caps) in English Bibles, following ancient Jewish tradition where the name was considered too holy to pronounce, substituting it with “Adonai” (Lord) or “Elohim” (God) in Hebrew, a practice adopted by the Greek Septuagint (using Kurios, “Lord”), which then influenced English translations like the King James Version (KJV) to show reverence by using “the LORD” for YHWH. This tradition began after the Babylonian exile to avoid misuse, but some modern translations restore YHWH to highlight God’s personal name, while others maintain “the LORD” for continuity and familiarity.

But here’s the thing: I believe we lose something really important when we stick with the tradition of not using “Yahweh” and instead substituting it with “LORD.” For starters, there are numerous other uses of “lord” throughout the Bible that make it slightly confusing. Are we talking about a lord or the LORD? But the main down side is this: I think we miss out on how many times, and in important places, where God is talked about because of the edit. And I believe our minds—and our spirits—would benefit from knowing where the Scriptures are actually talking about God himself, not just “lord.”

My Old Testament professor assigned us to read the entire OT using a translation that has specifically decided to retain the divine name of God in the text. It’s called the Legacy Standard Bible. At first, I was a little annoyed I had to go out and buy another Bible translation.

But then I started reading it. And…. wow.

God, Yahweh, came alive to me in new ways. Why? Because I literally saw him present in places I never saw him before! I realized that for decades I had been missing places where he was showing up, missing references to him, because my eyes and my brain glossed over the “LORD” references. It was eye-opening to me.

So today, when I’m reading the OT, I make sure to cross-reference the verses in the LSB translation of the Bible. Why? Because I don’t want to miss out on where God is and what he is doing.

Maybe that’s a little nerdy for you. But I can tell you that when I talk abut abiding with Christ and reading the Bible as part of that, this little change of making sure I see God where God has revealed himself has made a massive difference.

I’d encourage you to try it.

(You can pick up a copy of the LSB here.)

If you’re interested, here is the explanation from the LSB website on why it uses the full translation of Yahweh, as well as a YouTube video with a longer dialogue:

Traditionally, the translation “God” renders the Hebrew word Elohim. Likewise, the word “Lord” is a translation of Adonai. In the LSB, God’s covenant name is rendered as Yahweh, as opposed to LORD. The meaning and implication of this name is God’s self-deriving, ongoing, and never-ending existence. Exodus 3:14–15 shows that God Himself considered it important for His people to know His name. The effect of revealing God’s name is His distinction from other gods and His expression of intimacy with the nation of Israel. Such a dynamic is a prevalent characteristic of the Scriptures as Yahweh appears in the OT over 6,800 times. In addition to Yahweh, the full name of God, the OT also includes references to God by a shorter version of His name, Yah. By itself, God’s name “Yah” may not be as familiar, but the appearance of it is recognizable in Hebrew names and words (e.g. Zechar-iah, meaning Yah remembers, and Hallelu-jah, meaning praise Yah!). God’s shortened name “Yah” is predominantly found in poetry and praise.