A Chinese-Language Project that Restores the Name YHWH

“Say this to the Israelites: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.” (Exodus 3:15, HCSB)

The “translation” LORD is something of a problem from various perspectives. LORD obscures the fact that Yahweh is a name and not a title … In view of this reality, it could be argued that, as with other personal names, we simply transliterate what the original Hebrew was thought to be—Yahweh. (NIDOTT, “Yahweh”)

Dear Reader,

The Bible is God’s revelation given to saintly people of Israel who had known and experienced God. The prophets in the Bible received God’s message directly, and as God’s spokesmen passed on the message they had received to the people of their generations. But they also left us a written record that is to be passed on to future generations. In this way, the Bible is the Word of God.

God’s revelation to humankind is entirely of God’s grace. If there had been no message from God, life would be like that of a blind man groping about in the darkness, in a futile search for the meaning and value of life.

What touches our hearts are the many such messages that appear in the Bible, which are often prefaced by the proclamation that the word of YHWH (Yahweh) came upon certain people (Genesis 15:1, 1Samuel 15:1, Jeremiah 1:2, etc). There is also the statement that they walk according to YHWH’s words (Joshua 8:27, 2Chronicles 35:6, Jeremiah 13:2, etc). This brings out two aspects to God’s Word:

• When a person encounters God’s Word, it takes him or her to a turning point in life, a reality that can be seen from one’s personal experience or from accounts in church history. The Word of the Lord brings forth life and restoration. When the Word of the Lord comes to you, can you remain indifferent to it?
• God’s Word is an important guide for our lives, and demands our obedience. The Bible is not so much a book of history, scholarship, or academic research, as God’s direct instruction on how we ought to live and do things. It is like a parent’s exhortations to a child in the hope that the child may, in response to their instructions, grow to maturity.

The Chinese Union Bible has been around for nearly a hundred years, and is still the most popular Chinese Bible. Unfortunately, the Union Bible was a product of its time and circumstances, and is not perfect in various ways. With the ubiquity of Internet technology, we are issuing a new edition of the Chinese Union Bible with amendments made in three important areas:

1. God’s name
2. The use of the word “Lord” in the New Testament
3. The Greek and Hebrew Strong’s numbers

The Hebrew Bible (often called the Old Testament) frequently uses God’s name יהוה (YHWH) whose Strong’s number is H3068 (e.g., Genesis 2:4), with H3069 being a variant. Unfortunately, the Chinese Union Bible translates the Hebrew word for “Yahweh” according to the English rendering “Jehovah,” whereas modern scholarship transliterates YHWH as “Yahweh” (雅伟). The rendering Jehovah is known to be erroneous, hence the correct form of God’s name ought to be restored even if the Chinese church by tradition continues to use the incorrect form. Our present revision restores the name YHWH (Yahweh, Strong’s numbers H3068, H3069) which in the Old Testament occurs 6,828 times, along with the 49 occurrences of the short form “Yah” (Strong’s number H3050), rendering YHWH as the more accurate 雅伟.

In those places where we leave the translation untouched, the presence of the divine name in the original text is indicated by means of brackets: [雅伟].

2. Use of the word “Lord” in the New Testament

The Jews in New Testament times avoided uttering God’s personal name, and replaced it with “Lord” (Strong’s number G2962). However, the Greek word for “Lord” is used in a variety of senses. In addition to referring to God, it can also refer to the Lord Jesus, or to the master of a slave, or to a person of high standing. Because of this variability in meaning, many believers are unable to distinguish between the Lord (Jesus) and God (Yahweh), and conflate the two. Therefore our revision makes the following amendments:

• Where “Lord G2962” refers to Yahweh, it is expanded to “Lord G2962 [雅伟]” (e.g., Matthew 1:22).
• Where “Lord G2962” refers to Jesus, the reference is made explicit as “Lord Jesus” (e.g., Mark 16:19), with a few instances rendered as “Lord* G2962” (e.g., Matthew 7:21) with the asterisk.
• Similarly, where “Lord G2962” refers to Christ, it is revised to “Lord# G2962” (e.g., Matthew 22:43,44,45).
• If there is some ambiguity as to whom “Lord” refers to, either to the Lord Yahweh or to the Lord Jesus, the word is left unmarked (e.g., Matthew 21:3).
• Where the word “Lord” in the Chinese Union Bible is not found in the original Greek text, it is marked as “Lord G0” (e.g., Matthew 2:12,22).
• If “Lord” refers to someone other than God or Jesus, such as a master of a slave or a wealthy man, etc., it is left unmarked (e.g., Matthew 6:24, 10:24).

In the text-only edition of the Chinese Union Bible without Strong’s number, we use “Lord [雅伟]” or “Lord *” or “Lord #,” with the same distinctions in meaning as explained just now.

3. The Greek and Hebrew Strong’s Numbers

The Greek and Hebrew numbering system was devised by James Strong in 1890 for his Strong’s Concordance. The numbers are sequenced according to the alphabetical order of the words in the original languages, and assigned numbers H0001 to H8674 for Hebrew, and G0001 to G5624 for Greek. Later, some scholars added H8675-H8853 and G5625-G5942 on the basis of the TVM (Tense, Voice, Mood) data. The purpose of the Strong’s numbering system is to assist those who lack a sufficient understanding of the original text, to make use of biblical language dictionaries, and to do word searches and compilations in the original languages. The basis of our work is the edition of the Union Bible which is circulated on the Internet and contains Strong’s numbers, and into which we implemented our system of codes. This edition has not been fully proofread, with instances of mismatch between the text and the Strong’s numbers, but these are gradually being rectified.

This 2017 revision is available in two PDF e-books:

• The text-only edition is a parallel Chinese-English Bible, covering the Old and New Testaments. In this parallel Bible, the Chinese version is our Yahweh edition of the Chinese Union Bible, whereas the English version is the Lexham English Bible (LEB), which also uses the divine name “Yahweh”. LEB’s translation notes are included in our edition as {Note: …}. Words added to the text are displayed in brackets [ ].
• The parallel Chinese-Greek New Testament displays the Chinese Union Bible (our Yahweh edition) in parallel with the Westcott-Hort Greek Bible, with Strong’s numbers included for reference.

May the word of Yahweh God be your fountain of life, the light on the path!

April 12, 2017