The Holman Christian Standard Bible, despite what its name suggests, is most certainly not standard throughout the Christian world, and isn’t even all that widely used by the Southern Baptist Convention, which produced it in 1999 (NT) and 2004 (full Bible). But I am not writing today to dwell on why or how one more evangelical group decided to produce one more evangelical translation.
One particularly interesting feature of the HCSB was its frequent translation of the Hebrew יהוה as Yahweh. Eventually, the Southern Baptists reverted to the usual practice of avoiding the name and inserting “Lord” instead, with small-caps.
I can think of several reasons one might substitute “Lord” for the name “Yahweh”.
One reason might be to follow a religious principle of some kind that forbids the straightforward translation of texts that include the name. Another reason might be if the goal of the translation is to present the Hebrew text as it has been read aloud liturgically during the last two thousand years.
But if the goal is to translate the Hebrew text as written, then there really is no other option than to render a name as a name. And if you go ahead and do that, and people look at you funny, do not be troubled. They don’t have a problem with you. They have a problem with the text.
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