After the first century, “Christian” copyists replaced God’s name with words like “God” and “Lord” in both the Septuagint and the Christian Greek Scriptures. According to Professor Howard, this likely contributed to the turmoil that Christendom experienced in later years: “It may be that the removal of the Tetragrammaton [God’s name in Hebrew] contributed significantly to the later Christological and Trinitarian debates which plagued the church of the early Christian centuries.”

Professor Howard said in addition: “The removal of the Tetragrammaton probably created a different theological climate from that which existed during the New Testament period of the first century. The Jewish God who had always been carefully distinguished from all others by the use of his Hebrew name lost some of his distinctiveness with the passing of the Tetragrammaton.”