The directive claims that even in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, dating to pre-Christian times, the divine name was regularly rendered Kyʹri·os, the Greek word for “Lord.” Thus, the directive insists, “Christians, too, from the beginning never pronounced the divine tetragrammaton.” This statement, however, ignores clear evidence to the contrary. Early copies of the Septuagint contained, not Kyʹri·os, but the divine name in the form יהוה.

[Picture on page 30]

A fragment of the “Septuagint” dating from the first century C.E. The divine name, represented by the four Hebrew letters commonly transliterated YHWH, is circled

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Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society