Should We Call God Yahweh Instead of LORD?
We need to use both Yahweh and Lord to understand the New Testament
If God revealed his name as "I AM" or in its noun form, Yahweh, then it does feel strange that we translate this name by LORD (a title). Rather than his name, we give him a title (LORD, Adonai, or Kurios).
That said, the New Testament authors cite the passages in which Yahweh is mentioned and use the word Kurios/Lord to refer to Jesus. Jesus regularly takes the title Lord, as in the Lord Jesus. In many cases, the apostles apply the texts that speak about the LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) and apply it to the Lord Jesus.
That's not quite precise.
When Paul thinks about the Persons of God, he particularly says that Jesus is the Lord (Yahweh) and the Father is God (Elohim). This can be seen in 1 Corinthians 8:4–6 where Paul parses out the double name of God in Deuteronomy 6:4 (the Shema) and then says that Father and Son are included in that same definition of God.
But the Persons are seen by the two names Yahweh (Son) and Elohim (Father). Together, the one God is Yahweh Elohim or Son Father.
When Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Yahweh Our Elohim, Yahweh is one”,[1] the ancient Greek translators rendered the phrase “κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν” (The LORD our God, the LORD is one). In 1 Corinthians 4–6, Paul boldly calls κύριος (LORD) Christ and θεὸς (God) the Father, indicating that both are included in the definition of the one God of Israel, Yahweh Elohim, the LORD God:
’there is no God (θεὸς) but one (εἷς)’ … there is one God, the Father (εἷς θεὸς ὁ πατὴρ), from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ (εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς), through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
And here we have it. The one Lord and God, the one Son and Father, created the cosmos, distinguished by an order indicated in the prepositions “from” and “through.” Yet both are one. Both are the Creator. Both are Father and Son, Elohim and Yahweh, God and Lord—the One Lord our God, the Lord who is One.
So while I am technically okay with using the word Yahweh instead of LORD, we should not simply use Yahweh and not LORD, or else we will miss the inner logic of the apostolic proclamation as found in the New Testament.
[1] יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה׀ אֶחָֽד