LORD. The Eng. tr. of a wide variety of terms in OT and NT: 1. Lord as a title of God. Heb. אָדﯴן, H123, “Master,” used in over 300 citations (Gen 15:2); Heb. יהוה, H3378, the Tetragrammaton (2:4; et al.; Exod 3:14, et al.) and over 6,000 times; Heb. יָ֔הּ, a contraction of the preceding form (Exod 15:2 et al.); Heb. בַּ֫עַל֒, H1251, “Owner,” “Master,” although used traditionally for the fertility gods of the ancient Near E, was never widely adopted as a title of Jehovah. However, it is used of human overseers and undoubtedly it once appeared applied to Jehovah in one or another passage and was edited out in favor of a more acceptable title.

In the NT the predominant term is Gr. κύριος, G3261, “Master,” a title widely used in classical Gr. The term is used not only to tr. the Aram. of Jesus’ time, but in quotations from the OT. This style was prob. derived from the OT which uses Kyrios to tr. a variety of the Heb. names and titles of God.

2. Lord as a title of men, as a designation for governmental, religious and military officials. Heb. בְּעָלִֽים, “lords” (Num 21:28, et al.); Heb. גְּבִיר, H1484, “master,” “owner” (Gen 27:29, 37 only); Heb. סֶ֫רֶנ֮, H6249, in the pl. form סְרָנִ֔ים, which is used only of the princes and court officials of the Canaanites (Josh 13:3, et al.); Heb. שָׁלִישׁ֙, H8957, a loan word from Hitt. šalliš, “great one,” used in a variety of passages in the OT as a title (2 Kings 7:2, 17, 19; Ezek 23:23). Of special interest is the Aram. term מָרֵא, H10437, which often is applied to men in cognate Sem. languages, and in transcriptions into cuneiform, but used exclusively for God in Daniel 2:47; 4:19, 24; 5:23. This term is used of Christ in the NT doxology and in the Pre-Nicene Fathers (1 Cor 16:22; Didaché 10:6.) It is somewhat unfortunate that such a convention has not been expanded so that the full import of the variety of ancient Heb. terms for God which describe His attributes in reference to the contexts in which they are used, cannot be discovered through the Eng. trs.; however, no convention could do this adequately. The most reliable method is to simply transliterate the original and educate the reader to its significance.