When 'Lord' might be OK: reading Adonai through NT glasses

WHILE I HAVE been seeking to establish a workable and scalable methodology for translating Kyrios (Greek for 'Lord') in the New Testament, I have increasingly wondered where some Lordship language might be allowed to be preserved.

I am critical of some of the shortcomings of the Eugene Nida-influenced dichotomy since it fails to account for original register and usage.

However, if we wanted to say replicate an experience of relating say 600 year-old sacred texts, such as the first century Jews were, then a scattering of understandable-yet-historical language might well be beneficial to communicate that experience. 600 years is the period separating those Jews from some super-significant events in their people's history, most notably their exile. 600 years is also the period separating us from the times in which 'Lord' was selected by Wycliffe and others as a suitable medieval title for translating Kyrios. That's an interesting parallel I'm not sure I've heard before and creates an interesting possibility.

Given the overarching desire to make the Word of God both holy and meaningful to a contemporary audience, primary titles for God and Yahweh should fulfil both criteria. However, secondary titles could be candidates for the aforementioned idea of communicating historical depth.

On these grounds, I find the idea of translating Adonai (when not occurring alongside other divine names or titles) by 'Lord' quite feasible. Once again I find myself endorsing Peterson's translation. Here is an important passage of Psalms, Ps 97:5, which reads in the NASB :

The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, 

At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

(Here the NASB reflects an identical reading between the two lines as translated into the Greek Septuagint: 

. . .ἀπὸ προσώπου κυρίου
    ἀπὸ προσώπου κυρίου . . . !)

The Message communicates my above concerns and 'Lord' opportunity best, however:

'The mountains take one look at God And melt, melt like wax before earth’s Lord.'

Psalm 97:5
https://my.bible.com/bible/97/PSA.97.5'The mountains take one look at God And melt, melt like wax before earth’s Lord.'

Psalm 97:5
https://my.bible.com/bible/97/PSA.97.5'The mountains take one look at God And melt, melt like wax before earth’s Lord.'

Psalm 97:5
https://my.bible.com/bible/97/PSA.97.5The mountains take one look at GOD

And melt, melt like wax before earth's Lord.

As Christians, we are sometimes exhorted to read the OT through NT glasses. Maintaining some scope for 'Lord' language when translating Adonai might align quite well with this objective.

Obstacle 5: The Lord Jesus, starting in Mark

In the endearing little love story between Tina and Archie we saw Tina is the church and Archie is the Lord Jesus Christ. The old-fashioned name "Archie" that Archie wants to change is "Lord". 

I believe a translation overhaul is needed for "Lord" in many modern Bible translations both in English and other languages. This overhaul is necessary for a relevant and yet faithful religious institution like Christianity.

The Number 1 question was how to translate the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh". I finally arrived, after two years of researching the issue, at the idea that GOD, all caps, would be a good solution. Eugene Peterson got there first though!

This only makes the suggestion all the more palatable, as I have arrived at the same destination as Peterson but via, I am sure, a different route, bringing more grammatical substance than Peterson's work had access to.

Overcoming Hurdle 5: The Lord Jesus 

If you make this move - to switch the Yahweh translation from "The LORD" to "GOD", then there are some fresh problems to solve - I identify five of these. Overcoming the first obstacle, we established that it is more than faithful to ancient tradition to apply the lower case "g" to god, permitting the possessive "GOD, our god". Overcoming the second, we realised that often "Lord of lords" can be replaced by "king of kings", condensed or even "Commander-in-Chief". Overcoming the third, we addressed the issue of "Divine Combos" where we steered clear of the risk of redundant repetition. Overcoming the fourth was quite a task but essentially boiled down to a set of criteria for identifying unambiguous references to the Kyrios of the Old Testament (while including clear justification of two main identities traditionally both designated "the Lord").

This now leaves us excellently placed to approach the fifth and perhaps toughest hurdle: The Lord Jesus Christ. 

In the preamble to each of these treatments of the obstacles faced by any program to remove Lord language from the Bible I have referenced Eugene Peterson groundbreaking translation, The Message. In this translation there are obviously thousands fewer occurrences of "the lord" because of the translator's excellent choice of GOD for Yahweh. But I failed to mention quite what he did with Adonai, which is relevant to our current Obstacle. Peterson really is pretty consistent at avoiding lordship language and with Adonai translates (my) Master. And he does the same with Jesus. Job done? 

I'm not sure. The problem with Kyrios in Koine Greek is that packed into "Kyrios", especially for a Hellenistic Jew, you have an extraordinary breadth of potential signification, the precise meaning of which will only become apparent within the context of the dialogue, discourse, text, etc. 

So whereas in modern languages our titles of authority have mushroomed into a confusing sub-language unto itself, ancient languages had fewer choices - the important nuances were drawn from surrounding context. But let us just say for the sake of simplicity that Kyrios covers at least three important layers of authority: 

Kyrios-God, both Creator and god of the Jewish people 
Kyrios-Ruler, emperor established ruler of the people for a designated area and its inhabitants; royal family members 
Kyrios-Boss, properly addressed "Sir". Also appropriate as an address for any homeowners by their paid staff or slaves.  

In other words, it can be a catch-all for any authority figure!  

So what do we think of Peterson's "Master"? Is it a good catch-all in English?  

Peterson's assumption that Master might be applicable for all three authority levels is actually misleading (Abraham is Master of his household, Jesus is “Master of all” in Philippians 2, and Yahweh, via Adonai, is Master too).  

Let's take God first of all. Would anyone in any faith tradition we know of refer to a deity they reverence as "Master"? For me, this title Master does not work well here. I have already discussed how Adonai functions alongside Yahweh as a reference to the Divine Name in How does the Adonai cookie crumble into Greek Yoghurt?, and how when combined in Hebrew we are well within our rights in English to render these to a single “GOD”, see Obstacle 3. 

Why doesn't Master work here? Because Master is first and foremost the expression of a personal functional relationship between Master and Servant without a religious root. 

So what about the various levels of human authority in the Bible? Should Abraham's "Master-ship" be homogenised with that of Jesus? 

Actually, that is the misleading question. Can you see why? It assumes a static, flat representation of the level of authority intended by the biblical writer. Remember, the Biblical writer is drawing on the context to draw out the important nuances of the authority, not the word Kyrios itself. So this means that the authority level of Jesus can be intentionally upgraded even while maintaining the same title of Kyrios.  

But can we do that in English? I don't think we can: our politically and culturally sensitive vocabulary is rich and revised constantly to empower lower-level roles and avoid issues such as gender discrimination in the workplace. So translation into this complex world of English authority systems is far from straight forward - this should already be evident from the treatment of the first four Obstacles and Let's (at last) translate Yahweh and Kyrios into modern English!. Thus we need to proceed with Jesus with this same due care.  

The gospel writer Mark is the first New Testament writer to which we have access who is describing Jesus prior to his exaltation. He does not hide from his readers that Jesus was speaking in Aramaic and was know to his followers in their mother tongue as "Rabbi", a title still in practice among Jews today. Mark spreads these references across Peter (Mark 9:5 & 11:21), a blind man (Mark 10:51) and Judas Iscariot (Mark 14:45).  

Here is the surprising bit. Prior to Jesus' exaltation in the extended (and inauthentic) ending in Mark, Kyrios is not often applied to Jesus! As a result, we can go through them applying my more dynamic approach as a proposed methodology to measured gospel translation of the pre-exaltated Kyrios Jesus. 

(1:3 is a Yahweh reference and a direct citation from the Septuagint, and thus can be rendered GOD)   

2:28 Lord of the Sabbath is Jesus, but in a grand quasi-cosmic sense. King would suffice here although I prefer a more descriptive “the Son of Man is in charge of the Sabbath”.  

5:19 is Jesus, deliverer of the man with a legion of demons: the Great Rescuer, or the Master could maybe work here. But how does that work? A man cannot be expected to be making sense to refer to "the" Master when retelling the story to his fellow villagers, can he? Unless it is to be made into some exalted interpretation of Kyrios (which could be one shade of meaning here), then a more personal note is needed and feels more natural in this story, namely your Master: "...tell them how much your Master has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."

7:28 is Jesus, a "Sir" address is sufficient. 

11:3 the authority needing the colt, is Jesus, but note he is unnamed for the colt-owner(s) thus probably a reference to an authority level higher than Household owner and not possible in the "Sir" address form. There is certainly nothing to suggest that those encountered by the colt were Jewish or would recognise a Jewish authority term.  

There would seem to be 2 choices:  

1. A local active authority to whom any inhabitant of Jerusalem would defer. 
2. A title tolerated and respected by locals even if they are not directly under its jurisdiction. 
Of course, historically, it is not straight forward to determine precisely what happened during Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on the back of the colt, and in particular how widespread his popularity was given the events ahead, but Mark is clearly portraying it as a triumphant entrance fit for a highly esteemed dignitary, one even commissioned by God for the establishment of his kingdom. A Jewish king. 

Either way, the owners accept the title. For 1. a local authority should be recognisable via the title used, e.g. the Ruler or the Commander or the Commanding Officer might more adequately reflect the Kyrios here than Master. But this then creates unnecessary tension with the ensuing scene, the very purpose of the colt story. In which case we should prefer a version of 2 that would likely be respected without being overly specific. I would opt for "His Excellency" or "His Royal Highness": given the forthcoming exposition of Psalm 110 in chapter 12, consistency would be best maintained via the latter. 

(11:9, 12:11, 12:29 and 12:30 are all Yahweh references, and thus can be rendered GOD - by the way, on the Shema of 12:29, my proposal would be to follow the growing awareness of the uniqueness of Yahweh summarised in this great Jewish declaration and translate simply as follows:  
‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Listen up, Israel: GOD is our god, Him alone”). 

12:36 The LORD said to my Lord. Obviously there is no space in my Lord retirement program for either of these titles as English Lords, and we have already settled on GOD for Yahweh. But how do we settle this tricky puzzle for the second lord? 

First, why is it tricky? It is tricky because someone at some point misread this Psalm. Whether it was Mark or Jesus himself is not obvious, but someone somewhere unfortunately flattened the two speakers (the prophet addressing the King and Yahweh) into a single speaker and it stuck for all three synoptic gospels, which creates some awkwardness for me as a follower of Jesus. Mark has Jesus claiming that David is the speaker throughout about someone else who is superior to him! 

That is not at all how Psalm 110 reads. 

But let's accept the situation as best we can by allowing for some "prosopological exegesis" and continue the solutions imagined for the viewing of the colt and in line with this royal Psalm: Your Royal Highness. Not only does this term clearly infer the royal lineage, it fits Mark's usage well and, critically, it remains widely understood today. A fourth advantage to "your Royal Highness" is that the Highness is an open invitation that prepares the reader for the super exaltation to come from other New Testament writers. These compositors will flesh out the Highness in directions that take Jesus into supreme levels of authority, fully occupying both the divine and terrestrial spheres. 

12:37 following on from the exposition of verse 36 above, we could now accept David himself calls him "your Highness". 

13:20 and if [the] Kyrios had not cut those days short... Here although we are not in the context of a Markan Septuagint citation, the pericope, the fact that Kyrios is anarthrous and the New Testament understanding that only the father knows the hour all point in a common direction: this Kyrios is Yahweh, much like in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18. 

16:19 and 16:20 both lie in the longer ending referenced above and whose translation interest me less for now. 

So there we have it! In the whole of Mark, Kyrios seems to be applied directly to Jesus as few as 5 times and is not astonishingly is not yet established as "the Lord Jesus" (only in 16:19 that we can discount as original). For that reason alone, that is to say an unestablished and infrequent type of lordship, has required us to reflect that aspect and tread with contextual care suggesting: 

• The Son of Man is in charge of the Sabbath 
• Tell them how much your Master has done for you 
• Sir, she replied, even the dogs.... 
• His Royal Highness needs it (the colt) 
• GOD said to Your Highness... 


Hopefully, these translations can mirror the crescendoing layers of meaning we see unfolding in the Koine New Testament.  

In subsequent gospels, Kyrios would be used more extensively. This seems to be in connection with the call to "make disciples", and Peterson's "Master" proposal increases its appeal for those actively engaged in exemplary discipleship.

In our next post, however, we can unpack the super-exalted status of the resurrected Christ as developed in some of the epistles, and explore how that might best be translated in modern English. 

Thank you for your interest! It has been a while since I received any feedback or comments. If you can, please do so - it has the effect both of challenging my thinking on these difficult issues and encouraging me that this work is worthwhile.

Obstacle 3: Hebrew "Divine Combos"

In the endearing little love story between Tina and Archie we saw Tina is the church and Archie is the Lord Jesus Christ. The old-fashioned name "Archie" that Archie wants to change is "Lord". 

I believe a translation overhaul is needed for "Lord" in many modern Bible translations both in English and other languages. This overhaul is necessary for a relevant and yet faithful religious institution like Christianity.

The Number 1 question was how to translate the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh". I finally arrived, after two years of researching the issue, at the idea that GOD, all caps, would be a good solution. Eugene Peterson got there first though!

This only makes the suggestion all the more palatable, as I have arrived at the same destination as Peterson but via, I am sure, a different route, bringing more grammatical substance than Peterson's work had access to.

Overcoming Hurdle 3: "Divine Combos"

If you make this move - to switch the Yahweh translation from "The LORD" to "GOD", then there are some fresh problems to solve - I identify five of these. Overcoming the first obstacle, we established that it is more than faithful to ancient tradition to apply the lower case "g" to god, permitting the possessive "GOD, our god". Overcoming the second, we realised that often "Lord of lords" can be replaced by "king of kings", condensed or even "Commander-in-Chief". This now leaves us excellently placed to approach the third hurdle, which I collectively refer to as "Divine Combos". What do I mean by such a wacky descriptor?

Although I counted 6,867 Yahweh occurrences reflecting by far the greatest and favoured appellation for the Israelite god, we would do well to remember that this people hung every success and failure, even the right to live, on the say-so of their supreme god who even chose *them* as his people.

This was a deep and mysterious connection, but it certainly caused a worshipful and awed response from the Israelites. The Name of Yahweh was a privilege to have and it was used extensively, especially early on before its "ultra-sanctification". But the worship context caused the priests, Levites and people generally to probe further suitable language options to expand their own perception of how great he was. 

We already saw that he was even referred to a few times as "God of gods", but also we hear of "Lord of the Heavenly Armies", The Almighty, *the* God, and so on. Another way to "magnify his holy Name" was to go ahead and group the titles or names, the clusters serving to say that one accolade is simply not enough, which presents us with my "Divine Combos".

Ok, so why does that present us with an obstacle? Simply because when we accept Peterson's suggestion of GOD, we move to a word that is already used to translate another word, which is also best translated "God", El (or Elohim, in Hebrew). Previously there was no issue with "the LORD God", but now "GOD God" is clearly a non-starter.

But before we worry too much about that, we have another affected divine combo in the form of "Adonai Yahweh". 

It makes more sense to start here because this *has* represented a challenge to English translators who have been deeply committed to the language of lordship. Here also, "Lord LORD" " would have been a non-starter, so we can learn from the solutions already developed by their insightful teams of scholars over time. Let's take an Adonai-Yahweh verse at random - Amos 1:8 - and see how it has been translated:

KJ21

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” saith the Lord God.

ASV

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord Jehovah.

AMP

...And the rest of the Philistines [in Gath and the towns dependent on these four Philistine cities] shall die,” Says the Lord God.

AMPC

...and the rest of the Philistines [in Gath and the towns dependent on these four Philistine cities] shall perish, says the Lord God.

BRG

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

CSB

....and the remainder of the Philistines will perish. The Lord God has spoken.

CEB

...and the Philistines who remain will perish, says the Lord God.

CJB

...and the rest of the P’lishtim will perish,” says Adonai, God.

CEV

...and that will be the end of the Philistines. I, the Lord, have spoken!

DARBY

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord Jehovah.

DRA

...the rest of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

ERV

.... Then the Philistines who are still left alive will die.” This is what the Lord God said.

ESV

... and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord God.

ESVUK

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord God.

EXB

...and the ·last [rest; remnant] of the Philistines will ·die [perish],” says the Lord God.

GNV

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

GW

...The rest of the Philistines will die. The Almighty Lord has said this.

GNT

... and all the Philistines who are left will die.”

HCSB

...and the remainder of the Philistines will perish. The Lord God has spoken.

ICB

...I will punish the Philistines until they are all dead,” says the Lord God.

ISV

... and the rest of the Philistines will die,” says the Lord God.

JUB

...and the remnant of the Palestinians shall perish, said the Lord GOD.

KJV

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

AKJV

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

LEB

...and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” says the Lord Yahweh.

TLB

...all Philistines left will perish.” The Lord has spoken.

MSG

... and what’s left of the Philistines will die.” God’s Decree.

MEV

...and the remnant of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord God.

NOG

... The rest of the Philistines will die. Adonay Yahweh has said this.

NABRE

...and the last of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.

NASB

... And the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” Says the Lord God.

NCV

...and the last of the Philistines will die,” says the Lord God.

NET

...the rest of the Philistines will also die.” The sovereign Lord has spoken!

NIRV

...Every single Philistine will die,” says the Lord and King.

NIV

....till the last of the Philistines are dead,” says the Sovereign Lord.

NIVUK

...till the last of the Philistines are dead,’ says the Sovereign Lord.

NKJV

...And the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” Says the Lord God.

NLV

...and the rest of the Philistines will die,” says the Lord God.

NLT

...and the few Philistines still left will be killed,” says the Sovereign Lord.

NRSV

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.

NRSVA

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.

NRSVACE

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.

NRSVCE

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.

OJB

...and the she’erit Pelishtim shall perish, saith Adonoi Hashem.

RSV

....and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord God.

RSVCE

...and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord God.

TLV

...and the rest of the Philistines will perish. My Lord Adonai has said it.

VOICE

...and the rest of the Philistines; even those in the formerly great city of Gath will perish. So says the Eternal Lord about Philistia, Israel’s enemy in the southwest.

WEB

...and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” says the Lord Yahweh.

WYC

...and the remnants of Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God. 

YLT

...And perished have the remnant of the Philistines, Said the Lord Jehovah.

There is a clear preponderance for "the Lord God". Sometimes LORD is all capitalised, sometimes GOD (but never both). The definite article "the" is always present before the title "Lord". However, it naturally disappears when combined with the names (and their derivatives) Adonai and Yahweh. Some translations permit a condensing approach, mirroring the methodology we have already discussed for the Septuagint translators so many centuries before.

Indeed, if we also added the LXX translation here, we would see that Amos 1:8 concludes: "λέγει κύριος". The unique characteristic that we see in the Septuagint is that the word translated "the Lord", κύριος, condenses both Adonai and Yahweh from the Hebrew (like CEV, MSG and TLB). However, it also dispenses with the article, the Greek equivalent of "the", like the many translations that choose to keep a reference to Adonai or Yahweh (or both).

Thus we see in the plethera of English translations commonly read today a diversity or even tension between the desires to:

• absolutely avoid redundancy
• transmit some of the Lordship language 
• maintain the name aspects denoted by both the Hebrew and the anarthrous Greek translation, λέγει κύριος. 

However, no-one ventures to remove the article before the antiquated title "Lord". Only Peterson in MSG realised that condensation and article dispensation could be legitimately and accurately rendered, God.

So, as I suspected, we arrive at our first solution via this second redundancy-risk scenario. There is indeed legitimate scope within the biblical translation tradition to condense when Lord LORD occurs, thus when Adonai Yahweh occurs in the Hebrew, and if God is acceptable for Yahweh and anarthrous κύριος, then it is also acceptable for Adonai Yahweh and, by inference, for Yahweh Elohim. 

However, as with my proposed solutions for "Lord of lords", I would also like to provide some other possibilities based on this rich translation tradition that do not lean on antiquated Lord.

• Almighty GOD
• Awesome GOD
• All-Powerful GOD
• GOD our King

There is at least one other common divine combo to consider, curiously rendered "the Lord Sabaoth" in the NETS translation. I don't want to overextend this post with another full examination of the English renderings, but you can consult a sample verse of Isaiah 1:9 here. The classic idea is "the LORD of hosts", but "hosts" is vague. The Old Testament, however, is filled with allusions to a whole "host" (please excuse the pun) of heavenly action and agents that do not fit well with our modern ideas of monotheism (and maybe a splattering of angels and demons for the more "spiritual" Christians and churches). I have also discussed this in more length in response to Michael Heiser's work on the Divine Council worldview, clearly held and developed by the Israelites in the ancient Middle East.

Since this combo includes the proper Name "Yahweh", it is also a problem for our GOD rendering. Here, however, we can legitimately ask the question: to what extent does the English translation in question want to restore that worldview? Let's first assume that some representation is necessary. Although "host" is not as antiquated as Lord, it sure is outdated in this sense of "host". Worse, in fact. So it has to go. Options we can see emerging through the biblical translation tradition that I see as helpful and also relatively faithful to the Divine Council worldview, are "GOD of Heaven's Forces" (or Armies or Contingents). If context requires the subject to be the armies, GOD's Heavenly Forces (or Heaven Forces).

However, if the answer to the question is uncertain, then God's ultimacy over the Heavenly powers (also a possibility) is certainly included by the rendering provided in the all-caps GOD.

Conclusion:

"GOD" is sufficient to render most divine title combinations involving Yahweh, Adonai, El and Sabaoth

In my next post I will proceed to the 4th obstacle in the path of the Yahweh translation, GOD.

Obstacle 2: Lord of Lords

In the endearing little love story between Tina and Archie we saw Tina is the church and Archie is the Lord Jesus Christ. The old-fashioned name "Archie" that Archie wants to change is "Lord". 

I believe a translation overhaul is needed for "Lord" in many modern Bible translations both in English and other languages. This overhaul is necessary for a relevant and yet faithful religious institution like Christianity.

The Number 1 question was how to translate the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh". I finally arrived, after two years of researching the issue, at the idea that GOD, all caps, would be a good solution. Eugene Peterson got there first though!

This only makes the suggestion all the more palatable, as I have arrived at the same destination as Peterson but via, I am sure, a different route, bringing more grammatical substance than Peterson's work had access to.

Overcoming Hurdle 2: "Lord of lords"

If you make this move - to switch the Yahweh translation from "The LORD" to "GOD", then there are some fresh problems to solve - I identify five of these. Overcoming the first obstacle, we established that it is more than faithful to ancient tradition to apply the lower case "g" to god, permitting the possessive "GOD, our god". This now leaves us excellently placed to approach the second hurdle, Lord of lords.

But if we are moving "Archie" away from "Archie", then doesn't "Archie of Archies" present a double problem?! Fortunately, as impressive as it sounds, it is a very rare title in the Bible, and even there applied in various ways (adapted from ESV version):

Applied To God:

Deuteronomy 10:17
For GOD your god is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome god, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Psalms 136:3
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever

Applied To God or Jesus:

1 Timothy 6:15

...which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords

Applied to Jesus

Revelation 17:14
They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

Revelation 19:16
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords

Lord of lords as a poetic device

Notice how in only one instance is Lord of lords not paired up with another grand title; either "God of gods" or "King of kings". There is a poetic insistence in there to draw out a response from the listener. In other words, although given in title language, there is no actual or rather static title of Lord of lords but rather an insistence that this is as important as a person can get and as high an authority level as a person can exert.

Interestingly, exactly the same profile results if you stick "King of kings" into a search field in a Bible concordance. You get human references (not just Jesus!) and you get divine references (the Israelite god, Yahweh), and you also get that pairing up with other adulating or poetic "titles".

It is not straight forward to replicate all that into English. As rare as "Lord" is today in non-religious contexts, the title "Lord of lords" is purely religious (and really confirms the overarching premise to be honest, of the need for a Lord overhaul), but that is sadly still the way many translations still feel safest: stuck inside the religious bubble of Lord. Peterson clearly sensed the need to break God and Jesus out of that bubble when it came to single-use "Kyrios", but for these five, even he only managed to scrap two of the "lords". To his credit, it is always nuanced and adapted. Let's see how he did it.

Deuteronomy 10:17

God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters

Psalms 136:3
Thank the Lord of all lords.

1 Timothy 6:15

Undisputed Ruler

Revelation 17:14
Lord over all lords

Revelation 19:16
Lord of lords

Already in Deuteronomy Peterson is giving the reader a hint of how he is going to give modern readers a breakout method from the crusty old "Lord": Master. Apart from GOD, this is the other special card he has to play and he is going to play it hundreds of times with Jesus. That part of the Lord Overhaul Operation is something we will be examining in a separate post and our hardest of obstacles of all, Obstacle 5: The Lord Jesus.

1 Timothy introduces a title that I regularly return to in my musings, that of ruler. I quite like it, even though, sadly, "Ruler of rulers" sounds ridiculous and actually creates a clash with another Greek word that can be helpfully translated ruler, Dynastēs.

One of the grand titles that everyone still gets is King. History doesn't always noticed that the poetic titles and the literal executive power titles have slowly been separated. So whereas before kings and queens had more or less ultimate say over their countries (think taxes and wars especially) and it was up to local governors to execute their commands, nowadays, kings and queens are more symbolically or religiously invested. It is their head executors are really the ones in charge (like Prime Minister, which, by the way, is also ridiculous sounding, way too British and, in contrast with the observations made of the cumulative poetic adulation in the biblical framework, it is perfunctory and static). 

But I have a couple of fresh suggestions, if I may. It's my blog and piece, so I may as well, but I really do feel that for these five instances we have two quite decent candidates:

1. Commander-In-Chief.
2. Condensing into or substituting "King of kings".

Commander-In-Chief

A commander-in-chief, also sometimes called supreme commander, or chief commander, is the person or body that exercises supreme operational command and control over a nation's military forces. As a technical term, it refers to military competencies that reside in a nation-state's executive leadership—a head of state, a head of government.

Commander-In-Chief I think is an interesting contender as it manages to contain the aspect of awe and accumulation with other grand titles like "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith" (curiously I note that the Queen is no longer "Lord High Admiral" of the Royal Navy - did she resign?!). It also has an official power. She has to give her green light to important acts like going to war.

We also can note that in the context of 1 Timothy 6, we already have "I charge you to keep this command", thus Commander-in-Chief fits all the more nicely. Some of the translations around this verse are somewhat messy, perhaps in part because of the ambiguity of the text and the theological-motivated ambiguity desired by apologetics. I propose the following translation of this section, starting verse 13 through 16:

In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until God, in his own time, returns and reveals Jesus Christ our King as the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Commander-in-Chief. To him alone who is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to him be honour and might forever. Amen. 

Here descriptions are more clearly separated and grouped. Now divested of his direct rule,the closing exultation is for the invisible and immortal God.

King of kings

My second suggestion is to say that sometimes the repetition is not necessary in the target language. The most famous example for Septuagint scholars is that of Adonai-Yahweh. Since both were translated as Kyrios, the translators ummed and ahhed between "kyrios kyrios" and a simple "kyrios". There are also other examples of where since earliest times translators of the Bible have been sensitive to the issue of redundancy. What this, therefore, legitimises us to do is ask the following question: does a simple "King of kings" suffice to translate what was previously emphasised in parallel language ("King of kings and Lord of lords")? I would go further to say, yes it does suffice (see my suggestions below for the New Testament examples)!

Since we only have the five instances, we can write out the suggestions in turn, again in adaptation of the ESV:

Deuteronomy 10:17
1. For GOD your god is God of gods and Commander-In-Chief, the great, the mighty, and the awesome god, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

2. For GOD your god is God of gods and King of kings, the great, the mighty, and the awesome god, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Psalms 136:3
1. Give thanks to the Commander-In-Chief,
for his steadfast love endures forever

2. Give thanks to the King of kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever

1 Timothy 6:15

1. ...which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Commander-In-Chief

2. ...which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings

Revelation 17:14
1. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Commander-In-Chief and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

2. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

Revelation 19:16
1. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Commander-In-Chief

2. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings

And not a "lord" in sight!

Conclusion:

Lord of lords can either be rendered King of Kings or Commander-In-Chief.

In my next post I will proceed to the 3rd obstacle in the path of the Yahweh translation, GOD.