Tyler Williams has a post up discussing the Vatican’s recent declaration that the name Yahweh not be spoken as part of their liturgy. I agree with many of his thoughts.

In my undergraduate career (at a Christian college), we pronounced the name as “Adonai,” aside from one student who decided to pronounce it “Hashem,” (ie, “the name”). This has always been what I’m most comfortable with. Not that I have any problem with vocalizing the tetragrammaton as Yahweh, but I’m most comfortable with a healthy distance between myself and an enraged deity. When I came to GCTS I was rather abashed that everyone vocalized יהוה as Yahweh. To date I think Mandy and I are the only ones who regularly insert Adonai when reading from the Hebrew Bible.

I, like Tyler, think that by translating the Name as “LORD” we lose something. It’s the difference between a title and a name. God implies a certain relationship with Israel when he reveals his name to Moses. To simply use “LORD” lacks the same connotations of relationship. I’d love to see modern translations simply use something akin to YHWH. That way each individual/church/denomination/etc can decide how they feel most comfortable dealing with the tetragrammaton. At the same time, it make obvious what is not always obvious in English translations–יהוה is a proper name, not a title.