“WHO IS AND WHO WAS AND WHO IS TO COME”

All the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke uses κυριος [kyrios] in Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3 and Luke 3:4 and in English it is translated as Lord:

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight ….

However, if you were to look at Isaiah 40:3, the same word is capitalized:

Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert ….

Even in the English version, you would have noticed that there is a difference between “Lord” in the synoptic gospels and “LORD” in Isaiah 40:3.

As you are well aware, the Hebrew Old Testament was written without vowels. As a consequence of its disuse and after a lapse of time, the Jews were not certain as to how to vocalize the consonantal Hebrew. Therefore, some scribal scholars, called masoretes, took upon themselves the arduous task of inserting, usually underneath the consonants, vowels so that Hebrew words could be vocalized. That’s how the Masoretic text came about.

However, there is at least one word which the Jews were not sure as to how to pronounce it. It is יהוה [yhwh], the covenantal name of God. So, they take the vowels from the word adonaiand put these vowels underneath יהוה.

Adonai means “lord” in Hebrew. The curious thing, of course, is that the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the OT uses κυριος as a “replacement” translation for יהוה

However, if you were to transport a direct quotation from Isaiah 40:3 into Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3 and Luke 3:4 and uses κυριος in place of יהוה we will not be able to “equate” Jesus Christ as יהוה

I literally dropped off my chair when I first discovered this. That John the Baptist was actually referring to Jesus Christ as יהוה the covenantal trinitarian God that Moses asked of his personal name when he encountered him at the burning bush.

Jesus Christ is the “I am who I am”

The “I am” before Abraham was

Hallelujah, what a name!