“Lord” means a master or sovereign — but in the Bible it carries up to three very different weights, and keeping them distinct matters. “Lord” in lower case is an ordinary master, human or divine. In the Hebrew Bible, “the LORD” printed in small capitals stands for the sacred name of the God of Israel, YHWH — the covenant name the Hebrew Bible connects with Moses (Exodus 3; 6), traditionally spoken aloud as Adonai (“my Lord”) out of reverence.
The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) rendered YHWH as Kyrios, and the New Testament uses that same word both for God and — as the earliest Christian confession — for Jesus: “Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:9; Philippians 2:11). Reading “Lord” well means asking, in each passage, whether the text names the God of Israel, a human master, or the risen Jesus.
Explore Lord and related terms in the full glossary → a.fortt.com/glossary-app
How this is made · A Fortt Media project, created & edited by Jon Fortt. Grounded in a curated Scripture database and carefully drafted and audited with the help of AI — described plainly, and written to assume no particular denomination or doctrine. Read the full approach → · Report a correction →
