Why Is the Lord’s Name Translated Into Every Language?

Q.  Why  was the name of Jesus changed with the translation of scripture?   When you translate what I’m saying in my mother tongue into English you don’t also translate my name into English.  Why was Jesus’s name is not kept in its Hebrew form since He was born a Jew?

A.  One reason is because He’s not like you or me or anyone else. We’re not important enough or loved enough by people in every country.   But the Lord is important enough and He is loved enough by people all over the world.  When they translate His name into their own language, it’s as if they’re saying He’s one of theirs, and not some foreigner.

But I think the most important reason is in Phil. 2:9-11 where Paul said that because of His faithfulness,

“God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Greek word for tongue in that passage is not just the name of that thing in our mouth.  It also refers to the language we speak.  The same Greek word is used in the phrase “speaking in tongues” which appears repeatedly in 1 Cor. 12-14. And throughout the Book of Revelation John used it in reference to people of all languages.  Therefore it’s reasonable to conclude that God wanted the name of Jesus to be spoken in every language as well as by every person.