by Giuseppe Monno
Romans 10:13
“Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The translators of the New World Translation replace the genitive Kyriou (“of the Lord”) with the name “Jehovah.” Yet in the original Greek text of the New Testament, the Tetragrammaton YHWH never appears, nor is it ever transliterated. The use of “Jehovah” is therefore an interpretive addition, not something found in the text itself.
Furthermore, the form “Jehovah” does not reflect the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, but arose from a medieval development (around the 13th century).
The key point, however, is the context. The Apostle Paul is clearly speaking about Jesus Christ:
“Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
And again:
“There is no distinction between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is Lord of all, and his generosity is offered to all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).
The “Lord” Paul is referring to is therefore Jesus Christ. Consequently, verse 13 — “Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” — also refers to Him.
Here Paul is quoting the prophet Joel, where the original text speaks of the Lord. By applying this passage to Christ, the Apostle makes a decisive theological claim: the name of the Lord to be invoked for salvation is the name of Jesus. In this way, he identifies the Lord of the Old Testament with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Replacing “Lord” with “Jehovah” in this context is not a neutral choice. It alters the meaning of the text and breaks the theological connection Paul establishes between the Old and the New Testament.
The Christian faith, by contrast, recognises in Jesus “the Lord of all” (Romans 10:12), the one in whom the promise of universal salvation is fulfilled. As the Letter to the Philippians also declares:
“God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names, so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).
To call on the name of Jesus, then, is to call on the Lord himself, and to share in the salvation that God has given to the world through Him.