The names used by NT authors to refer to God reflect the fact that the NT was written in a Greek-speaking culture primarily on the basis of a tradition and terminology inherited from the OT and Judaism as mediated by the Septuagint (LXX). This tradition was significantly modified both by the early church’s understanding of the teaching of Jesus and by its understanding of the person of Jesus as the definitive expression of God.

God: The most common word for God in the NT (1,318 times) is the Greek word theos (‘god’), used often by the LXX (more than 4,000 times) primarily as the translation of the usual Hebrew word for God, elohim. This word was also used by the LXX for the pagan gods, just as it was the standard word for the gods of the Greeks and Romans of NT times. Although the NT writers sometimes use ‘god’ for the pagan gods (e.g., 1 Cor. 8:5) and on rare occasions apparently apply it theologically to the glorified Christ (e.g., John 20:28), the vast majority of cases refers to the God revealed in the history of Israel and in the person of Jesus. Thus, ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ is a frequent designation (e.g., Rom. 15:6).

Yahweh,’ translated kyrios (Gk., ‘Lord’) in the LXX and ‘the Lord‘ by several English versions. This name was used by OT authors more than 6,000 times, compared to about 2,500 times for elohim, ‘God.’ The NT continues to use ‘Lord’ for God (about 100 times), primarily in quotations from the LXX (e.g., Mark 1:3; 12:11; Acts 2:34) and in set phrases such as ‘hand of the Lord’ (Luke 1:66). The vast majority of the 719 occurrences of kyrios (‘Lord’) in the NT refers to Jesus, however, usually as the exalted Christ (e.g., Acts 2:36; John 20:28). Thus, the two most common OT names for deity, ‘God’ and ‘Lord,’ are used in the NT not only for God but also (though rarely in the case of the word ‘God’) for Jesus as the exalted Lord of the church’s faith. A much less common word for ‘Lord’ in the LXX, despoteµs (Gk., ‘lord,’ ‘sovereign,’ ‘master’) is also used in the NT both for God (Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; Rev. 6:10) and for Christ (Jude 4; 2 Pet. 2:1).

The common impersonal words for ‘deity’ in Greek are absent from those LXX books that are derived from the Hebrew canon of the OT and appear only once in the remainder of the LXX (Wisd. of Sol. 18:nine). Correspondingly, ‘Deity’ as a term for God is found in the NT only in Paul’s address to the Athenians in Acts 17:29, and in Col. 2:nine.

The line between explicit names for God and more general designations is sometimes difficult to draw. Among the more common general designations used in the OT that are adopted in significant ways by NT authors are ‘King’ (e.g., Matt. 5:35; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:15), ‘Judge’ (e.g., John 8:50; Heb. 12:23), and ‘Savior’ (e.g., Luke 1:47; 1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; 4:10), all of which are applied more frequently to Jesus Christ than to God.

In the NT period, many Jews expressed their reverence for the explicit names for God by substituting periphrastic ways of speaking of God. This practice is reflected to some extent in the NT , especially in the sayings of Jesus (though Jesus did not hesitate to make use of explicit names for God). Among such periphrastic and reverential terms for God are ‘the Blessed’ (Mark 14:61), ‘Power’ (Mark 14:62), ‘Heaven’ (Luke 15:18 and often in the Matthean phrase ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ as a substitute for ‘Kingdom of God’), and the ‘Majestic Glory’ (2 Pet. 1:17). In addition, God is sometimes referred to by using the passive voice (the so-called ‘divine passive,’ e.g., Matt. 5:4, 6, 7, 9) and the impersonal ‘they’ (e.g., Luke 16:nine; also Luke 6:38; 12:20; and 12:48 are such in Greek but not in the English translation).