Hebrew Roots/Neglected Commandments/Honouring His Name/NT-usage
Josephus records for us that it was “not lawful” to use the Name
(Antiquities, bk.2, chap.12, part 4). Josephus meant that laws
had been issued by rabbinical leaders forbidding the usage of
the divine name. The ban seems to have been nearly universal
amongst the Jews by the first century.  The Gesenius Hebrew-
English Lexicon says of this name: “pr. name of the supreme God
amongst the Hebrews. The later Hebrews, for some centuries
before the time of Christ, either misled by a false
interpretation of certain laws (Ex.20;7; Lev.24:11), or else
following some old superstition, regarded this name as so very
holy, that it might not even be pronounced. . . Whenever,
therefore, this nomen tetragrammaton occurred in the sacred text
. . . they were accustomed to substitute for it [Adonai], and
thus the vowels of the noun [Adonai] are in the Masoretic text
placed under the four letters [YHVH] . . . This custom was
already in vogue in the days of the LXX t