Kyrios

Usage in Scripture

Kyrios appears several hundred times in the New Testament. Its uses fall into three broad categories.

• Master in everyday usage: It refers to a master who owns servants or property. The "lord" in the Parable of the Talents translates this word.
• Term of respect: It is used as a respectful form of address. When the Samaritan woman first met Jesus, she addressed him as "Sir" (Greek kyrie; John 4:11).
• Confessional title: It is used as a title that places Jesus in the position of God. Representative examples include "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus" (Romans 10:9); "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 12:3); and the confession of Thomas, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).

Background

In the Hellenistic (ancient Greek-speaking) world, kyrios was the ordinary word for addressing a master, and it also served as an honorific title for gods and rulers. In most extant manuscripts of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the divine name Jehovah (the four-letter Hebrew name, or Tetragrammaton) is rendered as kyrios. This reflects the Jewish custom of not pronouncing the name of God aloud but reading Adonai ("my Lord") in its place. Some early Jewish manuscripts, however, are known to have retained the divine name in Hebrew characters.

From the Old Testament to the New

The New Testament writers applied to Jesus passages in which kyrios referred to God in the Septuagint. In Romans 10:13, Paul quotes "whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered" (Joel 2:32) as a statement about Jesus. Philippians 2:9–11 borrows the language of Isaiah 45:23, "unto me every knee shall bow," to declare that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Psalm 110:1, "The LORD said unto my Lord," was likewise applied to Jesus (Mark 12:36; Acts 2:34). The Aramaic prayer Maranatha ("Our Lord, come"; 1 Corinthians 16:22) shows that the confession of Jesus as Lord was also in use in the early Aramaic-speaking community.

Interpretation and Debates

• Relation to Trinitarian faith: Historic orthodox Christianity regards the application to Jesus of a title used for God as evidence of Jesus' divinity (1 Corinthians 8:4–6).
• Debate over origins: In the early twentieth century, the German scholar Wilhelm Bousset and others held that the title derived from the cults (religious rites) of the Hellenistic world. Other scholars, citing Maranatha, counter that the title originated in early Jewish Christian faith.
• Contrast with the Roman emperor: Some scholars interpret the confession "Jesus is Lord" as a challenge to the Roman practice of calling the emperor lord.
• The Jehovah's Witnesses' translation: Jehovah's Witnesses maintain that the divine name was present in the original text of the New Testament, and their translation renders some occurrences of kyrios as "Jehovah." Mainstream churches and scholars reject this view, noting that no such form appears in the extant Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.
• A common misunderstanding: Kyrios does not always denote deity. Because the same word can also be a simple term of respect or mean "master," it must be interpreted according to context.

In the Korean Church

The New Korean Revised Version renders the New Testament kyrios as Ju ("Lord") and the divine name in the Old Testament as Yeohowa ("Jehovah"). The New Korean Standard Version also renders the Old Testament divine name as Ju, while the Common Translation Bible renders it as Yahwe ("Yahweh"). The terms Junim ("Lord") and Juyeo ("O Lord") used in prayer and praise derive from this title, and the practice of calling out "Juyeo" three times at the beginning of tongseong gido (praying aloud together) is widespread. Churches that emphasize liturgy, such as the Anglican Church of Korea and the Lutheran Church in Korea, use in worship the Greek prayer Kyrie eleison, meaning "Lord, have mercy."