. . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.
Phil 2:11
The seven names are now in the order in which we will deal with them.
- Kurios <–
- The Lord Jesus Christ
- Adonai
- Ha Shem
- YHWH
- LORD
- The Name for both God and Jesus
καὶ πᾶσα γλῶσσα ἐξομολογήσηται ὅτι Κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ πατρός.
and every tongue {should acknowledge} that LORD Jesus Christ to glory {of God} Father.
Kurios
The first name we come to in our list is the name Kurios. Is Kurios the name above all names? Is this the name that Paul is referring to?
Let’s investigate the use of the Word Κύριος [Kurios] as much as we can.
Strong’s Dictionary
From κῦρος kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, that is, (as noun) controller; by implication Mr. (as a respectful title): – God, Lord, master, Sir.
Thayer’s Dictionary
- master, lord, owner, sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor
- a title of honour expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master
- the title given to: God, the Messiah
I am using as my prime sources:
- Gerhard Kittel’s (Ed) work Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Vol 111) of which there are 56 pages available from 1039 to 1095.
- Alan Richardson A Theological Wordbook of the Bible
What you see below is the summary:
Kurios is the term used in the Septuagint (LXX) for lord, master but also for the substitute for the Divine Name. In regular use it was a term of respect for one of a higher social position than one’s self. However at the time of the translation of the LXX it was used as the substitute for the Tetragrammaton. The early Roman emperors refused such titles at the western end of the empire but it was used as a standard title at the eastern end, e.g. in Egypt. Augustus was referred to as “the god and lord emperor Augustus”. Suetonius recorded that by the end of the time of Caesar Augustus reign (27 BC – AD 14), the use of kurios had become standard in Rome. The consensus is that kurios became the designation for the purpose among Hellenists (Greek speaking Jews) to avoid speaking The Name. (i.e. the standard circumlocution for YHWH). But for the general populace of the empire it was the standard usage for Lord Caesar.
For our purposes Kurios is not the term which we would consider the standard title for Jesus. Paul certainly was not using Kurios to be the ‘Name which is above every name’ with which we as Christians were to think of as being the Name that is above every name. It was merely a term used in translation by the language of wider communication (Greek) to refer to Christ. It is clear from the above comments from both Kittel and Richardson, that the people in the Roman empire used the term to refer to the emperor. However Kurios is not the name we are looking for.
David came out and shouted after him, “My lord [kurios] the king!” And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.
1 Sam 24:8 (LXX)
There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords [kurios].
1 Cor 8:5
Yet I have nothing specific to write to my lord [kurios] about him. Therefore I have brought him before you—and especially before you, King Agrippa—so that after the investigation has taken place, I might have something to write. (referring to the Emperor)
Acts 25:26