This is a summary of the series “Why do you call me Lord?”  The post title is meant to be a play on words based on Luke 6:46. It is worth imagining Christ asking us, “Why do you call me Lord?”  because “Lord” is not a word that is in common use today.  Because of that we have to learn “church English” in order to know what we are supposed to call God.  Wouldn’t it be far better to just use a word that is current today and has the same associations for us that κύριος had for first century readers?  Well, it isn’t quite that simple, but this series will at least hopefully expand our knowledge about what κύριος meant and what the means for us today.

• Part 1: Introduction: This series intends to help us better understand what it means when we say Jesus Christ is our “Lord.”  How was the word κύριος understood in the first century and how is that different from our conception of “Lord” in today.
• Part 2: Two sides to being a slave: Being a slave implies ownership and a giving over of our destiny to fulfill the desires of our master.  But being owned as a slave also means that the owner is responsible for the care of the slave.
• Part 3: Defining kurios: Definitions of κύριος from a couple Greek lexicons.
• Part 4: Cultural context of kurios: In order to understand κύριος we must understand Roman culture and the pater familia.  This post provides links to information on first century Roman culture which was heavily influenced by Greek culture.
• Part 5: Translating kurios in languages of the world: This post shows how κύριος is translated around the world and looks at alternative renderings of the word.

Where should you start?

If you just want to get the main idea of this series I would recommend looking at Part 1 and Part 2.  If you want to do in depth study on the subject yourself, read all the posts but study Part 3 and Part 4.  If you are knowledgeable in a language besides English I hope you will contribute to Part 5.

Aren’t we forgetting something?

I had promised a post showing usage of κύριος in the New Testament as well as related words like κατακυριεύω, “to Lord over” from Matthew 20:25.  Unfortunately I ran out of time (or maybe energy) and so that task is left undone.  Another interesting topic brought up by one of the commenters on this series is the relation between κύριος and the divine name YHWH, i.e. the tetragrammaton.  I’ve been looking at “Lord” in the New Testament but the use of “Lord” in the Old Testament is a whole different kettle of fish, including the issue of “small caps.”  I alluded to this topic in an infamous post about tattoos, “Where is Jesus’ tattoo?”

So how would I translate κύριος?

Because I have grown up in church and have always used the word “Lord” I personally am comfortable calling God “Lord.” There are situations in the New Testament where I think it would be better to use terms like master and even boss.  Because lord isn’t used in modern English, it is currently understood by people outside the church as a synonym for God.  Master, Ruler or Leader are probably more meaningful terms in modern English.

A final note about pronouncing the word κύριος: the letter ρ is equivalent to the English letter r so κύριος can be pronounced “curry-aws” or even “kairi-aws.”

Ἀμήν, ἔρχου κύριε Ἰησοῦ.