A song we used to sing went like this:
King of kings and Lord of lords, glory, hallelujah!
King of kings and Lord of lords, glory, hallelujah!
Jesus, prince of peace, glory, hallelujah!
Jesus, prince of peace, glory, hallelujah!
My question for you Bible Translation types is this, when does 'Lord' in the New Testament refer to Jesus, and when does it refer to God the Father? Why is this important? Because in some languages there is no good word for 'lord', as they didn't have them in their culture (only elder brothers, fathers, uncles i.e. respected elders). Also, it can unhelpfully blur the distinction between Jesus the Messiah and the LORD of the Old Testament:
So, how do we know the difference? Sometimes it is clear from context e.g. Lord of lords refers to the Lamb in Revelation 17:14 and the Word of God in Revelation 19:16 respectively. But are there any clues in the Greek? According to Rick Brown and Christopher Samuel's 2003 article 'the meaning of kurios in the NT' there may be:
http://www.sil.org/sil/roster/brown_richard.htm
Apparently kurios often refers to the divine name, the KURIOS/YaHWeH of the Old Testament, especially in quotes from the LXX. Ho kurios often refers to Jesus the Messiah. (For an explanation of Yahweh, see http://www.justforcatholics.org/d03.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism - note that Adonai and Kurios are Hebrew and Greek respectively for 'Lord').
Now, you budding exegetes, see what you can find in Logos or Bibleworks or whatever Bible software you use and get back to me on this one. We'd love to find out so we can translate the term correctly whenever we find it in the NT!
David Gray
King of kings and Lord of lords, glory, hallelujah!
King of kings and Lord of lords, glory, hallelujah!
Jesus, prince of peace, glory, hallelujah!
Jesus, prince of peace, glory, hallelujah!
My question for you Bible Translation types is this, when does 'Lord' in the New Testament refer to Jesus, and when does it refer to God the Father? Why is this important? Because in some languages there is no good word for 'lord', as they didn't have them in their culture (only elder brothers, fathers, uncles i.e. respected elders). Also, it can unhelpfully blur the distinction between Jesus the Messiah and the LORD of the Old Testament:
'Translations which fail to distinguish the divine name
from the messianic title also prevent the reader from recognizing important
passages where the divine name is applied to Jesus. Examples are Rom. 10:13; 1 Cor. 1:31; 10:17; Heb. 1:10; 1 Pet.
3:14–16; and perhaps 2 Cor. 3:16. If more English translations of the NT made
even the small distinction indicated by ‘Lord’ versus ‘Lord’, as is done in many English translations of the Old
Testament, then the readers would be able to see that the divine name is being
applied to Jesus in these passages.' (Brown and Samuel, 2003).
So, how do we know the difference? Sometimes it is clear from context e.g. Lord of lords refers to the Lamb in Revelation 17:14 and the Word of God in Revelation 19:16 respectively. But are there any clues in the Greek? According to Rick Brown and Christopher Samuel's 2003 article 'the meaning of kurios in the NT' there may be:
http://www.sil.org/sil/roster/brown_richard.htm
Apparently kurios often refers to the divine name, the KURIOS/YaHWeH of the Old Testament, especially in quotes from the LXX. Ho kurios often refers to Jesus the Messiah. (For an explanation of Yahweh, see http://www.justforcatholics.org/d03.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism - note that Adonai and Kurios are Hebrew and Greek respectively for 'Lord').
Now, you budding exegetes, see what you can find in Logos or Bibleworks or whatever Bible software you use and get back to me on this one. We'd love to find out so we can translate the term correctly whenever we find it in the NT!
David Gray
