Kyrios

The title Kyrios ( German: Herr ) is used in the language of the New Testament for both God the Father and Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the invocation Greek Kyrie or Lord Jesus Christ is common.

Hebrew Bible or Old Testament

The use of the biblical name of God in Judaism is subject to strict regulations, so as protection against accidental pronouncing the Hebrew consonants YHWH mostly text with the vowels of the word Adonai ("[ my ] Lord" ) have been highlighted. The translation into Hellenistic Greek ( Septuagint ) used in the same tradition of more than 6000 times the word Κύριος instead of God's name ( the salutation as "God" remains unaffected ).

According to the direction indicated by the term " Mr. " power relationship, the people refer to God often referred to as "servant" or " slave " - similar to the relationship between a ruler and his subjects.

New Testament

In the New Testament tradition of the Septuagint is taken up, so that God is addressed as κύριος. In addition, the profane name of a lord and master in a house is the term continues to be present. In addition, however, the authority of Jesus, the Christians beyond that of a religious teacher ( "Master ", " Rabbi " ) will go far expressed by the Kyrios title. This is all the easier when Jesus with the hitherto rare address to God as " Father" an altered relationship to God propagated.

The title Kyrios is reinterpreted so far in the use of Jesus, as on the one hand its closeness to God ( cf. the idea of ​​resurrection ) is emphasized, on the other hand, just the service nature of its occurrence to the people in order to justify this form of address is ( see, eg, Heb 2.9 ). Another justification strand connects the title with a royal authority of Jesus - whether in the sense of a God-anointed savior - king for Israel ( Messiah) or the Judge in the service of a new, divine justice.

Christianity history

The Kyrios title has been used for centuries in Christianity for God and Jesus at the same time; eleison in individual liturgical texts such as the Kyrie remained the same even if the Greek text, as most of the elements of worship were designed in the Latin language or in other languages ​​.