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The Greek word kurios is a key word in any study of the identity of Christ. Therefore, we have analyzed its many New Testament uses in their contexts and identified four principal usages, which we have indicated by number in the table below.

1. This usage denotes God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Creator of the heavens and earth. In each case where kurios refers to God, there are indications in the context that it is specifically referring to Him.

2. This usage refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. A “2” indicates the totality of his life and ministry, without respect to before or after his resurrection, or any other subdivision.

2a. This usage refers specifically to his pre-resurrection ministry, for when he was referred to as “lord,” the meaning fell considerably short of its meaning after his resurrection and ascension. As Matthew 28:18 and Acts 2:36 indicate, God made Christ “Lord” after his resurrection. Philippians 2:6–11 indicates that God honored Jesus with the title of “Lord” as His response to Jesus’ obedient suffering. And Romans 14:9 says that because “Christ died and lived again,” that he is “…Lord of both the dead and of the living.” The lordship he exercised prior to this was analogous to the authority he had as their Teacher, Master, and Rabbi (see Mark 9:5, 11:21; John 13:13).

2b. This usage refers specifically to his post-resurrection, fully-realized Lordship (with a capital L). The Resurrection changed the respectful student/teacher relationship of the disciples with Jesus into the believers’ servant/Lord relationship.

In some cases, we have found that both God and Jesus Christ are included in the meaning of kurios , and, instead of forcing a definition toward one or the other, we simply include them both. This is consistent with the biblical figure of speech amphibologia , which is the layering of one or more truths upon another wherein the same word or words can have more than one meaning. In English, we call this a “double entendre.” When we assign both 1 & 2, we see this as a foreshadowing of the concept of “the Dynamic Duo,” or God and His Christ functioning together.

3. This usage refers to the owner or master of something or someone. This usage has overtones that apply to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the believers, because we are not our own, but we belong to him, who purchased us with his own blood (1 Cor. 7:22 and 23, et al .). Yet, in this usage, no specific reference is made to Jesus.

4. This usage is when kurios is used as a title of respect, equivalent to the English word “sir.” Before Mary recognized Jesus at the garden tomb, she called him “kurios ,” thinking he was the gardener (John 20:15). The KJV and the NIV both appropriately translate it as “sir.” In some cases, as in John 4, it is hard to say whether the person calling Jesus kurios is doing so out of general respect or from specific knowledge of who he was. In those cases, we have assigned both a “4” and another usage.

The Aramaic equivalents to the Greek word kurios are mara or marya . Mara with a possessive pronoun like “our” or “my” refers to Jesus, except in a few cases that refer to God (Luke 1:28, 2:29; John 12:38; Rom. 10:16, 11:3; Rev. 4:11). When mara is used with a genitive phrase (like Lord of the harvest—Luke 10:2), it also refers to God. Marya , the Old Testament word used in the Peshitta for Yahweh, can be used of either God or Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and therefore must be determined by the context of each occurrence. When marya refers to Jesus Christ, it generally refers to his post-resurrection Lordship, following the pattern of kurios . Where neither mara nor marya occur in the Aramaic Peshitta text in verses that contain kurios , we have indicated the translation of the Aramaic word inside quotes (“Jesus,” “God,” etc.).

When we are in doubt as to which usage is correct, we indicate such by the word “or” inside the parenthesis. If there are two uses of kurios in the same verse with different usages, we note that by separate sets of parentheses, e.g., (1) (2a).

In some cases the word “Lord” occurs in the KJV but not in more modern versions based on better manuscript evidence showing that kurios is not in the text (e.g., Acts 9:29; Rom. 1:3).