Where did NT writers derive the Greek appellation Kyrios for Jehovah? / Από ποιά πηγή παρέλαβαν οι συγγραφείς της ΚΔ την επωνυμία Κύριος για τον Ιεχωβά;

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κύριος, ου, ὁ κύριος owner, master, lord; Lord

6. Κύριος is otherwise used of Yahweh in the following NT passages (? indicates that κύριος may refer to Jesus): Matt 1:20, 22; 3:3*; 4:7*, 10*; 5:33*; 11:25; 21:9*, 42; 22:37*, 44a*; 23:39*; 24:42(?); 27:10*; Mark 1:3*; 5:19 (?); 11:9*, 10; 12:11*, 29a, b*, 30*, 36a*; 13:20; Luke 1:6, 9, 15, 16, 17, 25, 28, 32, 38, 45, 46, 58, 66, 68, 76(?); 2:9b, 15, 22, 23a, b*, 24, 26, 39; 3:4*; 4:8*, 12*, 18*, 19*; 5:17; 10:21, 27*; 13:35*; 19:38*; 20:37, 42a*; John 1:23 *; 5:4; 12:13*, 38a, b*; Acts 1:24; 2:20*, 21*, 25*, 34a*, 39, 47; 3:20, 22; 4:26, 29; 5:9; 7:31, 33, 49*; 8:22, 24, 39; 10:4, 14(?), 33; 11:8, 16(?), 21a, 23(?); 12:11, 17; 13:2, 11, 12, 44, 47; 15:17a, b, 40; 16:14, 15, 30, 32(?); 17:24; 18:8, 9(?); 20:19(?), 28, 32; 21:14; Rom 4:8*; 9:28, 29*; 10:12, 13*, 16*; 11:3*, 34*; 12:19*; 14:4b, 6a, b, c, 11*; 15:11*; 1 Cor 1:31*; 2:16*; 3:5, 20*; 4:19; 7:17; 10:26*; 14:21*; 2 Cor 5:11(?); 6:17*, 18*; 8:19, 21; 10:17, 18 ; 2 Tim 2:14(?), 19a*, b*, 22(?), 24(?); Heb 1:10*; 7:21*; 8:2(?), 8*, 9*, 10*, 11*; 10:16*, 30a*, b*; 12:5*, 6*; 13:6*; Jas 3:9; 4:10, 15; 5:4, 11a, b; 1 Pet 1:25*; 2:3*, 13(?); 3:12a*, b*; 2 Pet 2:9, 11(?); 3:8, 9, 15; Jude 5(?):9, 14; Rev 1:8; 4:8, 11; 11:4, 15, 17; 15:3, 4; 16:5, 7; 18:8; 19:6; 21:22; 22:5, 6.

7. Whence did NT writers derive this Greek appellation for Yahweh? Use of absolute (ὁ) Κύριος for Yahweh has been thought to be derived from the LXX, in the great parchment codices of which Heb. Yhwh is translated by κύριος (so Cullmann, Hahn, et al.). But this tr. is found only in fourth- and fifth-century Christian copies of the LXX, not in those prepared for Greek-speaking Jews in pre-Christian times (e.g., Pap. Fuad 266 [from Egypt] and 8ḤevXII gr [from Palestine]). In these versions of the OT Yhwh is inserted in Hebrew or palaeo-Hebrew characters into the Greek text, and both Origen and Jerome knew of such copies in their days. Moreover, at least since W. Bousset it has been maintained that it was "unthinkable" that a Palestinian Jew would call God absolutely "the Lord" (see Bultmann, Theology I, 51f.).

Yet there was clearly a custom beginning among Palestinian Jews of the last two centuries B.C. of referring to God as "(the) Lord," in Aramaic as mārêh (indefinite, 11QtgJob 24:6-7; 1QapGen 20:12-13) or māryā’ (definite, 4QEn^b 1, iv.5), in Hebrew as ’adôn (even without the controversial suffix -āy, Ps 114:7; 11QPs^a 28:7-8), and in Greek as κύριος (Josephus Ant. xx.4.90; xiii.68 [quoting Isa 19:19]; T. Levi 18:2 [κύριος]; 1 Enoch [Greek] 10:9 [ὁ κύριος]). Even though none of these examples indicates that Yhwh was translated by κύριος, they at least show that it was not "unthinkable" for Palestinian Jews to call "God" (’ēl) or "the Almighty" (šadday) "Lord." The direct line has not yet been traced from this pre-Christian Jewish custom to the NT writers, but its influence on these writers is not unimaginable.

* Horst Balz & Gerhard Schneider,
Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament,
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004,
Vol./Τόμ. 2, p./σ. 330.