G2962 — κύριος (kýrios)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: G2962
Original: κύριος
Transliteration: kýrios
Pronunciation: koo'-ree-os
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: from κῦρος (kŷros) — "supremacy"
Occurrences: 748 tokens across 687 unique verses in 25 NT books
First Occurrence: Mat 1:20 — "behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From κῦρος (kŷros, "supremacy"); supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by implication Master (as a respectful title): God, Lord, master, Sir. In classical Greek: owner, head of household, one with legal authority. In LXX: standard rendering for the divine name YHWH and for אֲדֹנָי (Adonai). In NT: applied to God the Father, to Jesus Christ, and in mundane sense to earthly masters/owners.

Semantic Domains¶

Louw-Nida: - Domain 012: Supernatural Beings and Powers → 012001 Supernatural Beings (divine referent) - Domain 037: Control, Rule → 037004 Rule, Govern (authority referent) - Domain 057: Possess, Transfer, Exchange → 057001 Have, Possess, Property, Owner (earthly-master referent) - Domain 087: Status → 087003 High Status or Rank - Other words in cluster: δεσπότης (despótēs, G1203); ἄρχων (árchōn, G758); βασιλεύς (basileús, G935); θεός (theós, G2316); πατήρ (patḗr, G3962, as covenant-title)

UBS Semantic Domains: - [012] Supernatural Beings and Powers - [057] Possess, Transfer, Exchange - [037] Control, Rule - [087] Status

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
Lord (capitalized)	426	62.0%
the Lord / The Lord / of the Lord	193	28.1%
lord / lord's (lowercase)	39	5.7%
Sir / Sirs / sir	12	1.7%
O Lord	8	1.2%
Lord's	7	1.0%
masters / master / Masters / ye masters / owners	11	1.6%
LORD (small-caps, quoting OT YHWH)	5	0.7%
OF LORDS / of lords / lords	3	0.4%
of God	1	0.1%

About 92 percent of uses are capitalized "Lord" — the overwhelmingly divine or messianic reference. Mundane senses ("sir," "master," "owner") account for roughly 4 percent.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
2 Thessalonians	19	40.4
1 Thessalonians	22	24.7
2 Peter	14	23.0
Philemon	5	20.0
2 Timothy	16	19.3
Ephesians	27	17.4
Colossians	14	14.7
1 Corinthians	59	13.5
James	13	12.0
2 Corinthians	28	10.9
Acts	105	10.4
Romans	39	9.0
Luke	98	8.5
2 John	1	7.7
Matthew	76	7.1
1 Timothy	8	7.1
1 Peter	7	6.7
John	51	5.8
Revelation	22	5.4
Hebrews	16	5.3
Galatians	7	4.7
Mark	18	2.7
Titus	1	2.2

Patterns: Highest density concentrates in Paul's shorter epistles (2Th, 1Th, Phm, 2Ti) where "our Lord Jesus Christ" is a near-formulaic greeting. Acts leads raw count (105) tracking early preaching of Jesus as Lord. Mark's low density reflects its earthy narrative register; Matthew is moderate. The word is absent from 3 John and Jude in this tally (Jude entries shown as unrecovered).

Semantic Categories¶

1. Divine Name — Quoting or Alluding to YHWH (LXX Continuity)¶

The NT inherits the LXX convention of translating יְהוָה (YHWH) with κύριος. Quoted OT passages carry this divine-name sense directly into NT Greek.

Mat 1:20 — "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him" (OT theophany idiom)
Mar 1:3 — "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (quoting Isa 40:3)
Mar 12:36 — "The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand" (Psa 110:1; kyrios twice, rendering YHWH and Adonai)
Heb 1:10 — "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth" (Psa 102:25 applied to the Son)

2. God the Father as Lord¶

Mat 11:25 — "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth"
Act 4:24 — "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth"
Rev 4:11 — "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power"
Jas 5:4 — "cries...entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth"

3. Jesus Christ as Lord — Confessional Formula¶

The most characteristic NT use: κύριος as titular declaration of Jesus's divine status and messianic authority.

Act 2:36 — "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ"
Act 10:36 — "preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)"
Rom 10:9 — "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus...thou shalt be saved"
1Co 12:3 — "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost"
Phi 2:11 — "every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"
Joh 20:28 — "My Lord and my God" (Thomas to the risen Jesus)

4. Jesus as Lord — Authority Over Creation and Eschaton¶

Mar 2:28 — "the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath"
Rom 14:9 — "that he might be Lord both of the dead and living"
Rev 17:14 — "he is Lord of lords, and King of kings"
Rev 19:16 — "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS"

5. Jesus as Lord — Ethical Demand and Discipleship¶

Mat 7:21 — "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven"
Luk 6:46 — "why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"
Eph 6:9 / Col 4:1 — "ye masters...knowing that your Master also is in heaven"

6. Earthly Master / Owner / Head of Household¶

Mat 10:24 — "the servant above his lord"
Luk 19:33 — "the owners (kyrioi) thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?"
Gal 4:1 — "the heir...differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all"
Eph 6:5 — "servants, be obedient to them that are your masters (kyriois)"

7. Polite Address — "Sir"¶

Joh 4:11 — "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with"
Joh 4:15, 4:19, 4:49 — Samaritan woman and nobleman addressing Jesus respectfully before full recognition
Act 16:30 — "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs)	G2424	181x (26%)	"the Lord Jesus" — identifies the Lord
λέγω (légō)	G3004	142x (21%)	"saith the Lord" / address "Lord, ..."
θεός (theós)	G2316	122x (18%)	"God...the Lord" (Father-Son pairing or OT quote)
Χριστός (Christós)	G5547	121x (18%)	"our Lord Jesus Christ" (confessional triad)
ἔπω (épō)	G2036	120x (17%)	"he said, Lord" (narrative address)
πᾶς (pâs)	G3956	103x (15%)	"Lord of all" / "all ye masters" (scope of lordship)
ἔρχομαι (érchomai)	G2064	57x (8%)	"coming of the Lord" (parousia)
πατήρ (patḗr)	G3962	47x (7%)	"God the Father...Lord Jesus Christ" (epistolary greeting)
χάρις (cháris)	G5485	44x (6%)	"grace...from the Lord" (Pauline greeting)
ὄνομα (ónoma)	G3686	39x (6%)	"name of the Lord" (worship/invocation)
πνεῦμα (pneûma)	G4151	39x (6%)	"Spirit of the Lord" / "Lord is that Spirit"
δοῦλος (doûlos)	G1401	38x (6%)	"servants...Lord/master" (household code)

Word Family / Cognates¶

G2960 κυριακός (kyriakós) — "belonging to the Lord" (1Co 11:20 "Lord's supper"; Rev 1:10 "Lord's day")
G2961 κυριεύω (kyrieúō) — "to exercise lordship, rule over"
G2963 κυριότης (kyriótēs) — "dominion, lordship"; name of an angelic rank
κῦρος (kŷros) — root noun, "supremacy, authority"

Synonyms¶

No direct synonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for G2962.

Antonyms¶

search_relationships.py returned these opposites in the earthly master-servant register: - G1399 δούλη (doulē) — female slave/servant; opposite social pole to master/lord - G1400 δοῦλος (doulos) — slave, bondman; opposite in authority/status - G1401 δοῦλος (doulos) — slave, servant; a second Strong's mapping surfaced by Abbott-Smith

Easily Confused / Adjacent Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
δεσπότης (despótēs)	G1203	"Lord", "Master"	despotēs emphasizes absolute ownership/despotic power (esp. over slaves); kyrios emphasizes authority and rank, and is the LXX divine name
διδάσκαλος (didáskalos)	G1320	"Master" (= teacher)	Rabbinic teacher; no divine or ownership connotation
ῥαββί (rhabbí)	G4461	"Master"	Jewish honorific for teacher; transliterated Hebrew
ἐπιστάτης (epistátēs)	G1988	"Master"	Overseer/superintendent (used only by Luke, disciples to Jesus)
καθηγητής (kathēgētḗs)	G2519	"Master"	Guide, leader (Mat 23:10)

Hebrew Source (via LXX)¶

Kyrios is the LXX's standard rendering for the Tetragrammaton and for אֲדֹנָי. PMI-ranked alignment across the parallel corpus:

Hebrew Source	Strong's	LXX Co-occurrence	PMI	Score
יְהוָה (YHWH)	H3068	5,107	1.81	15.48
אֲדֹנָי (Adonai)	H136	419	1.87	11.29
יְהוִה (Yehovih, variant)	H3069	290	1.88	10.65
אָדוֹן (adon)	H113	271	1.86	10.45
יָהּ (Yah)	H3050	(via formulae)	—	—

LXX convention: By the 3rd-2nd cent. BCE, Hebrew scribal reverence for the Tetragrammaton led readers to pronounce "Adonai" wherever YHWH appeared; Greek translators rendered both with κύριος. This is why the NT can quote OT "YHWH says" passages as "the Lord says" and apply them directly to Jesus without lexical seam — the same Greek word that carried the divine name in the Greek scriptures the apostles read is the word they use for the risen Christ.

Rom 10:13 / Joel 2:32 bridge: Paul quotes "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord (kyrios) shall be saved," applying a YHWH-invocation text directly to Jesus (Rom 10:9, "Lord Jesus"). The LXX convention supplies the exegetical vocabulary.

Phil 2:11 / Isa 45:23 bridge: "Every knee shall bow...every tongue confess" in Isaiah is spoken by YHWH ("unto me every knee shall bow"); Phil 2:10-11 applies it to Jesus and names him kyrios "to the glory of God the Father" — ascribing YHWH's unique prerogative to the exalted Christ without displacing the Father.