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Is There a Better Word than “Lord”?

 

Recently, I gave the Hayward Lectures at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.  My topic was “Paul’s KYRIOS Christology.”  Kyrios is a Greek word most often translated “Lord” in English Bible translations.  Paul uses the word about 200 times in his letters to refer to his Lord, Jesus Christ.  On a few occasions he used the word in reference to God, the Father. The word can be used of people as well who possess some sort of recognized, superior status, a king, a master of slave, for example. logo_kyrios

One night after the lecture during the Q&A time, someone asked a good question. It had to do with the English word “lord” or “Lord” as a translation of Kyrios.  The fellow knew about The Voice translation and he appreciated that we had tried to find new words and associations which communicate well to a modern audience.  We translated words like Christos as “the Anointed” rather than “Christ.”  We translated apostolos as “emissary” rather than “apostle.” So he asked, is there a better word than “Lord” to translate kyrios?

The word “Lord” was used first to translate kyrios and other biblical words for English-speaking audiences in the middle ages when the upper classes were referred to as “my lord” or “my lady” by those who occupied lower status.  Given the sensibilities of the modern world, the fellow wondered whether there was a better word.  Though those titles are still used in some societies, they are rare in many countries including the United States.  They have lost currency in many places. The use of “Lord” is restricted to religious language most often referring to God, Christ or, in some cases, the Holy Spirit.  For some “Lord” functions as a name or title for God.

Well, I had no answer. No one had ever asked me that question before so I had never thought about it.  I’m embarrassed to admit I had no response given the fact that we rethought so many of the other key religiously-laden words. I’m still puzzling over it.  I’d be interested in your thoughts.  Is there a better word than “Lord” to translate kyrios in modern English? It would have to have the right meaning and sets of associations. It would need to convey the idea that the person holding the title had supreme authority and power.   Since it is most often used in the New Testament as a title for Jesus linking him with the One, True God, it must be an appropriate honorific (fancy word for “title”) for the Liberating King. I’m hard pressed to come up with anything. If we put our heads together, I bet we can think of something.  Then again, maybe not?!

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The Early High Christology Club

I am a card-carrying member of The Early High Christology Club (EHCC).  Well, in the spirit of full disclosure we don’t actually have cards, we have a mug.  It is a highly sought-after prize.  If you are mug-worthy and see one, do everything you can short of stealing it to get one.  Carey Newman of Baylor University Press, also an EHCC charter member, made the first investment in the mugs.  A bit of explanation is in order.EHCC mug

The Early High Christology Club is a loose affiliation of scholars who have written books or articles arguing that the early followers of Jesus—as early as we have evidence—had a high Christology, that is, their assessment of his significance included that he was, in some sense, divine. Now this is actually an historical conclusion based on our reading of the literary evidence; it does not depend on any confession. The earliest evidences we have in the New Testament or any Christian sources are the letters of Paul; so much of this historical construct has been built upon a close reading of his letters.  There are all sorts of issues involved: how did Paul and other NT writers express their “Christology”? what kind of language was used? where did that language come from?  how does this comport with their reading of the Christian Bible, the Septuagint? how early is “early”? how high is “high”? –how did these early Jewish Christians regard Jesus as divine without setting aside their monotheistic heritage?  Paul, for example, claims to be a monotheist and yet he appears to regard Jesus as divine (e.g., 1 Cor 8.6; Phil 2:5-11).  If Jesus were divine, then did early Christians worship him?  If so, did they worship him the same way they would have worshiped God?

Not all people agree, of course, with the members of the EHCC.  There is the Late, Low and Slow Club (LLSC)—though I don’t think they have a mug—which concludes that the early followers of Jesus regarded him as a human being only. Many decades later when Christianity moved beyond the constraints of its Jewish heritage, Christians began to regard Jesus as divine. The LLSC posits a lengthy period of development from a low to a high Christology, anywhere from 60 to 100 years.   Now, members of the EHCC also posit a period of development in the Church’s Christology, but they think this development happened rapidly, perhaps even within a few years after Jesus’ crucifixion.

Founding member, Larry Hurtado, presents an official EHCC mug to Professor Martin Hengel (seen here with his wife)
Founding member, Larry Hurtado, presents an official EHCC mug to Professor Martin Hengel (seen here with his wife)

The EHCC meets regularly and informally at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.  Carey Newman and Larry Hurtado, distinguished (now retired) Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh, co-sponsor the annual gathering.  Carey provides the room.  Larry brings the food and drink.  Stories are told.  Friends catch up. There is a lot of laughter.  At a given moment in our gathering someone recites our founding myth.  Some who have heard it say that it is so good it cannot possibly be true; but those of us who were there know it happened just as we say.

 

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Jesus and Mighty Works

Last week I traveled to Arlington TX to B. H. Carroll Theological Institute (bhcarroll.edu).  Founded in the 1990s, the institution exists to provide graduate-level theological education for men and women who are called to serve Christ in the diverse and global ministries of His church.  My professor, Dr. Bruce Corley, was founding president and continues in retirement to help direct the effort. I can’t begin to describe how influential he has been on a generation of scholars and church leaders. B. H. Carroll is the second largest seminary in Texas with students around the world in Russia, Cuba, Vietnam and China.  They have a great model for how to do education in this technological world.  They keep overhead low and are making a difference in the lives of many people.Image

Every spring BHCTI holds a colloquy for its PhD students.  There have been many times I have wanted to attend but final exams and grading have typically interfered.  But this time I got a special dispensation to turn my grades in just a wee bit late.  Thanks to my dean.

In addition to sharing with these pastors and church leaders about The Voice Bible project, I had the privilege of listening and responding to Dr. Craig Keener, professor at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. 

The topic for the colloquy was “Jesus and Mighty Works.”  Much of the discussion has centered around Dr. Keener’s two volume work Miracles: The Credibility of New Testament Accounts (Baker Academic, 2011).  It is the best book available on miracles as a modern phenomenon.  Dr. Keener brought together a staggering number of accounts from the modern world about miracles that are taking place now in order to help us understand the miracles in the Bible.  Keener said that these two volumes (1100 pages) began as a footnote in his Acts commentary regarding eyewitness accounts of miracles. Some people (known as cessationists) have claimed that miracles stopped centuries ago when the Bible was complete. Dr. Keener offers ample evidence to the contrary.  Others are skeptical about miracles because they have never seen one, but Keener finds easily over 200,000,000 people who claim to have had direct experience with ‘extranormal’ events. He interviewed scientists, doctors, and eyewitnesses from several continents.

 In the 18th century David Hume, the Scottish philosopher, argued that miracles are impossible because they violate natural law and are only testified among uncivilized and uneducated folks.  Keener does a masterful job at deconstructing Hume’s argument and showing that his perspective is based on an ethnocentric bias against non-whites.  Essentially, Hume rejected the testimony of the majority of people in the world because they were not educated in western culture.  He then declared that “uniform human experience” tells us that miracles do not occur.  Apparently, the “us” Hume was referring to were Scottish professors living in the 18th century. “Uniform human experience” only applied to Hume and his friends.  

If you are curious whether miracles are still happening today, you will be amazed at the evidence Keener produces.  Not only are miracles still happening but they are more common than you think.

 

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Jesus’ Wife Fragment is almost certainly a forgery

Scholars have been weighing in on the badly named “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” fragment since Harvard University’s Karen King announced it about 20 months ago.  Now after publication in the Harvard Theological Review, closer scrutiny by scholars has almost certainly determined the fragment is a forgery.  By whom we do not know?

Gospel of Jesus' Wife
Fragment containing phrase reference to Jesus’ wife alongside a Coptic fragment (also forged) of GJohn

The most up-to-date presentation of the details can be found on Mark Goodacre’s blog on May 5, 2014.  Here is the link:

http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/

Forgeries of antiquities are nothing new.  A lot of money has been made by creating fake relics and smuggling them out of their supposed countries of origin.  Likewise, careers have been made (and sometimes broken) by scholars who discover and argue for the authenticity of new documents, particularly when those documents present information which goes against the prevailing knowledge of a field.

Let’s not be too hard on Dr. Karen King and Harvard University.  This is exactly how scholarship is supposed to work.  Research is conducted and ideas are put forward by a scholar in a publication. Those ideas are tested and examined by another group of scholars.  Over time–it sometimes takes several years–the truth comes out.

 

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Did Jesus Commit Suicide?

This may strike you as a strange question until you recall this was a question posed during Jesus’ lifetime.  Here is the dialogue from the translation The Voice:

Jesus (to the crowds): 21 I am leaving this place, and you will look for Me and die in your sin. For where I am going, you are unable to come.

Jews: 22 Is He suicidal? He keeps saying, “Where I am going, you are unable to come.”

Given the strange things Jesus keeps saying, it is no doubt some of them wondered whether he intended to kill himself.  Scholars think this kind of question persisted long after Jesus’ death.  By the time of the Johannine community this may have been an ongoing charge against Jesus.  If Jesus did kill himself, then he violated one of the ten commandments.  Self-murder is still murder and is a grievous sin.  How could Jesus then have been the Messiah?

Jesus sacrifices himself on the cross
Jesus sacrifices himself on the cross

If suicide means to take actions which will likely lead to one’s own death, then the charge may stick.  In all four Gospels Jesus’ actions put him on a collision course with powerful people who had a vested interested in putting him to death.  Jesus pushed them too far.  Scholars think it was the temple incident—often mischaracterized as his cleansing of the temple—which put the nail in his proverbial coffin.  Even at his defense or lack of defense, he handed his Jewish interrogators the charge that finally stuck: blasphemy.  False witnesses were so inept they could not agree so Jesus came along and condemned himself with his own words.

Consider the modern example of suicide by cop.  It happens dozens of times every year in this country.  A person takes a handgun into a crowded mall and starts brandishing it about.  He has no intention of hurting anyone other than himself.  He wants to die and for whatever reason can’t bring himself to do it alone.  Some terrorized person calls 911 and soon the police arrive.  The man takes refuge in the back of a store.  Perhaps he has taken a few faux hostages.  It’s all part of the ruse.  The man lowers the gun in the direction of the officers and a peace officer, fearing for his life, squeezes off three rounds in rapid succession.  When they examine the dead man’s gun, they realize it was not loaded.  Some poor policeman will have to live with it for the rest of his life. But he could not have known.

The man acted in a way which would likely lead to his death at the hand of another.  Jesus did the same . . . or did he?  One one level, the answer could be yes, until that is you factor in his motivation.

The suicide charge only works depending on one’s motive.  In the case above of suicide by cop, the man wanted to die.  He was hurting physically, mentally, emotionally and he wanted the hurting to stop.  So he killed himself.

But there are those who sacrifice themselves for others.  They act in such a way which will likely lead to their deaths, but they do so for noble reasons.  Consider the soldier who falls on a grenade losing his life but saving the lives of his friends and others.  Or consider the secret service agent who steps in front of a bullet meant for a presidential candidate.  He loses his life to save another. Or consider the firemen who rush into a burning building to save a homeless man trapped in the building.  The building collapses on them, and they all die.  Factor in motive, then it changes everything.  It is no longer suicide; it is now the greatest sacrifice of all.

I’ve always found it interesting when we talk about ultimate things we are driven to religious language.  When firefighters give their lives in the line of duty we don’t turn to theater and say “they exited, stage left.”  When soldiers give their lives in Afghanistan or any war for that matter, we don’t turn to sport and say, “they took one for the team.”  No, we turn to religion because only religious language can carry the weight of ultimate things.  This is why we say, the firefighters and soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice.  Now, no one would  say God was looking for human sacrifice because he wasn’t.  He ruled that out a long time ago.  Sacrifice is the only way we have to speaking of the sheer gravity of their selfless actions.

So Jesus did not kill himself, but he did act in such a way so as to bring about his death.  In some extraordinary way he seemed to control those final hours and what ultimately happened to him. He could have avoided the cross altogether, gotten married and moved to the south of France.  But Jesus had a different plan and a nobler motive grounded in love. Though he did not want to die, he did wish to lay down his life for others. When trying to make sense of the death of Jesus, early Christians turned where we do in order to talk about what happened.  In some ways it was more natural for them because they lived in the shadow of the temple where real sacrifices went on daily.  But again, no one was saying that God was looking for and demanding a human sacrifice.  Still the language of sacrifice is the most satisfying way of thinking and pondering what happened to Jesus on the first Good Friday.