[B-Greek] Question Regarding John 4:11 kurios

yancywsmith yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Fri Sep 1 12:54:25 EDT 2006


James,
	Many languages employ honorific titles of respect that may be  
indiscriminately applied to people or gods or God. The important  
thing is that the honorific ascribes a certain status to the  
addressee, which may be adjusted in the course of a conversation. In  
Mediterranean cultures, such honorifics were a common part of  
appropriate interpersonal behavior and the use of honorifics was a  
part of daily life in which status was considered very important. In  
this case the point of the story in John hinges upon the woman at the  
well NOT knowing who that Jesus is the messiah until much farther  
into the conversation.  In Greek "KURIOS" is one such honorific, and   
in archaic English "Lord" is another. Usage has shifted to to the use  
of "mister" and "sir" for men and "Lord" for people of noble status,  
e.g. in England. So, "sir, lord, Lord, mister" are all acceptable  
glosses of KURIOS, one example in the Greek NT is:
Mat 13:27. For a fuller listing, see BDAG. Of course it has a broader  
semantic range than this, e.g.
It is used of a husband as "lord, master, mister" (Sarah to Abraham) in
1 Pet 3:6 (not as, "you better shape up, mister" !).
Ex 22:7 it refers to "head" of a household KURIOS, -A, -ON as an  
adjective is used in the LXX as "valid, lawful, established,  
important" (1 Mac8:30; 2 Mac 8:30; 4 Mac 1:19).


Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
5636 Wedgworth Rd.
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565




On Sep 1, 2006, at 11:18 AM, James Becknell wrote:

> I am interested to know if anyone understands why kurios is  
> rendered as
> sir in John 4:11?  I understand its use as a title for the purpose of
> formal address, but I was wondering how it is concluded that the
> Samaritan woman is not referring to Jesus as lord, but as sir?  Are
> there any other places where this is brought out into English as sir?
>
>
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