Towards A better first-century CE understanding of the term “kyrios”: contributions from Philo and Paul

The term κúριος is one of the, if not the, most significant “title” assigned to Jesus of Nazareth. The most “obvious” tendency is to understand and interpret such a term against a first-century CE socio-cultural and religious-political backdrop, and rightfully so. The aim of this article, however, is to investigate the term κúριος against a Jewish-Hellenistic backdrop as represented by the writings of Paul and Philo, while determining the concept underlying such a term. Special attention will first be given where the term κúριος is used within the confines of an explicit citation. Secondly, due focused reflection will be given where the essence and nature of the term κúριος is under discussion. This article will thus a) present a Philonian concept of the term κúριος, followed by b) a Pauline concept, after which c) some insights and the implications of these concepts will be presented.