SPECIAL TOPIC: LORD (adon and kurios)

OT (adon, BDB 10, KB 12)
1. used of Israel’s God (i.e., Gen. 15:2,3; Deut. 3:24; 9:26; Josh. 7:7; Jdgs. 6:22; 16:28; 2 Samuel 7; 1 Kgs. 2:26; 8:23; and many times in the Prophets (over 300), but not at all in Leviticus or Chronicles
2. also used of the male fertility god of Canaan (i.e., Ba’al)
3. basic meaning of
  1. lord
  2. master
  3. owner
  4. husband
  5. king (ANE royal title)
4. later rabbinical usage
  The OT (Hebrew, adon, BDB 10, KB 12) usage of the term came from the later Jews’ reluctance to pronounce the covenant name for God, YHWH, which was a form of the Hebrew VERB “to be” (cf. Exod. 3:14; see SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY). They were afraid of breaking the Commandment which said, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” (cf. Exod. 20:7; Deut. 5:11). Therefore, they thought if they did not pronounce it, they could not take it in vain. So when they read the Scripture, they substituted the Hebrew word adon.
NT (kurios)
1. the word had the same connotations as the Hebrew term (see C. above).
2. NT usage
  1. polite address, “sir” (i.e., John 4:11)
  2. theological emphasis on the deity of Jesus of Nazareth following the OT substitution (LXX) for YHWH (i.e., John 9:36,38; Acts 2:36; 10:36; 11:20; 2 Cor. 4:5; Col. 2:6)
  3. the phrase “Jesus is Lord” came to be the early church’s baptismal formula denoting personal faith in Jesus the Messiah and “God-man” (cf. Rom. 10:9-13; 1 Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11)
  4. see SPECIAL TOPIC: CHRIST JESUS AS LORD