Greek word · G2960

κυριακός

kyriakos

the Lord’s

Kyriakos is an adjective meaning 'belonging to the lord/master'. In papyri and inscriptions from Roman Egypt and Asia Minor it often means 'imperial', belonging to the emperor as kyrios: the imperial treasury, imperial roads, imperial revenue.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

κυριακός, -ή, -όν

(κύριος), [in LXX: κ. φωνη (Συριακή φ., R), 2Ma.15:36 A * ;]

1. as frequently in Inscr. (LS, see word; Deiss., BS, 217 f.), of the lord or master, imperial.

2. of the Lord (i.e. Christ): δεῖπνον, 1 Corinthians 11:20; ἡμέρα, Revelation 1:10. (cf. λόγια κ., Papias, Eus., HE, iii, 39, 1; γραφαὶ κ., Clem. Alex., etc; for eccl. usage, cf. Soph., Lex., see word)†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Revelation 1:10

Range of meaning

Kyriakos is an adjective meaning 'belonging to the lord/master'. In papyri and inscriptions from Roman Egypt and Asia Minor it often means 'imperial', belonging to the emperor as kyrios: the imperial treasury, imperial roads, imperial revenue. Christians used it for what belonged to the Lord Jesus: 'the Lord's supper' (1 Cor 11:20) and 'the Lord's day'.

Against the English

English 'the Lord's day' is accurate. NIV capitalises 'Day'. The risk is not the translation but what readers bring to it: either Sunday as a Christian Sabbath with rest rules, or 'the Day of the Lord' at the end of time.

How it drifted

Later Christian history merged 'the Lord's day' with Sabbath rest. Constantine made Sunday a legal day of rest in AD 321, and post-Reformation sabbatarianism called it 'the Christian Sabbath'. In John's world, the first day of the week was an ordinary working day.

Used elsewhere in the period

This is the earliest surviving use of the phrase. Soon after: Didache 14:1 ('on the Lord's [day] of the Lord, gather together, break bread and give thanks'); Ignatius, Magnesians 9:1 (believers 'no longer keeping Sabbath but living according to the Lord's [day]', on which 'our life rose'); Gospel of Peter 35, 50 (kyriakē for the day of the resurrection). Earlier, Christians met on 'the first day of the week' (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2). Pliny (c. AD 112) says Christians met 'on a fixed day' before dawn. Later Greek simply calls Sunday Kyriakē, and the Latin dominica gave Italian domenica, Spanish domingo and French dimanche.

Where it appears

1 Corinthians · 1

  1. 1 Corinthians 11:20 κυριακὸν [the] Lord’s

    Now then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat.

Revelation · 1

  1. Revelation 1:10 κυριακῇ Lord’s

    On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

    Here: An adjective, 'lordly' or 'the Lord's own'. Here the Lord is Jesus. The day is described as his property. Elsewhere in the New Testament the word appears only in 1 Corinthians 11:20, 'the Lord's supper'.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.