"Jesus is Lord" () is the shortest credal affirmation found in the New Testament, one of several slightly more elaborate variations. It serves as a statement of faith for the majority of

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

who regard

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

as both truly man and God. It is the

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

of the World Council of Churches.

Background

In antiquity, in general use, the term "lord" was a courtesy title for social superiors, but its root meaning was "ruler". Kings everywhere were styled "Lord" and often considered divine beings so the word acquired a religious significance. When the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

at least two centuries before Christianity, '' Kurios'' was used for the divine tetragrammaton YHWH which was no longer read aloud but replaced with ''

adonai Judaism has different names given to God in Judaism, God, which are considered sacred: (), (''Adonai'' ), (''El (deity), El'' ), ( ), (''El Shaddai, Shaddai'' ), and ( ); some also include I Am that I Am.This is the formulation of Josep ...

'', a special form of the Hebrew '' adon'' = "lord". When in 27 BC Roman Emperor Octavian received the title of "Augustus" it carried religious overtones, suggesting a special relationship with the world of the gods, symbolised by the cult of the Emperor's "genius", a veiled form of emperor-worship. To refuse to honor the national gods was unpatriotic and akin to sabotage. J. G. Davies comments that the Christian begins from the confession of Jesus as Lord – Jesus who is sovereign over the individual's relation to the state, "we must understand the state in the context of the command to love one's neighbour."

Credal phrases in the New Testament

In Pauline Christianity, J. N. D. Kelly points out creed-like slogans attributed to

Paul the Apostle Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

in Galatians, 2 Thessalonians, Romans and 1 Corinthians, though they never formed a fixed, standard creed. The most popular and briefest was "Jesus is Lord" found in ; and probably in the baptisms referred to in Acts 8:16; 19:5 and 1 Cor 6:11 since their being described as "in the name of the Lord Jesus" certainly seems to imply that "the formula 'Jesus is Lord' had a place in the rite". The phrase might be extended as "Jesus Christ is Lord" as in . In the early days, the similar formula "Jesus is the Christ" was found, but this faded into the background when its original Messianic significance was forgotten. Of more long-term significance was the affirmation "Jesus is the Son of God". These were expounded upon by passages such as and which describe Christ's work of salvation and the existence of witnesses to his resurrection and he goes on in the following pages to list another ten examples of passages which attach to the name of Jesus "selected incidents in the redemptive story".

Biblical passages

References

Sources

* * *''Epistle to Diognetus'', 5 quoted in * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jesus Is Lord New Testament words and phrases Christology Christian statements of faith Religious formulas

Background

Credal phrases in the New Testament

Biblical passages

See also

References

Sources