More on the word "kyriakos" concerning the Lord' Day

Shannon shared:

From the Expositor's Bible Commentary -New Testament (Zondervan):
At least the first vision--if not the whole Book of Revelation--was revealed on "the Lord's Day" (kyriake hemera). Since this is the only place in the NT where this expression is used, its identification is difficult. Paul uses kyriake as an adjective in 1 Corinthians 11:20 in reference to the "Lord's supper" (kyriakon deipnon)."

It has more on why that change in terms may be. But I thought I'd give you the facts and save the opinion part unless you really wanted it. I for one did not find the opinions very helpful. Good work on the Greek.


Below is information from the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. I have taken the liberty of omitting as much Greek as possible.

It occurs twice in the NT: 1 Corinthians 11:20 (Lord's Supper) and Revelation 1:10 (Lord's Day). The adjective as thus applied arose on Greek soil, for there is no corresponding adjective in Semitic. A genitive "of the Lord" might have been used instead of the adjective that was used. But the choice of this adjective based on "Lord" is not surprising, since of the Greek adjectives formed from the customary terms for Christ this was the only one which could denote the relation of a thing to Christ; "Christian" was used of people and "bringing salvation" had acquired a differnt sense from "belonging to the savior". If it is asked, then, why the two words, "supper" and "day", are combined with the adjective instead of the genitive "of the Lord", the answer is that this is an indirect relation to the Lord. Examples that us "of the Lord" are "word of the Lord" and "coming of the Lord".

The Lord's Day takes its signifcance from the resurrection of Christ. The "Lord's Day" soon became the day when the congregations assembled. John's Gospel emphasizes that Jesus rose on the first day of the week (John 20:1,19,26) while the reference to the "Lord's Day" in Reveleation 1:10 does not mention its importance as a day of assembly. The custom of not working on the Lord's Day was naturally impossible both for Jewish Christian congregations, which still kept the Sabbath, and for Gentile Christian congregations, which included slaves among their members and which were implicated in many different ways in the everyday life of paganism. The day could be distinguished only by coming together, although in 1 Corinthians 16:2 Paul writes that something for the Jerusalem collection should be laid aside on this day (the actual experession does not occur). Whether this is connected withy payday, as suggested by some, is not certain. Perhaps Paul takes the day when the congregation was assembling and when its thoughts would thus be occupied with church affairs. There is no proof, of course, that the Pauline churches assembled every Lord's Day, or only on the Lord's Day. But the first day of the week already enjoyed a certain prominence in Judaism, since it was the day when creation of the world began. For Christianity the resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of a new age. The fasts on the fourth and sixth days were also connected with the story of Jesus, since they were the days when counsel was taken to destroy Him (Mark 14:1) and when He was crucified.


I don't think any of my thoughts from my first post have changed.

Watch out for the potholes.