Yahweh = Adonai = Κύριος = Ἰησοῦς Part 3

Yahweh = Adonai = Kurios = Jesus

This is so small that maybe it should be Part 2 1/2 instead of Part 3, but I thought I would put this little blog up before I put up a blog of how Paul uses the Jewish Shema in his letters. As before, one should read the 1st two blogs prior to reading this one. Blog one is here, and blog two is here.

Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians 12:3.  To give a little background, Paul is talking about the Corinthians' abuse of spiritual gifts.  In this case, speaking in tongues or divine utterance.  But with that being said, we can not miss the Yahweh = Adonai = Κύριος = Ἰησοῦς moment in the passage.

3 Therefore I make know to you that no one speaking by1 the Spirit of God says "Jesus be cursed"2, and no one is able to say "Jesus is the Lord"3, except speaking by4 the Holy Spirit.

3 διὸ γνωρίζω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἐν πνεύματι θεοῦ λαλῶν λέγει· Ἀνάθεμα Ἰησοῦς, καὶ οὐδεὶς δύναται εἰπεῖν· Κύριος Ἰησοῦς, εἰ μὴ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ.

1 ἐν (by) 

Greek: “in”. The Spirit is influencing what is being said. So, if one is “in” the Holy Spirit, then what is being spoken is “by” the Holy Spirit.

2 Ἀνάθεμα Ἰησοῦς (Jesus be cursed)

The “to be” verb is inferred. Since both nouns are in the nominative case, they can both act as the subject or the predicate nominative. In other words, the word order can be reversed: “Cursed be Jesus”. Both are proper translation.

3 Κύριος Ἰησοῦς (Jesus is the Lord) 

See note 2. The word order can also be “The Lord is Jesus”.

4 ἐν (by)

See note 1. What is striking about the passage is that the involvement of the Holy Spirit is a must in order for one to proclaim that Jesus is Yahweh and really mean it. As stated in the previous blog, no articles are used, but the “certainty” or “speciality” of both nouns can certainly be inferred. If one considers that this statement is a HUGE profession of faith in Jesus Christ, is there any doubt as to why Paul would say that this could only be spoken by influence of the Holy Spirit? To the Jew, this would be a big step to take to move from Judaism to Christianity.