. . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.
Phil 2:11
The seven names before us as suggested by the commentators as the options for “The Name Above Every Name”
Kurios- The Lord Jesus Christ <–
- Adonai
- Ha Shem
- YHWH
- LORD
- The Name for both God and Jesus
The Greek – English Interlinear Text
καὶ πᾶσα γλῶσσα ἐξομολογήσηται ὅτι Κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ πατρός.
and every tongue {should acknowledge} that LORD Jesus Christ to glory {of God} Father.
A number of you have queried as to whether the name was clearly stated by Paul in verse 10 when Paul wrote “that at the name of Jesus – every knee should bow”. Isn’t the Name we are looking for simply Jesus, Ian? Isn’t that what Paul is saying? The equally simple answer to that question is “No”. The way Paul has constructed this long sentence is that it requires a complement, an ending. A little like – “And the name is . . .” [With trumpets sounding and much fanfare]. The use of Jesus in the early part of the sentence has more of the sense:
- “and at the name given to Jesus”.
- “At this name of Jesus”
- “the Name-above-every-name-Name of Jesus is . . . “
This is the case simply because the construction of the sentence demands it.
Now it is time to consider what some of the commentators, experts see as the next alternative – The Lord Jesus Christ. This is seen like a formal statement of His full Title. A look at the Greek text above with English below could lead us to think that. Sorry I can’t highlight the interlinearised text because it will adding formatting codes which will then be added to the English text. However look at the Greek word [ὅτι] in the text above. Notice the English gloss below it is “that”. What follows “that” is [Κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς] without the definite article “The”. There are some who have decided that the Name above every Name is “The Lord Jesus Christ” on the basis of the arrangement of these words. However that can’t be what Paul is meaning as a result of the order of words and the grammar construction of the sentence. If that were the case then Paul would not have the Greek word [ὅτι] in the sentence. “That” is acting as the indirect speech marker. The complement of what is to be confessed. Surely the Name above every name is what is to be confessed. And that name is _____ . The most appropriate way to read this sentence is as all the translations have it. All translations have some variation on “Jesus is Lord” or some alternative to put into the slot that is the EQUATIVE COMPLEMENT of Jesus is “The Name”. To make all of this Noun Phrase, “The Lord Jesus Christ”, to be the Name Above Every Name leaves us without a complement to the equative clause. All translations reach this conclusion.
Yet notice something else. The order of the Greek words are literally [Κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς] or Lord Jesus Christ. Somewhere into that string we need to read the equative verb “is”. We have to have a statement which says the Name above every name is _____ simply because this part of the sentence is structured around the [ὅτι]. Paul wrote that Jesus is . . . and then the name. We can’t leave out the verb. But in an equative Greek sentence the [is] doesn’t need to be mentioned. It is like an Indonesian sentence, for my Indonesian brothers and sisters.
- mengaku bahwa Yesus Kristuslah Tuhan; [Indonesian BIS]
- mengaku bahwa YESUS Kristus adalah Tuhan, [Indonesian MB]
- mengaku: “Yesus Kristus adalah Tuhan,“ [Indonesian TB]
Where the equative verb (is in English) is represented by adalah or lah and bahwa represents the Greek indirect speech marker [ὅτι] or in the case of the ITB it has been converted to direct speech.
I regret having to use grammatical technical terms to describe what is happening but it was necessary to make clear what Paul is doing here. What Paul has actually done is given prominence to the [Κύριος] and moved it to the first place in the introduction of the name before [᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς]. So what we read in the Literal Greek is The Lord is Jesus Christ. However most English translations convert it back to more natural English and Indonesian by saying “Jesus Christ is Lord” or “Yesus Kristus adalah Tuhan” to make what every tongue will be confessing clear. So our conclusion is “The Lord Jesus Christ” is not the Name we are looking for.
In the following Gems I intend to unpack the significance of the alternatives in the order which we have them above.
Therefore in the next Gem we will investigate the term Adonai.