StrongerBible

kurieuō

κυριεύω

GreekG2961“have dominion over, rule over, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 22:25Rom 6:9Rom 6:14Rom 7:1Rom 14:92Co 1:241Ti 6:15
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradekoo-ree-YOO-ohverb

What kurieuō means

to be lord or master of; to hold dominion over someone or something

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The verb is built straight from the noun for "lord" or "master" (kurios), and it means to act as that lord: to hold and exercise dominion over a person or thing. On its own it carries no praise or blame. Whether the rule is good or evil, rightful or cruel, depends entirely on who is doing the ruling.

That single fact drives its use in the New Testament. The same word describes a hostile power holding people in its grip (sin and death), a human king ruling his subjects, the law binding a person for as long as they live, and Christ reigning as the rightful Lord of both the dead and the living. Paul even reaches for it to describe himself, only to deny it: he refuses to "lord it over" anyone's faith. A fuller, stronger form of the same idea, κατακυριεύω, turns up wherever the control is heavy-handed, and the plain verb is often paired with the word for reigning as a king, βασιλεύω, as in the title "King of kings and Lord of lords."

Because the word itself is neutral, salvation in Paul's letters looks less like the end of all mastery and more like a change of masters. When he promises that sin "will not have dominion over you," he is announcing a transfer of ownership, out of the hands of an illegitimate lord and into the hands of the true one.

Nuances

1ato rule over people as a king or lord; to hold and exercise rightful sovereign authority
TranslatabilityDirect
Luk 22:25Rom 14:91Ti 6:15
1bto dominate; to hold someone in one's grip as an oppressive master; to lord it over
Rom 6:9Rom 6:142Co 1:24
1cof a law: to have binding legal authority over a person, for as long as they live
Rom 7:1
Rom 7:1

Whether the law's rule over a person in Romans 7:1 is meant as legitimate, temporary legal authority (jurisdiction that lapses at death) or as one more hostile power holding people in bondage alongside sin and death.

  • majorityThe law here has ordinary binding legal authority over a person for as long as they live, like any law over its subjects; it is legitimate and temporary, not evil.; C.E.B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC, 1975-1979), 1:332-333; Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT, 2nd ed. 2018); Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans (BECNT, 2nd ed. 2018)
  • minorityThe law belongs with sin and death as an enslaving power of the old order, so its rule is of the same oppressive kind.; Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans (ET Bromiley, Eerdmans 1980), 187-189

What scholars say about kurieuō

kurieuo is a denominative verb from kurios, glossed by BDAG in two directions: exercising authority or control over persons and things, and (with impersonal subjects such as sin, death, and law in Paul) having dominion over. It governs the genitive and carries a stable core sense across LSJ, Louw-Nida (domain 37, Control/Rule, 37.51-52), and the Septuagint lexicons of Muraoka and Lust-Eynikel-Hauspie. In the Septuagint it renders chiefly masal, radah, baal, and the Aramaic selet, and Psalm 18:14 LXX (me katakurieusosin mou) stands directly behind the promise of Romans 6:14. Foerster's TDNT article on kurios treats the verb as tracking the noun through political rule, military conquest, property ownership, and the philosophical mastery of reason over the passions (developed by Philo and 4 Maccabees), while Moulton-Milligan document a legal sense of holding full title, paired with despozo in papyri contracts of sale and dowry. The central scholarly discussion is theological rather than lexical: whether Paul's dominion language is best framed as apocalyptic (Kasemann, Jewett, Gaventa, with Sin and Death as personified cosmic powers), forensic and covenantal (Cranfield, Schreiner), or participationist and narrative (Wright), and how far the first-century acclamation of Caesar as kurios colors the confession of Christ as kurios (Hurtado, Wright, Horsley). These debates concern the referents and the theology, not the agreed meaning of the verb.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. κυριεύωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. κυριεύωlexicon
  • J.P. Louw and E.A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 37.51-52lexicon
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (2009), s.v. κυριεύωlexicon
  • Werner Foerster, "κύριος κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 3:1039-1098dictionary
  • J.H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. κυριεύωlexicon
  • Moises Silva (ed.), New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE, 2014), s.v. κύριοςdictionary
  • C.E.B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC, 1975-1979)commentary
  • Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans (ET Bromiley, Eerdmans 1980)commentary
  • Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT, 2nd ed. 2018)commentary
  • Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans (BECNT, 2nd ed. 2018)commentary
  • Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2005)commentary
  • Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia, 1996)commentary
  • N.T. Wright, "The Letter to the Romans" (New Interpreter's Bible X, 2002)commentary
  • Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (2003)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of κυριεύω

present active indicative 3s

κυριεύει

Rom 6:9, Rom 7:1

aorist active subjunctive 3s

κυριεύσῃ

Rom 14:9

future active indicative 3s

κυριεύσει

Rom 6:14

present active indicative 1p

κυριεύομεν

2Co 1:24

present active indicative 3p

κυριεύουσιν

Luk 22:25

present active participle genitive m p

κυριευόντων

1Ti 6:15