Names

Keeping track of every Joseph and Mary

Imagine if no one had a last name. No Smith, Jones, Letterman, or Rivers in the phone book. Just first names. How would you know this David from that one? How would you know which Joan you met yesterday? What names would you give people to tell them apart?

RAW entry - kurios

This week's cluster appears over 660 times in the New Testament:

Synonyms

The English language has synonyms. So does the Greek. I get that.

What I don't get is why synonyms are often translated identically.

• Gift - is it a dorea "gift", or a charisma "grace-gift"? There's a difference.
• Send - was he just pempo "sent" or apostello "sent"? Maybe you can hear "apostle" in the second one...because it is!
• Love - is it agape unconditional love, or philia brotherly love? That made a big difference to Peter in John 21:15-17.

Handling synonyms consistently will also bring out the diversity of the Greek language.