Matthew 7:21-22; 25:11
The next application of
YHWH-texts to Jesus appears to be the double doublet in 7:21–22, which is found
in Jesus’s own teaching. Twice in the same passage Jesus applies to himself the
vocative doublet “Lord, Lord” (κύριε, κύριε) to expose the attempted self-justification
of false disciples at the final Judgment. (He uses the doublet a third time in
the same vein in Matt 25:11.) The double vocative is allusive to numerous
occurrences of the same combination in the LXX. Its unique use for YHWH in the
LXX adds weight to its application by Jesus as a title for himself. Whenever
the same vocative doublet is found in the LXX it is always with reference to
God, and, in particular, as a form used in place of the Divine name. Of the sixteen occurrences of κύριε κύριε in
the LXX of canonical OT books, all refer to the Divine name: most translate the
combination “Adonai YHWH,” a few translate “YHWH Adonai,” and at least one
translates “YHWH” alone. But the doublet in the LXX never refers to anyone but
YHWH.
The contexts of Jesus’s application of the
doublet support this understanding of their use. In Matt 7:21, κύριε κύριε is
spoken to Jesus as the Judge who decides who will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Who else but YHWH can determine who enters the heavenly kingdom? In 7:22, κύριε
κύριε is addressed to Jesus as the one in whose “name” the false disciples
claimed to have prophesied and performed miracles. To what other “name” but
YHWH would anyone in Jesus’s audience have thought to appeal at the Great Assize?
In the following verse, 7:23, Jesus
makes it clear that his relational knowledge of people (“I never knew you”) is
the vital watershed of Final Judgment, and that it will be his own personal
pronouncement (“depart from Me”) that determines the eternal destinies of all
people.
Similarly, in 25:11 (Jesus’s third use of the
phrase in Matthew), κύριε κύριε is spoken to Jesus by the careless bridesmaids
to whom he replies, “I do not know you,” and leaves them locked out of the
marriage feast (i.e., his eternal kingdom). In every case, Jesus uses the
vocative doublet as a self-attesting name/title that not only refers to the
unique name/title for YHWH but applies to himself in contexts equivalent to
those applied to Yahweh in the OT. Thus, according to his own usage in Matthew,
Jesus is YHWH the Judge, in whose
identifying name and relational knowledge is the divine source of eternal
salvation. According to Jesus, no hypocrite who merely claims loyalty to the
divine name shall escape Jesus’s own all-knowing judgment as the κύριος.
Strikingly, as Jason A. Staples notes, every
occurrence of κύριος up to this point in Matthew has been used as a title for
God (including at 3:3, where it is further applied to Jesus), following
septuagintal usage of κύριος for יהוה. Applying the doublet to Jesus would
likely have sent a strongly message to the readers of the First Gospel that Jesus’s
divine identity (as YHWH) is not in question but is even emphasized. The claim of F. Hahn and others that “[a]t
first the title κύριος did not imply the divinity of Jesus,” rings hollow in light of the LXX background
and what the first readers would likely have understood by the doublet. Staples
better explains the doublet’s use and meaning as emphasizing the divine
lordship of Christ and “setting the tone” for the rest of the book. (Scott
Brazil, Jesus and YHWH-Texts in the Synoptic Gospels [Library of New
Testament Studies 694; London: T&T Clark, 2024], 49-51)
