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Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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• ἴδιος
• κτήτωρ
• κύριος
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• אָדוֹן
• בָּעַל , בַּעַל
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OWNER (κύριος).—The word is found only once in the Authorized Version (Luke 19:33 ‘The owners said (to the disciples), Why loose ye the colt?’). Luke alone indicates that there was any question asked when the disciples prepared to take the colt away. Probably the answer which the disciples were instructed to give (‘The Lord hath need of him,’ Luke 19:31; Luke 19:34) was a prearranged sign between the owners and Jesus. Elsewhere in the Gospels the frequency of the occurrence of the word ‘owner’ is concealed from readers of the English versions by its translation as ‘lord’ (see art. Lord). ‘Lord’ (κύριος) has the sense of ‘owner’ in the phrases ‘the lord of the vineyard’ (Matthew 20:8; Matthew 21:40 || Mark 12:9 || Luke 20:15). In the phrases, ‘the servant is not above his lord’ (Matthew 10:24), ‘the servant showed his lord these things’ (Luke 14:21), ‘the lord of that servant’ (Luke 12:46 f.), the relationship is that of master (owner) and slave (δοῦλος). By translating δοῦλος as ‘servant,’ the fact is concealed from English readers that slavery was an institution in the social life of the Jews. It was not so common among them as among the Greeks and Romans, and the condition of the slave in the Jewish social economy was much happier than in the Gentile world. The terrible punishment mentioned in Luke 12:46 (‘the lord of that servant … will cut him in sunder [διχοτομεῖν], and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers’) is probably taken from the punishments which were practised in the Gentile world. It is, however, mentioned as a punishment in Hebrews 11:37. On the different interpretations of Luke 12:46 see Godet, ad loc., and Meyer on Matthew 24:51. See also art. Service.

John Reid.