Argument for Early Adoption of κύριος (kyrios)

As a counter to this new theory, it is not known whether the recent Septuagint manuscript discoveries are indicative of the character of an “original” Septuagint (Pietersma, “Kyrios or Tetragram,” 85–101). Pietersma notes, for instance, that the Greek Scroll of the Minor Prophets found at Qumran, as well as Papyrus Fouad 266, demonstrate tendencies among the Qumranite scribes to revert to an older style that reflected Hebrew traditions (Pietersma, “Kyrios or Tetragram,” 88–91, 99). Papyrus Fouad 266 contains several indications that the original scribe considered “Lord” (κύριος, kyrios) to be an adequate substitute for the divine name, but that later scribes replaced this with the Tetragrammaton (Pietersma, “Kyrios or Tetragram,” 90–91). “Both in the Hebrew MSS from Qumran and in our earliest Greek MSS there is clear evidence that the divine name was the object of revisionary activity” (Pietersma, “Kyrios or Tetragram,” 99).

As a result, internal probabilities—including theological concerns of scribes—suggest that the original Septuagint substitute for the divine name was, in fact, κύριος (kyrios) (Pietersma, “Kyrios or Tetragram,” 98–99; Rösel, “Reading and Translation,” 419–22). This would imply that the New Testament writers likely followed the Septuagint in using κύριος (kyrios) as a substitute for the divine name—at least in quotations of Old Testament texts from the Septuagint.