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Kyria in Papyrus Letters

I spent a few hours today reading some of E.A. Mathieson’s 2006 doctoral thesis: The Perspectives of the Greek Papyri of Egypt on the Religious Beliefs, Practices and Experiences of Christian and Jewish Women from 100 CE to 400 CE.

Some of the papyri Dr. Mathieson examined for her thesis were letters addressed to older Christian women of some standing. These Christian women are typically referred to as kyria “lady” in the letters. Often, but not always, mētēr “mother” is added to “lady” to form the appellation “lady mother.”[1]

Here are some examples.

A 4th-century letter is addressed “to my lady mother Surias” (SB 12.10840).
A 4th-century letter from a woman named Allous is addressed “to my lady mother Faustina” (SB 14.11881).
A 3rd or 4th-century letter, from a woman named Athanasias, is addressed to two women who are addressed together as “lady mothers” (P.Berl.Zill. 12).
A 4th-century letter is addressed “to my lady, dearest sister in the Lord” (P.Oxy. 63.4365).[2]
An early 4th-century letter appears to have been sent from a kyria who is also identified as a teacher (kyrian tēn didaskalon) (SB 14.11532).[3]

There are more papyrus letters that mention women called kyria in the postscripts below.

Some other papyri examined by Mathieson were letters addressed to older Christian men of some standing. In a similar fashion, these men are referred to as kyrios (“lord, sir”) often combined with patēr “father” (e.g., P.Oxy 12.1592 sent by a woman, P.Oxy. 12.1593, and SB 18.13612).[4] The context of the letters shows that these men were spiritual fathers just as the “lady mothers” were spiritual mothers.

Kyria in Jewish and Christian Literature

Kyria does not only occur in ancient letters. I’ve come across the word in early Jewish and Christian literature where it is sometimes used for real family members rather than spiritual mothers. It is used in direct address by Isaac to his mother Sarah in The Testament of Abraham (3.10 recension A) (circa 100 CE), and by Perpetua’s brother and father to their sister and daughter, respectively, in the account of Perpetua’s martyrdom (para. 3 & 4) (202 or 203 CE).[5]

Kyria is used for a woman with a relatively high social standing in the following examples. Hermas (a freed slave) calls Rhoda (his former female owner) kyria in the Shepherd of Hermas 1:5 (circa 100 CE), and he frequently calls a woman who appears to him in visions as kyria (e.g., Herm. 5:3; 9:3; 13.3).[5] In the Acts of Paul and Thecla (circa 150 CE), Thecla is referred to as a kyria, or “mistress,” in relation to the maidservants in her household (para. 10). Kyria also occurs several times in the Septuagint (Gen. 16:4, 8, 9; 1 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 5:3; Psa. 123:2; Prov. 30:23; Isa. 24:2).

Sarah, Perpetua, Rhoda, Thecla, and the real and figurative ladies mentioned in the Septuagint, were high-status women or householders.[6]

Kyria in Second John

Kyria occurs twice in the New Testament, both times in John’s second letter which is addressed to a kyria (2 John 1:1, 5). More precisely, the letter is addressed “to the chosen (or, elect) lady and to her children” (eklektē kyria kai tois teknois autēs). Some people who take the word “children” literally believe that this letter was written to a mother with believing children (2 John 1, 4, 13). What these people have failed to take into account is that, in each of his three letters, John typically uses the word “children” in reference to Christian disciples—“spiritual children.”

The kyria of 2 John is a spiritual mother of a group of Christian disciples.

At the time John wrote his letter, kyria and kyrios were used as terms of respect, and were often used when addressing a high-status person. This usage, however, changed over time. Dr Mathieson comments that in fourth-century papyri kyria and kyrios tend to “lose their honorific sense and become terms of affection, although they continue to designate persons with power.” (p. 38)

Kyria and Kyriakon

Whether kyria is a term of affection or respect, the chosen lady in 2 John is almost certainly an individual woman who functioned as a house church leader. “The chosen lady” is not a metonym or metaphor for a congregation.

Mathieson notes that to kyriakon, which is etymologically related to kyrios/ kyria and means “the Lord’s household” (i.e. a Christian congregation), is known from the third century, and not before. (p. 194) I have not found any evidence that Christian congregations were called anything like kyria or kyriakon in the first or second centuries.[7]

If early Greek-speaking churches had recognised kyria as another word for a congregation or church, a biblical word at that, you’d expect it to be used by the early church for congregations. But it isn’t.[8]

While most ministers were men in New Testament times, it was not uncommon for women to be ministers, especially in house church settings. The chosen lady in 2 John was such a woman.


Footnotes

[1] I have previously observed in Greek papyri dating from the 4th and 5th centuries that some Christian women addressed as kyria seem to have been leaders of Christian communities, probably monastic communities (e.g. P.Oxy. 10.1300).
Unfortunately, very few papyrus letters addressed to women that date from the first and second centuries have survived. In postscript 1, I mention P.Oxy. 3.498 which was written sometime in the second century, and in postscript 2, I mention P.Brem 63 which was written in either 116 or 117 CE.

[2] I did not happen to see this short letter (P.Oxy. 63.4365) mentioned in Mathieson’s thesis. The woman addressed in the letter appears to be literate and wealthy enough to own at least one book of scripture. She is asked to lend a copy of Ezra and is reminded that she had previously borrowed “the little Genesis” (probably Jubilees).

[3] I did not see SB 14.11532 in Dr. Matheson’s thesis. I probably missed it. But I’ve written about this papyrus letter, that mentions a Christian lady teacher, here.

[4] Kyrios (masculine) and kyria (feminine) are forms of the same word. Here is the LSJ entry of kyrios and kyria.

[5] Paragraphs 3 to 10 of The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas were originally written by Perpetua herself, possibly in Latin, just before her death sometime in 202 or 203. “This makes it one of the earliest pieces of writing by a Christian woman.” (Source: Early Christian Writings) However, I read this work in an early Greek translation.

[6] It wasn’t just higher-status women who were given the title kyria. The word is sometimes used in both papyri and literature as a title for goddesses. For example, P. Fouad 76 is a short letter written in the second century inviting someone to dinner “in the sacred precincts of Lady Isis, in her house (temple).”

[7] This richly dressed, powerful woman, who is often described as carrying a book, is repeatedly referred to as presbytera (an elderly women or woman elder). In Hermas 2:8 she is called a gynē presbytis, a woman elder. At one point this presbytera is identified as “the church” (Herm. 8:1). However, Hermas speaks to the presbytera as to a real person and he addresses her with respect: he calls her “lady” (kyria). This is the only early source that I can find where kyria (“lady”) is in any way associated with “the church.” A summary of The Shepherd of Hermas is here.

[8] Kyria is a term used in ancient Greek non-biblical texts for ruling councils. However, I could find no evidence in the numerous surviving documents of the early church that any early Christian congregation was called kyria.


Explore more

I have more about the chosen lady in 2 John, here.
A Christian Lady Teacher in Egypt in the 300s AD
I have more women church leaders in the New Testament, here.
An article on the “co-elect” woman in Babylon (1 Pet. 5:13) is here.


Postscript 1: December 30 2021

I came across these two ancient documents online today that contain the word kyria. The editors of these Greek texts have assumed kyria is a name. It is likely, however, that the word is used as a term of respect in both documents.

P.Oxy. 3.498 is dated to the second century and may have been written soon after 2 John was written. The opening address of this letter reads, “To Antonia Asklepias, the one also called ‘Kyria.'” (My translation)
In P. Oxy. 6.914, dated 486 CE, the mother of the man being honoured is referred to as mētros kyrias (“mother lady”).  (Is her name Hareoutē?)

Postscript 2: January 13, 2023

This week I attended the Macquarie Ancient Languages Summer School, as I do almost every January, and I read several papyrus letters (and other Greek texts).  Three of the letters happened to contain the word kyria.

P.brem. 63 is a letter that was written in the year 116 or 117. So it dates to roughly the same time as 2 John. It was written by a Jewish woman named Eudaimonis to her pregnant daughter Aline. The daughter is called kyria in line 20. The plural of kyria is used in line 14 referring to mistresses (female masters) of slave girls. A translation and photo of the letter are here.

PSI 4.229 is a letter written in the late 200s by a man who had fallen ill. (To be precise, as with many ancient letters, it was probably written by a professional scribe on the man’s behalf.) It is addressed to a woman who he calls kyria adelphē (“lady sister”) in line 1. She is addressed again as “sister” in line 11. In lines 19–23, greetings are passed onto the woman from her father and brother who are each called kyrios.

In P.Oxy. 46.3314, a Jewish man named Judas, who is severely injured after falling off a horse, writes a letter to his father Joses, who he calls kyrios and “father” in line 1, and to his wife Mariam, who he refers to as kyria mou adelphē (“my lady sister”) in lines 5–6 and again in line 12. This letter was written sometime in the 300s.

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12 thoughts on ““Kyria” in Papyrus Letters and the Elect Lady

  1. This is very interesting information. Thanks!

  2. Great insight. I have noticed that somewhere in the 1970s, modern scholarship went from the consensus that 2nd John was written to a woman and embraced the idea that the letter was written to a church. However, I have not read the combination being considered: that it was written to a woman and the children were her spiritual “offspring.”
    Have you found any information about the appearance of the word ἐκκλησία appearing twice in an acrostic form in the letter? Part of the κυρίᾳ debate has centered around the fact that the word church does not occur. Thank you for sharing this new concept.

  3. Hi Dan, Thanks for your thought provoking comment. Very interesting.

    ~ I believe the idea that the chosen lady was a metonym for a congregation goes back a lot further than the 70s.

    ~ In my other article on the Chosen Lady I look at the switch in grammar from singular to plural when John is addressing the lady and then her children, and vice versa. And I look deeper at John’s use of the word “children” in each of his letters.

    ~ The language of 2 John and 3 John shows that the Chosen Lady and Gaius were ministers. I see no reason do discount that the Chosen Lady was not part of a church, or its leader, simply because the word ekklesia is not used. Philippians, for example, is clearly addressed to the church in Philippi but Paul does not use the word ekklesia in his greetings. Moreover, 2 John 10-11 is about welcoming itinerant teachers into the assembly that meets in her home. (I’m writing a thesis at the moment about the itinerant ministries of apostles, prophets and teachers, and the sedentary, i.e. local, ministries of overseers, elders and ministers (diakonoi).)

    ~ The acrostic idea sounds far-fetched to me. But who knows? There may be some credence to it. Sound like a project for a rainy day. 😉

  4. Very interesting! Its been a while since I’ve read 2 John. It hadn’t dawned on me that the lady being addressed might be a woman of high standing, even a pastor.

  5. Hey Brian, thanks for recommending this post to Rachel Held Evans. She’s included it in this week’s Sunday Superlatives. 😀

  6. Your post is very interesting reading, as I am working on my Masters thesis on the subject of John’s kuria. I am wondering if you know if I can find Mathieson’s PhD thesis online?

  7. Hi Lovisa,

    I do not believe that the thesis is online but it is in the process of being published. I’ll ask around and see if anyone has more information on this.

    Dr Mathieson’s thesis covers a broad range of activities by women. I don’t even know if she mentions the kuria in 2 John. I pulled the pieces together for this post.

    I would be interested in reading your paper when you’re finished. It’s a fascinating subject.

  8. Thank you for your quick answer! I actually do not need the whole thesis since, as you say, it covers so much. I am doing a brief study on the usage of kuria in reference to Christian women of importance, so what I am after is to know what page numbers the examples are on that you give in your article. (since I need to quote Mathieson as source, I need to have the exact page numbers..)

    (i.e. A 4th century letter is addressed to “my lady mother Surias” (SB 12.10840).
    A 4th century letter from a woman called Allous is addressed to “my lady mother Faustina” (SB 14.11881).
    A letter from the 3rd or 4th century, from a woman name Athanasias, is addressed to two women who are addressed together as “lady mothers” (P.Berl.Zill.12).)

    I don’t know if you still have access to her work and would you know.. But if you do, could you please help me?!

  9. Hi Lovisa, I’ve sent you an email of my notes with the page numbers. I’m glad it can be of some use to you. (When I have more time I might add the page numbers to the post.)

  10. i really like how you write— you may not come to any one solid conclusion but merely present the evidence of what you have found and your thoughts about it and that what you are doing is an ongoing process.

    but many pat/comps would counter the chosen lady in church leadership by saying that paul is merely addressing a respected female member of the church (perhaps they envision her having a particularly clean home for the church body to meet in) but when he says chosen lady but she is in no way a leader in any form or fashion since that was a man’s only club. . i say to that, why would paul write such important doctrine that affected the whole church group to just any old person in the church body and certainly not a woman if women were what pat/comps hold them to be in the past and today–because they are so gullible and might be fooled and get things wrong or give it to the wrong person—No, he would send it to someone who would have great responsibility in dispersing that information to all the members and make sure it was completely and properly understood. and this chosen lady happened to be that person!

    this leads to another question. – did the various church groups in all the different towns share the letters or at least share the teachings in them? did the corinthians share with the romans who shared with the ephesians, etc. what paul wrote to them?

    1. Hi Susan, The letters that have survived were copied and circulated among the churches–an expensive exercise. But some, perhaps many, letters written by Paul and other first-centry teachers have been lost because they weren’t copied and circulated as much.

      Still other letters written by other Christians have surived because they were stored or buried in dry places.
      I have more on letter writing in the early church here:
      https://margmowczko.com/letter-writing-in-the-early-church/

      The biggest impediment to understanding that some first-century women did care for congregations as leaders seems to be a poor understanding of how some of the first churches operated.

      I’ve written a bit about what house church leaders did in my article on Nympha, another lady who hosted a congregation.
      https://margmowczko.com/nympha-house-church-colossians-415/
      With more information here:
      https://margmowczko.com/the-first-century-church-and-the-ministry-of-women/

  11. […] [4] In the late 1800s and early 1900s huge amounts of ancient papyrus documents were discovered in Egypt. Some of these papyri were letters addressed to women using the term kyria in a way that denotes both respect and affection. (Similarly, some men are addressed as kyrios.) Kyria can be translated as “dear madam” in this context. (And kyrios as “dear sir.”) These papyrus letters date from the first few centuries of the common era.  I’ve written more about these letters, here. […]

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