The prayer,
Kýrie, eléison, "Lord, have mercy" derives from a Biblical phrase. Greek ἐλέησόν με κύριε, 'have mercy on me,
Lord', is the
Septuagint translation of the phrase חָנֵּנִי יְהוָה often found in the
Psalms (
6:2,
9:13,
31:9,
86:3, and
123:3).
In the
New Testament, the Greek phrase occurs three times in
Matthew:
- Matthew 15:22: the Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David." (Ἐλέησόν με κύριε υἱὲ Δαβίδ)
- Matthew 17:15: "Lord, have mercy on my son" (Κύριε ἐλέησόν μου τὸν υἱόν)
- Matthew 20:30: two unnamed blind men call out to Jesus, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David." (Ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς κύριε υἱὸς Δαβίδ)
In the Parable of the
Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9–14) the despised tax collector who cries out "Lord have mercy on me, a sinner" is contrasted with the smug
Pharisee who believes he has no need for forgiveness.
Luke 17:13 has
epistates, 'master', instead of
kyrios, 'lord', (Ἰησοῦ ἐπιστάτα ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς), being less suggestive of the
kyrios 'lord' used as
euphemism for
YHWH in the Septuagint.
There are other examples in the text of the gospels without the
kyrie 'lord', e.g. Mark 10:46, where blind
Bartimaeus cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
In the biblical text, the phrase is always personalized by an explicit object (such as "on me", "on us", "on my son"),
[2] while in the Eucharistic celebration it can be seen more as a general expression of confidence in God's love.
[3]: 293
en.wikipedia.org
