What is the “name above all names” given to Christ? Most today choose one of three options: it is the title “Lord,” it is the name “Jesus,” or it is the name Yhwh-Kyrios (or just “Kyrios” as a translation substitute for יהוה). I review the arguments for each of these possibilities. All have much to be said in their favour, but are also problematic to the point of implausibility. I put forward and defend a fourth possibility (that has been only rarely advocated in the modern history of interpretation): the supreme name is the multi-part, or composite, name Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός. This accounts for all the arguments for each of the other three possibilities and avoids their problems.
Of those problems, the most serious have to do with the difficulty of thinking that the name Yhwh-Kyrios was first given to the human and exalted Christ after his death. Also, the word string Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός is Christ’s name in Phil 1:2; 3:20 and 4:23 (as in other Pauline passages), so it is most likely also a name in 2:11. The ὅτι before these words can be recitative, not a conjunction, and there is no reason to assume an ellipsis of the verb “to be” (“Jesus Christ is Lord,” or similar).
This identification of the name fits two neglected features of the hymn and its ancient context. Firstly, the hymn is full of deliberate ambiguities—of syntax and meaning. These find a resolution in the multipart name Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, that identifies one who is both human (as “Jesus,” and “Christ”) and also divine (as LORD). Secondly, names were typically composed of several parts, especially in the Roman world and for high status individuals (and divine rulers and gods). It is anachronistic to assume that, as the name that is above all others, it would be a simple, uncompounded name (“Jesus” or “κύριος”).
Eight observations on syntax and context further support this solution to the supreme name problem. Firstly, with a recitative ὅτι the verb ἐξομολογήσηται can mean “confess”: “every tongue confess ‘Lord Jesus Christ’”. This is the way the verb introduces reported speech in Isa 45:23 (the biblical base text for Phil 2:10–11). Secondly, there is no parallel for the three words Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός functioning as a predicative. At Rom 10:9 and 1 Cor 12:3 the confessions might well be simply “LORD Jesus!” rather than “Jesus is Lord”. Thirdly, the striking lack of a name for either the pre-existent or incarnate figure in 2:6–8 is consistent with the revelation in 2:9–11 of a multi-part name. Fourthly, treating Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός as a multipart name is consistent with all the other reasons to think there is no change of identity at v. 9, only a change of status and the revelation of an identity previously hidden or unrecognised. Fifthly, this solution fits the likely echo of Greek Psalm 96:9 which may have inspired the use of the rare verb ὑπερυψόω in Phil 2:9. Sixthly, it also fits an echo of the common motif of people confessing the divine name, in Old Testament texts. Seventhly, in verses 9–11 there is a scene of universal acclamation, which ought to be compared with the evidence for the character of religious (and political) acclamations in antiquity, where the name of a god typically has a several part form, like the one in Phil 2:11b. Lastly, the intertextual echoes of Isa 43:23–25, that others have noted, suggest that the identification of Christ with Yhwh-Kyrios is a piece of creative biblical exegesis, in which the words “God” and “Kyrios” is each identified with the two figures, (LORD) Jesus Christ and God the Father. That being so, whoever was responsible for that creative exegesis must have somehow identified Jesus Christ with the one who speaks in Isa 45:23. That means, for the author, Christ is already LORD before he becomes human when he comes to earth (in recent history). So, Philippians 2:9 must describe his exaltation and revelation to the whole cosmos, not his first attainment of the name Yhwh-Kyrios.
So, the name is Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός—“LORD Jesus Christ,” not “Lord Jesus Christ.”