King of Kings
Encyclopedia
King of Kings is a title that has been used by several monarchies and empires throughout history. The title originates in the Ancient Near East
. It is broadly the equivalent of the later title Emperor
.
The first king known to use the title "king of kings" () was Tukulti-Ninurta I
of Assyria (13th century BC). The title used to be intended quite literally, as a šar or mlk
was the title of a king of a city-state
, and with the formation an empire
in the Late Bronze Age, the Assyrian rulers installed themselves as rulers over the existing structure of rulers (kings) of city-states.
The Persian title of a king of kings is shahenshah (ˈʃɑːənˈʃɑː), associated especially with Persian Achaemenid Empire
, where it referred to the monarch ruling over other monarchs who had a vassal, tributary or protectorate position.
The title is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible
, as , applied to Nebuchadrezzar and to Artaxerxes
. In Daniel
2:37, Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadrezzar to the effect that
In Christianity, "king of kings" (βασιλευς των βασιλευοντων) is one of the titles of Jesus
, based on 1 Timothy 6:15, and Revelation
17:14, 19:16.
The Emperors of Ethiopia
had the title of "king of kings" (nəgusä nägäst).
, "King of Kings" - in Hebrew Melech ha-M'lachim - is an expression that refers to God, whose name may not be said. It is usually rendered as Melech Malchei Ha-M'lachim (King of Kings of Kings), to put it one step above the title by which Babylonian and Persian kings are referred to in the Bible (specifically in the Book of Daniel
).
Christ is termed "King of Kings" in the Bible
, particularly in the Book of Revelation
, 17:14 and 19:16. Jesus says in the Book of Matthew, verse 28:18, that all authority on earth has been given to him. In John 18:36 he says that his realm is not of this earth (Hebrew: olam hazeh, "this world, or age", in contrast with the olam haba, "the world to come", in which he will rule), a messianistic tradition within the Jewish faith, founded its Zionist ambitions of political independence from Rome (see Sicarii
, while Christ preached a spiritual 'kingdom' instead) on its version that the Messiah would (re)establish the promised land of Israel as a mighty temporal kingdom; in Christianity, it is rather God the Father who is enthroned in heaven as ultimate ruler of the universe, high above all mortal monarchs. In this sense, "Lord of Lords" is a synonymous title of the Lord, as used by the Church Fathers, e.g. Against Heresies
, V.26 (St. Irenaeus
).
Selivanov, the co-founder of the Skoptsi, a Russian Christian sect which practiced sexual mutilation, who proclaimed himself the Son of God incarnate in the person of Emperor Peter III, claimed the titles "King of Kings" and even "God of Gods".
, the term "King of Kings" for another human being is prohibited. Narrated in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, from Abu Hurairah that the Islamic Prophet Muhammad said, "Verily, the worst title is 'King of Kings'; there is no King that has absolute power except Allah". This term is prohibited as there is a similar comparison between the created being and his Creator. This prohibition serve the purpose to glorify Allah alone. The absolute use (the definite article is thus obligatory) of al-Malik
, as #4 of the 99 known names of Allah
, "The King", taken to imply 'The Sovereign Lord, The One with the complete Dominion, the One Whose Dominion is clear from imperfection' singles the only god out as supreme ruler over all earthly powers; another of these attributes, #84, is Malik Al-Mulk "King of the Realm", taken to mean 'The Eternal Owner of Sovereignty, The One who controls the Dominion and gives dominion to whoever He willed'.
Tripitaka
, Buddha
is sometimes compared to the worldly Emperor
(Chakravarti), the Universal King, or the secular "King of Kings". But Buddha's status is even higher than these secular positions, as he is the "King of the Dharma" or Dharma-raja.
Kings of the Persian Empire . Because the Persian kings ruled in a format of having other kings below them ruling provinces, satraps, the fact that the Persian kings ruled over other kings gave them the title king of kings. But it is commonly accepted that the Persians wrote this with an implicit notion of relation to a deity, and later with an overt spiritual connotation in the latter Persian empire of the Priest-Kings of the Sassanian Persian Empire.
The title shahanshah was revived by the Pahlavi dynasty
of Persia in the 20th century. It was abolished when the Islamic Revolution toppled the monarchy in Iran.
ceremony in 34BC, where Caesarion
, son of Julius Caesar
and Cleopatra VII, were proclaimed as King of Kings, also as a status of god
and son of god
.
"claimed to be 'King of Kings,' a title he had a gathering of tribal leaders grant him in 2008." More "than 200 African kings and traditional rulers...bestowed the title 'king of kings' on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi" during a meeting "in the Libyan town of Benghazi in what was billed as a first of its kind. Col Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity....'We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa,' Col Gaddafi told the assembled dignitaries, who come from countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The BBC's Rana Jawad in the Mediterranean town of Benghazi says Libya's leader wants them to create a grass-roots movement to press Africa's political leaders to sign up to his vision."
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
. It is broadly the equivalent of the later title Emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
.
The first king known to use the title "king of kings" () was Tukulti-Ninurta I
Tukulti-Ninurta I
Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria.He succeeded Shalmaneser I, his father, as king and won a major victory against the Hittites at the Battle of Nihriya in the first half of his reign...
of Assyria (13th century BC). The title used to be intended quite literally, as a šar or mlk
Malik
Malik is an Arabic word meaning "king, chieftain".It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized, Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings...
was the title of a king of a city-state
Cities of the ancient Near East
The largest cities in the Bronze Age ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age with some 30,000 inhabitants was the largest city of the time by far...
, and with the formation an empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
in the Late Bronze Age, the Assyrian rulers installed themselves as rulers over the existing structure of rulers (kings) of city-states.
The Persian title of a king of kings is shahenshah (ˈʃɑːənˈʃɑː), associated especially with Persian Achaemenid Empire
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
, where it referred to the monarch ruling over other monarchs who had a vassal, tributary or protectorate position.
The title is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
, as , applied to Nebuchadrezzar and to Artaxerxes
Artaxerxes I of Persia
Artaxerxes I was the sixth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 465 BCE to 424 BCE. He was the son of Xerxes I of Persia and Amestris, daughter of Otanes.*Artaxerxes I was the sixth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 465 BCE to 424 BCE. He was the son of Xerxes I of Persia and...
. In Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
2:37, Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadrezzar to the effect that
- "Thou, O king, [art] a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory."
In Christianity, "king of kings" (βασιλευς των βασιλευοντων) is one of the titles of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, based on 1 Timothy 6:15, and Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
17:14, 19:16.
The Emperors of Ethiopia
Emperor of Ethiopia
The Emperor of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1974. The Emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country...
had the title of "king of kings" (nəgusä nägäst).
Judaism
In JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, "King of Kings" - in Hebrew Melech ha-M'lachim - is an expression that refers to God, whose name may not be said. It is usually rendered as Melech Malchei Ha-M'lachim (King of Kings of Kings), to put it one step above the title by which Babylonian and Persian kings are referred to in the Bible (specifically in the Book of Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
).
Christianity
JesusJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
Christ is termed "King of Kings" in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, particularly in the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
, 17:14 and 19:16. Jesus says in the Book of Matthew, verse 28:18, that all authority on earth has been given to him. In John 18:36 he says that his realm is not of this earth (Hebrew: olam hazeh, "this world, or age", in contrast with the olam haba, "the world to come", in which he will rule), a messianistic tradition within the Jewish faith, founded its Zionist ambitions of political independence from Rome (see Sicarii
Sicarii
Sicarii is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, to an extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from Judea using concealed daggers .-History:The Sicarii used...
, while Christ preached a spiritual 'kingdom' instead) on its version that the Messiah would (re)establish the promised land of Israel as a mighty temporal kingdom; in Christianity, it is rather God the Father who is enthroned in heaven as ultimate ruler of the universe, high above all mortal monarchs. In this sense, "Lord of Lords" is a synonymous title of the Lord, as used by the Church Fathers, e.g. Against Heresies
On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis
On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis, today also called On the Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called , commonly called Against Heresies , is a five-volume work written by St. Irenaeus in the 2nd century...
, V.26 (St. Irenaeus
Irenaeus
Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
).
Selivanov, the co-founder of the Skoptsi, a Russian Christian sect which practiced sexual mutilation, who proclaimed himself the Son of God incarnate in the person of Emperor Peter III, claimed the titles "King of Kings" and even "God of Gods".
Islam
In IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, the term "King of Kings" for another human being is prohibited. Narrated in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, from Abu Hurairah that the Islamic Prophet Muhammad said, "Verily, the worst title is 'King of Kings'; there is no King that has absolute power except Allah". This term is prohibited as there is a similar comparison between the created being and his Creator. This prohibition serve the purpose to glorify Allah alone. The absolute use (the definite article is thus obligatory) of al-Malik
Malik
Malik is an Arabic word meaning "king, chieftain".It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized, Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings...
, as #4 of the 99 known names of Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
, "The King", taken to imply 'The Sovereign Lord, The One with the complete Dominion, the One Whose Dominion is clear from imperfection' singles the only god out as supreme ruler over all earthly powers; another of these attributes, #84, is Malik Al-Mulk "King of the Realm", taken to mean 'The Eternal Owner of Sovereignty, The One who controls the Dominion and gives dominion to whoever He willed'.
Buddhism
In the PaliPáli
- External links :* *...
Tripitaka
Tripiṭaka
' is a traditional term used by various Buddhist sects to describe their various canons of scriptures. As the name suggests, a traditionally contains three "baskets" of teachings: a , a and an .-The three categories:Tripitaka is the three main categories of texts that make up the...
, Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
is sometimes compared to the worldly Emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
(Chakravarti), the Universal King, or the secular "King of Kings". But Buddha's status is even higher than these secular positions, as he is the "King of the Dharma" or Dharma-raja.
Persia
The first written record of its consistent use dates to IranianIranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
Kings of the Persian Empire . Because the Persian kings ruled in a format of having other kings below them ruling provinces, satraps, the fact that the Persian kings ruled over other kings gave them the title king of kings. But it is commonly accepted that the Persians wrote this with an implicit notion of relation to a deity, and later with an overt spiritual connotation in the latter Persian empire of the Priest-Kings of the Sassanian Persian Empire.
The title shahanshah was revived by the Pahlavi dynasty
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
of Persia in the 20th century. It was abolished when the Islamic Revolution toppled the monarchy in Iran.
Hellenistic World
A notable use of term King of Kings comes from Donations of AlexandriaDonations of Alexandria
The Donations of Alexandria were a religio-political statement by Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony in which they distributed lands held by Rome and Parthia amongst Cleopatra's children, and granted them many titles, especially for Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar...
ceremony in 34BC, where Caesarion
Caesarion
Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar , better known by the nicknames Caesarion and Ptolemy Caesar , was the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, who reigned jointly with his mother Cleopatra VII of Egypt, from September 2, 44 BC...
, son of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and Cleopatra VII, were proclaimed as King of Kings, also as a status of god
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and son of god
Son of God
"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...
.
Libya
Muammar GaddafiMuammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
"claimed to be 'King of Kings,' a title he had a gathering of tribal leaders grant him in 2008." More "than 200 African kings and traditional rulers...bestowed the title 'king of kings' on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi" during a meeting "in the Libyan town of Benghazi in what was billed as a first of its kind. Col Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity....'We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa,' Col Gaddafi told the assembled dignitaries, who come from countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The BBC's Rana Jawad in the Mediterranean town of Benghazi says Libya's leader wants them to create a grass-roots movement to press Africa's political leaders to sign up to his vision."