Non-Occurrence of "Lord" in the Four Gospels

The Four Evangelists

Carolingian depiction

from

an Aachen Gospel, 820

(Image from Wikipedia)

In a post the other day when I was looking at "Yahweh" (יְהוָה, Yahweh) as the unexpressed Name of the "Son" in the Gospel of John, I noticed an intriguing point: The word "Lord," which in Greek is κύριος (Kyrios), does not occur from John 15:20 to 20:2 (and not clearly to Jesus from 14:22).

I decided to check the other gospels and discovered much the same ( with John having, arguably, the longest non-occurrence, though Mark is in some ways even more surprising):

Matthew: from 26:22 to 28:6 (except for 27:10 and 28:2, where they do not refer to Jesus)

Mark: from 13:35 to 16:20 (and with clear reference to Jesus, not from 11:3 to 16:20, but this would bear more examination, for "Lord" with clear reference to Jesus is surprisingly rare in Mark generally)

Luke: from 22:61 to 24:3 (though Luke differs in using the term with clear reference to Jesus in the passion narrative)

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this other than a passing notice that the term "Lord" (κύριος, Kyrios) is missing or rare in the passion narrative of all four gospels, possibly because Jesus is not generally being addressed by those who respect him, though this isn't the full answer since the narrator could have referred to him as "Lord" anyway, as in Mark 15:5, where it could have replaced "Jesus" quite easily:

But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled.

ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς οὐκέτι οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίθη ὥστε θαυμάζειν τὸν Πιλᾶτον.

But the Lord yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled.

ὁ δὲ κύριος οὐκέτι οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίθη ὥστε θαυμάζειν τὸν Πιλᾶτον

Luke, for instance, uses "Lord" twice in 22:61, a passage from the trial scene:

And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

καὶ στραφεὶς ὁ κύριος ἐνέβλεψεν τῷ Πέτρῳ καὶ ὑπεμνήσθη ὁ Πέτρος τοῦ λόγου τοῦ κυρίου ὡς εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὅτι Πρὶν ἀλέκτορα φωνῆσαι ἀπαρνήσῃ με τρίς

Otherwise, the term is largely missing from the passion narratives. Scholars must have noticed this before and offered explanations.

I'll have to look into this another time since I have another batch of grading now . . .