AGAPH outside the New Testament

B. Ward Powers bwpowers at optusnet.com.au
Fri Jun 7 18:45:43 EDT 2002


At 02:10 PM 020607 -0400, Steve Kearfott wrote:
>A little different take on your question, but still relevant I think:
>
>Grimm (Greek-English Lexicon of the NT, corr. ed., 1889, p. 4) defined
>AGAPH as a purely biblical and ecclesiastical word   However, since that
>time, scholars alleged to have found occurrences of AGAPH in a number of
>papyri which led to the conclusion that, on the contrary, AGAPH was indeed
>a common Hellenistic Greek word.  But when one examines the most
>frequently mentioned occurrences, one finds that the conclusions of these
>scholars are not nearly so certain as they purport, and should be taken
>with caution.  These four occurrences are:

[SNIP]

>In the end, in each one of the four most prominent examples of the alleged
>pagan usage of AGAPH there is a high level of uncertainty.  To repeat, it
>is not being argued that AGAPH must not be present in these texts, only
>that the evidence presented in these four texts is not strong enough to
>support such a claim.
>
>Steve Kearfott
>Louisville, Kentucky


Just to express a word of appreciation for a very interesting and helpful 
contribution. Thanks, Steve.

Ward


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