AGAPH outside the New Testament
Jonathan Burke
jburke at sprint.com.au
Fri Jun 14 09:25:50 EDT 2002
Hi Carl,
>
Gee, by this logic we're going to have Eph 5:25 (hOI ANDRES, AGAPATE TAS
GUNAIKAS) being used soon as a Biblical proof-text that husbands are
justified in doing whatever they please to their wives.
>
No, I don't see how. I think that David was imposing a Western concept of
'love' onto the Hebrew and Greek words under consideration.
The concept of love does not necessarily have to connote selfsacrificial
affection. Even our English word 'love' can refer to love which is illicit,
desire which is unrestrained, love which is considered morally wrong.
The point is that if AGAPH is unconditional, then it can refer just as
easily to unconditional desire. The rape of a woman certainly seems to me
to connote unconditional desire.
Why do we suppose that the word always has to have a warm and fuzzy
definition? Not even our word 'love' has that.
Jonathan Burke.
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