AGAPH outside the New Testament

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jun 14 10:16:45 EDT 2002


Well, Jonathan, I sort of thought you were responding to David McKay's
response to Larry Baker's message-- I took David's response to be sarcastic:

At 3:50 PM +1000 6/14/02, One of the McKays wrote:
>So Larry, do AHABAH and AGAPH mean loving someone enough to want to rape him
>or her?

I don't think there's anything "warm and fuzzy" here, and I frankly don't
understand why it would even be termed "unconditional." The more
conventional Greek verb in the passage in question (2 Sam 13:1) would be
ERAOMAI.

At 11:25 PM +1000 6/14/02, Jonathan Burke wrote:
>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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-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
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