[B-Greek] AGAPE in the NT

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Feb 5 11:31:06 EST 2004


At 10:11 AM -0600 2/5/04, Jeffrey B. Gibson wrote:
>Mike Marchywka wrote:
>
>> >AGAPAW can be used for the pharisees love of places of
>> >honour (Lk. 11:43), thier love of praise from men (Jn.
>> >12:43) and Balaams love of unrighteousness (2 Peter
>> >2:15).
>>
>> Then, this is not a synonym for "Christian love" or
>> "selfless love"? This sounds like a rather large difference from
>> popular belief(not that the latter is trustworthy :)). What usages do you
>> think encouraged the
>> popular association of "agape" with " good love "?
>
>Is there really such a "popular association"? If so, among whom?

I don't know where it started, but it was given an immense boost years ago
by a book by Anders Nygren entitled (in the English version) _Eros and
Agape_; I know that it provided fodder for sermons on the exchange between
the risen Jesus and Peter in John 21 despite the fact that (in my opinion,
at least) it overgeneralized about AGAPH and overgeneralized also about
ERWS. I notice that it's still alive in a recently-published book, _Greek
for Preachers_ (by Joseph Webb and Robert Kysar); from the review of which
(RBL 01/2004) I learned in a recent message on this list, I read "The
introduction presents a very good case for preachers delving directly into
the original language of the New Testament. using as an illustration the
exchange between Jesus and Peter in John 21:15-17, Webb and Kysar show that
only an appeal to the differences in meaning between AGAPW and FILW can
untangle the seemingly laborious exchange." The reviewer seems to approve
of that, although I think that most B-Greekers have found the evidence for
such a difference in this exchange unpersuasive, but later on the reviewer
says, "the book is fraught with inaccurancies and misrepresentations
regarding Greek grammar." Still later, "A better knowledge of Greek would
in many cases negate the possibilities they seize upon, but that does not
seem to be the standard employed: pure possibility is deemed adequate
license for establishing meaning." This strikes me as a perfect
illustration of theme that is raised from time to time in B-Greek
discussion, that "a little Greek is a dangerous thing", i.e., that one
needs a good deal more than a basic introduction to Greek in order to use
it appropriately as a tool for exegesis. So I think that there probably
does exist a "popular association" of AGAPH with "good love."
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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