[B-Greek] AGAPAW, FILEW, etc. in the GNT

RRedden604 at aol.com RRedden604 at aol.com
Fri Feb 17 14:21:45 EST 2006


The concordance shows that the "AGAPH" word group includes love for God,  
Jesus, our brethren, our families, our neighbors, our enemies.  But what is  
often overlooked is that the same word group includes love for a nation, a  
creditor, places of honor, darkness, life, money, a city, the world and the  things 
in it, worldly praise, fishing (?) and only those who return love. In the  
Septuagint, we discover that the translators did not hesitate to use the AGAPH  
word group to translate the Hebrew  "AHAV" word group in all its uses  
(including lust)!  Very little changed from the way the translators of the  LXX used 
the word, and how we discover it was used by the N.T.  writers.

If the word AGAPH is more inherently lofty and purer than any  other word for 
love, why did Paul have to define it so precisely in 1 Cor.  13?  Obviously, 
through Christian use it has accrued a meaning not inherent  in the word 
itself.  We need to be careful reading back into the NT words  meanings that 
developed after centuries of use.  Agape is now an English  word that means 
"unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another:  as (1) : the 
fatherly concern of God for humankind (2) : brotherly concern for  others  b : a 
person's adoration of God."   We all would agree  that this is what Christian love 
is all about as taught in the NT.  But the  word in the NT, in isolation, 
does not teach this.  We know love because He  first loved us.  We learn love in 
the person of Christ, not in a  word.
 
Rob Redden



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