[B-Greek] Do You Love Me?

David McKay gontroppo at yahoo.com
Sun Apr 22 19:01:30 EDT 2007


George's post was spot-on.

In the LXX and the NT, AGAPAW is used for a wide range
of nuances of "love," and includes the wrong sort of
love of those who "love" the praise of their
fellowmen, to the "love" of Ammon for Tamar [which led
him to rape her], to the love of God for Christ and
us.

But the NT also uses FILEW for the love of God for
Christ, as George has shown and also interchanges
AGAPAW and FILEW for presumably John as the disciple
whom Jesus "loved."

The words seem to be more or less interchangeable.

Also, in the NT, compound words for love are built on
FILEW, not on AGAPAW. So the special love we are told
to have for one another in Hebrews is FILADELFIA, for
example.

The view that there is a subtle distinction in John 21
was almost unheard of until the Nineteenth Century.
But it dies hard.

Of coruse, there are different degrees of love, but
this does not seem to be reflected in Greek, or if you
think about it, in English. I love Autumn, chocolate,
my wife, music, and my God but not with the same
intensity.

David McKay

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