[B-Greek] Do You Love Me?
John Sanders
jfs at jfsanders.com
Mon Apr 23 09:49:24 EDT 2007
Ron Bonica wrote:
Please pardon a newbie question:
In John 21:15, Jesus asks Peter, "AGAPAC ME PLEON TAUTWN". Peter replies
"NAI KURIE, SU OIDAS HOTI FILW SE".
Peter has switched verbs. It seems that the appropriate answer would
have been "NAI KURIE, SU OIDAS HOTI AGAPW SE". Is there some reason why
that reply would have been ungrammatical or inappropriate? If not, are
the words "AGAPW" and "FILW" one hundred percent identical in meaning.
Or is there some shade of difference between them?
I would answer your first question in this way, NAI KURIE, SU OIDAS hOTI
AGAPW SE" is one answer that is appropriate. But that is not the answer
that Peter gave, and I would think his answer was just as appropriate (since
it is what is in the text).
This leads to the second question. The way you worded your question implies
an assumption which is not sustainable (at least in my view). In other
words, I do not think that 100% convergence in meaning is a requirement to
use alternate words to describe the same situation. All that is required is
that there is enough convergence so that confusion or ambiguity does not
arise. Let me present some examples that may clarify my thinking.
Do you love me? She asked.
He lowered his newspaper and whispered, I adore you.
In this example, although the two words, love and adore, do not converge
100% in their lexical or semantic domain, they converge sufficiently enough
that we can believe they are used as synonyms.
Do you love me? She asked.
He dropped to his knees, took her hands in his; and looking up into her
face, with tears streaming down his cheeks, he quivered, I adore you.
In this example, I think one can read a nuance into the change in verbs;
that is adore implies a more emphatic love, not because of the lexical
meaning of the word, but rather because a change in words was used, to
demonstrate that the original word, love, was inadequate to express his
sentiments.
And one last example.
As the entertainer came on stage, the shouts of joy erupted from the crowd.
One observer quickly wrote, The crowd adores him. Another observer wrote,
The crowd loves him.
In this example, love and adore are used as synonyms, but there meaning has
shifted from the first two examples.
Coming back to John 21:15, I would say we can interpret this in one of two
ways: AGAPW and FILW are synonyms in this verse as in my examples 1 and 3,
or FILW is more emphatic than AGAPW as in my example 2. It is more
emphatic, not by lexical meaning but because a change in verbs was used to
emphasize that the original AGAPW was insufficient to convey the feelings
Peter had. But to read it in this way would only be by interpretation only,
there is nothing in the vocabulary or in the grammar that would determine
such a reading.
I do not write the above as an expert, just as a guy also attempting to
learn this language. Those who are knowledgeable can amend, disambiguate,
or correct what errors they see.
John Sanders
Suzhou, China
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