[B-Greek] Was there any word for ...

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Oct 25 14:27:18 EDT 2010


On Oct 25, 2010, at 12:18 AM, John Benson wrote:
> Please forgive me if this topic has already been worn out here, but I am
> fairly new and working on a paper.
> 
> Was there any Greek word in the biblical world that could have been used
> (whether it got into the bible or not) to name any male-male, adult-adult,
> mutually consenting non-exploitive sexual activity? There seem to be a
> plethora of words that do *not* quite have that meaning, because of
> indicating adult-youth, or master-slave, or otherwise exploitive or coerced.
> 
> 
> Replies by email rather than posted to the whole list would be just fine.
> All I want is a little scholarly help.
> 
> Thanks for your kind attention.

I've been reflecting on this question from time to time repeatedly since
I first read it earlier this morning. It's a strange question, reminding me
a bit of Aristotle's reference in the Nicomachean Ethics to virtues and
vices (whether of excess or deficiency) that are recognizable in human
behavior but for which, he says, there isn't any regular Greek noun referring
to it.

The one qualifier that seems to me to put the kibosh on the effort to find
the word you're looking for is not so much the "male-male"factor as the
"sexual" factor. It's commonly said (probably too often) that Greek uses
different words for sexual attraction (ἔρως, ERWS), kindred feeling
(φιλία FILIA), and ἀγάπη AGAPH, which BDAG defines as "the quality
 of warm regard for and interest in another, esteem, affection, regard,
 love (without limitation to very intimate relationships, and very seldom 
in general Greek of sexual attraction)." I know that we've had recurrent
disputes in this forum over whether or not the alternation between the
verbs AGAPAN and FILEIN in John 21 is really significant, in the 
course of which disputes it's been noted that both verbs are found in other
GNT texts where one might expect the other one instead.

It is said -- as BDAG says indeed -- that AGAPH is not ordinarily used
in Greek of sexual attraction. And that seems to be true even of such
texts as Eph. 5:25 Οἱ ἄνδρες, ἀγαπᾶτε τὰς γυναῖκας, καθὼς 
καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἠγάπησεν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ... , for there the exhortation
to husbands really does not seem to focus on sexual preference.

All of which having been said, I personally continue to suppose that
AGAPH as Paul characterizes it in 1 Cor 13 is the term par excellence
for unselfish and non-exploitative affection. 1 Cor 13 is often read
at weddings, and in fact I read my own version of it at my daughter's
wedding at her request, although I don't think that the focus of the
original is on marital love at all. And so, leaving aside all questions
of the propriety of male-male, female-female, or male-female sexual
relationship, I would still think that AGAPH is the proper word -- in
the Christian tradition, at least -- for a profound mutual non-exploitative
loving commitment of one person for another whether or not that
commitment has a sexual expression.



Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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