[B-Greek] AGAPAW and FILEW (was "Greek for Laymen")

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Mar 11 08:28:48 EST 2004


At 10:03 AM -0300 3/11/04, Lira wrote:
>On re-reading my previous post of two days ago, I felt that it was too
>poorly elaborated, which could lead to misinterpretations, and that the
>questions were not clearly stated.
>
>I said in my first comment that although it is clear that there is
>considerable overlapping of usage between AGAPAW and PHILEW, the word
>PHILEW does seem to be more focused upon love or affection based on
>interpersonal association, as Louw & Nida points out, and as can be also
>seen by the fact that it is frequently translated as "to kiss". Thus, the
>impression I get is that it would be somewhat awkward to use PHILEW to
>refer to love for enemies, and that AGAPAW seems to be a better option. My
>original question then, was if this (love for enemies) could be considered
>an instance in which AGAPAW and PHILEW could not be used interchangeably.
>
>As to my second comment, although I said that the fact that there are a
>higher and a lower kind of love must have originated the popular concept
>that AGAPAW is higher than PHILEW, I didn´t mean to say that I agree with
>this popular concept. While love for "your enemies" is obviously of a
>higher nature than love for "those who love you"(Matt. 5:44, 46), both
>kinds of love are here expressed by the verb AGAPAW. My second question,
>then, was if the popular view of a hierarchy between AGAPAW and PHILEW
>didn't just originate from a wrong syllogism (something like: if there are
>two kinds of love in the Bible, and if there are two words for love in the
>Bible, then each word must refer to a different kind of love).
>
>I understand you may not want to go back to this topic, or may want to
>reply off-list, since the subject was already exhaustively discussed
>(unfortunately I was travelling on the occasion). But I just wanted to
>clear matters up, since my previous post seems to have been completely
>unclear.
>

>Rosangela Lira

There's no reason why this topic may not be resumed if anybody feels
there's something new to add to it; I do wish, however, that when the
subject matter is changed the writer would alter the subject-header
correspondingly.

I don't think anyone has argued that AGAPAW and FILEW are wholly synonymous
but rather that they are often used (in the GNT, at least) in senses that
are not distinguishable from each other. I think too that you are right in
suggesting that FILEW is less likely to be used for love of enemies; my own
sense is that the oldest sense of FILEW is is "kindred love" or "love for
one's own kindred." In the Odyssey Odysseus speaks of, sometimes to his
FILON HTOR, where FILON seems to mean "one's very own."

I don't think that any consensus was established on the question of FILEW
and AGAPAW in John 21, although my sense is that the number of those is
growing who think that no difference between the two verbs is intended
there; on the other hand, some on this list continue to argue vehemently
that there is a real and significant difference in John 21, and I will
never be one who thinks that the truth of a matter is settled by majority
opinion.
-- 

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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