Agape & Phileo

To: B-GREEK@virginia.edu
Subject: Agape & Phileo
From: Jim Hill <jim@pasteur.hsf.uab.edu>
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 07:57:34 -0500
The following message refers to the "Do you love me?"
conversation between Peter and Jesus in John 21.
Please comment. 


Begin forwarded message:


Since this is a board on exegesis, and since it has taken all of one  
day for
the first really egregious exegetical fallacy to appear, I thought I  
would
simply point out that regardless of how devotionally beatiful the use  
of
agapao or phileo may seem, it is merely a change in verb to eliminate
monotony. A serious study of the relevant articles in Kittel's  
Theological
Dictionary of the NT (Yes, the big one; the "little Kittel" is too  
abbreviated)
and in Brown's Theo. Dict. of NT Theo. will show that the customary  
popular
explanation is less rooted in good linguistic Greek usage than in  
sermonizing.

May I point everyone to D. A. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies, Baker,  
1984, p. 30
and pp. 52 and 53 for a discussion of this very phenomenon in John  
21?

*****END ENCLOSURE*****

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