From: Jack Kilmon (jkilmon@historian.net)
Date: Sun Apr 19 1998 - 10:21:29 EDT
McKay family wrote:
>
> So far, in the latest [but probably not last] discussion on this passage, I
> have not seen any citations of the way the 2 words for love are used in the
> rest of John's writings, and in the rest of Scripture. When I did a study on
> their use, I found that AGAPAW and FILEW are often used interchangeably in
> the Bible. The big distinctions people make between them are simply not
> sustainable. This is why many Bible translations choose to translate them
> both as simply "love."
>
> For instance: When Shechem raped Dinah, and fell in "love" with her
> afterwards, when
> Amnon "lusted" after and then raped Tamar, when Samson fell in "love" with
> Delilah, the LXX uses AGAPAW. (It also uses it for David's love for
> Jonathan, Solomon's love for God, and God's love for us, of course.)
>
> It is used in Proverbs of the love of pleasure and wine and in Ecclesiastes
> of the love of your wife, but also of the love of money.
>
> In Hosea it is used of Ephraim's illicit lovers, of the love of a
> prostitute's earnings, of loving detestable things, and of loving to oppress
> the weak. In Zechariah it is used of loving truth and peace, but also of
> loving false oaths.
>
> In Isaiah it is used of God's love for man, but also of men's love of
> bribes, of an adulterer's love of his bed, and in Jeremiah it is used of the
> love God's people have for false gods, of Judah's love of false prophecies,
> astrology, and of wandering away from God. In Lamentations it is used of
> Jerusalem's false lovers, and in the same way in Ezekiel.
>
> And in the NT, it is true that it is often used of God's love for us. But
> FILEW is also used this way.
>
> AGAPAW is also used of the ordinary love of sinners for one another (see
> Luke 6: 32)
> In Luke 11:43 it is used of the Pharisees' love of the place of honour in
> the synagogue, and in John 12:43 it is used for loving the praise of men
> more than the praise of God.
>
> In 2 Tim 4: 10, it is used of Demas' love for this present world.In 2 Peter
> 2: 15, it is used of Balaam's love of the wages of unrighteousness.
>
> FILEW is often used of God's special love, and is not at all a lesser word
> for love. Both FILEWand AGAPAW are used of "the disciple whom Jesus loved,"
> and in John 5:20 it is used of the Father's love of the Son (you can't get a
> greater love than that!) It is also used of Jesus' love for Lazarus, the
> Father's love for us, and Paul uses it of our love for Jesus, while John
> uses it of God's love for the Laodiceans.
>
> FILEW is, of course, also used negatively, but I don't need to give you
> those references to establish my case that, to a degree, the 2 words are
> used interchangeably.
Examples of AGAPAW as [preference for, regarding the welfare] can
be seen in Mt 5:43; Lk 7:5; Jn 11:5; Rom 13:8; 2Cor 11:11; Gal 5:14; Eph
5:25,28;
1Pet 1:22; and in many places depicting the love of Christians for one
another, the love of God to men; God to Jesus, or the love to a master.
AGAPAW involves the idea of affectionate reverence. AGAPAW, by virtue
of
its connection to AGAMAI is a love founded in admiration, reverence,
and esteem...hence the ONE usage in the NT of diligis, diligere in John
21.
FILEW is an inclination based on senses and emotion and includes,
unlike AGAPAW, a sexual love as well. That is why you AGAPAN God, NOT
FILEIN.
I could give you classical references, but the words are interchangeable
only by the later Koine writers.
Jack
--
Dâman dith laych idneh dânishMA nishMA
Jack Kilmon (jkilmon@historian.net)
http://www.historian.net
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