Episode 3 : What’s agape got to do with it? - Theology Academy podcast
In this episode, Brad addresses the use of agape in the Christian Church and the question of its meaning. He argues that there is no historical basis in Greek usage for identifying agape with a special kind of love, whether that be a selfless love, or God’s love or a Christian type of love.
The journey through agape begins by tracing the use of the English word “charity” beginning in the 11th century and its identification with the type of love advocated in Christian teaching either by humans for one another or of God for humans or humans for God. This word develops a negative connotation and its use in this sense disappears around 1850. This is the same time when the Greek word agape enters the English lexicon, where it continued the same meaning of a special Christian or selfless love into the modern period.
After discussing three important theological publications, which appeared in the 1950’s talking about agape as a special kind of love, Brad focuses in on C. S. Lewis and his book The Four Loves, which was a print version of an earlier series of radio broadcasts. Brad points out that in the radio broadcasts, Lewis uses four Greek words for love as a model for thinking about different types of love, with agape being this selfless type of divine or Christian love. By contrast, when Lewis published these ideas in his book, he deleted any reference to agape, making reference to the Latin caritas instead. Brad argues that this curious situation resulted from a colleague informing him while his model may provide a useful philosophical distinction for English speakers, it did not reflect the semantic situation in ancient Greek.
Turning to the question of what agape meant in ancient Greek, Brad highlights numerous places in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where the word agape has a very different meaning from a pure kind of divine or Christian love. This word is used to describe Amnon’s lust for his half-sister, Tamar (2 Sam 13). It is used for the respect King Hiram has for David (1 Kgs 5:15). This verb is even used to describe the love Solomon had for his idols (1 Kgs 11:2). In the New Testament, Jesus uses this word to describe the preference that the Pharisees have for the seats of honor in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplace (Luke 11:43). In the later Patristic period, 1 Clement uses this word in a commentary on Mark 7:6 noting that a group of people loved Jesus with their lips even though their hearts were far from him. The conclusion is that agape as a noun and its corresponding verb agapao designate the unmarked, generic meaning of love and they are often synonymous with the other words in this semantic field meaning love.
The episode concludes with a close look at John 21:15-17, where Jesus asks Peter whether he loves him three times and Peter answers that he loves Jesus three times. Many pastors have used our English conventions regarding the meaning of agape and imposed that idea on this story in the Gospel of John. Brad points out that this view is entirely absent from the academic community and is generally only found in sermons and popular commentaries written by pastors or non-specialists. The consensus in the academic community is that no more meaning should be read into the use of different words for love in this passage than should be read into the different words for sheep in Jesus’ three admonitions to Peter after he answers in the affirmative.
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Episode 3 : What’s agape got to do with it? - Theology Academy podcast
In this episode, Brad addresses the use of agape in the Christian Church and the question of its meaning. He argues that there is no historical basis in Greek usage for identifying agape with a special kind of love, whether that be a selfless love, or God’s love or a Christian type of love.
The journey through agape begins by tracing the use of the English word “charity” beginning in the 11th century and its identification with the type of love advocated in Christian teaching either by humans for one another or of God for humans or humans for God. This word develops a negative connotation and its use in this sense disappears around 1850. This is the same time when the Greek word agape enters the English lexicon, where it continued the same meaning of a special Christian or selfless love into the modern period.
After discussing three important theological publications, which appeared in the 1950’s talking about agape as a special kind of love, Brad focuses in on C. S. Lewis and his book The Four Loves, which was a print version of an earlier series of radio broadcasts. Brad points out that in the radio broadcasts, Lewis uses four Greek words for love as a model for thinking about different types of love, with agape being this selfless type of divine or Christian love. By contrast, when Lewis published these ideas in his book, he deleted any reference to agape, making reference to the Latin caritas instead. Brad argues that this curious situation resulted from a colleague informing him while his model may provide a useful philosophical distinction for English speakers, it did not reflect the semantic situation in ancient Greek.
Turning to the question of what agape meant in ancient Greek, Brad highlights numerous places in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where the word agape has a very different meaning from a pure kind of divine or Christian love. This word is used to describe Amnon’s lust for his half-sister, Tamar (2 Sam 13). It is used for the respect King Hiram has for David (1 Kgs 5:15). This verb is even used to describe the love Solomon had for his idols (1 Kgs 11:2). In the New Testament, Jesus uses this word to describe the preference that the Pharisees have for the seats of honor in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplace (Luke 11:43). In the later Patristic period, 1 Clement uses this word in a commentary on Mark 7:6 noting that a group of people loved Jesus with their lips even though their hearts were far from him. The conclusion is that agape as a noun and its corresponding verb agapao designate the unmarked, generic meaning of love and they are often synonymous with the other words in this semantic field meaning love.
The episode concludes with a close look at John 21:15-17, where Jesus asks Peter whether he loves him three times and Peter answers that he loves Jesus three times. Many pastors have used our English conventions regarding the meaning of agape and imposed that idea on this story in the Gospel of John. Brad points out that this view is entirely absent from the academic community and is generally only found in sermons and popular commentaries written by pastors or non-specialists. The consensus in the academic community is that no more meaning should be read into the use of different words for love in this passage than should be read into the different words for sheep in Jesus’ three admonitions to Peter after he answers in the affirmative.
🔔 Subscribe for more insightful episodes and tap the bell to stay updated on our latest discussions.
👍 Like this video if you find these discussions enlightening and share it to help others discover these biblical insights.
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