1

Regarding John 21:15-17 and the use of ἀγαπάω vs. φιλέω, I've often heard preachers say “ἀγαπάω” is divine and “φιλέω” is human.  But this always made me wonder about John 3:17, “men ἀγαπάω darkness rather than light.”

Proverbs 8:17 uses אהב twice, a word (ahab/agab) which may be related to ἀγαπάω, but the Septuagint uses ἀγαπάω once and φιλέω once.  (I’m not a scholar of either language and if I have the inflection wrong, it’s because I copied the words from Strong’s dictionary.)

What explanations (hypotheses) are there about the implications of these two words in these passages?  (Including speculations on why the seventy(-two) translators used two different Greek words for one Hebrew word.)

WGroleau
  • 286
  • 1
  • 10
  • Feel free to put better tags on this.  But please refrain from any discussion of the fact that "17" is in all three references. :-) – WGroleau Aug 06 '23 at 15:38
  • the popular notion that agape is divine and special is a modern myth of the misguided preachers https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/79211/agape-and-phileo Agape simply means the benevolence/love in the sense of embracing someone as family, as our own; whereas philos means friendship, to like someone. – Michael16 Aug 06 '23 at 16:19
  • Do this question and answer answer your question? https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/31348/two-words-for-love-in-john-2115-17/44336#44336 and https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/31348/two-words-for-love-in-john-2115-17 – Perry Webb Aug 06 '23 at 22:40
  • Mine might be considered an almost duplicate of 31248 which is indeed very helpful (all the answers except one). 79211, is also helpful, though closed just because the OP didn't cite any specific verse. – WGroleau Aug 07 '23 at 02:26

0 Answers0