RR - 1/13/24 Agape by David Harwood - part 2 - Shomair Yisrael Messianic Jewish Congregation

Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, January 13, 2024
Shabbat Shalom *|FNAME|*,

Agape – part 2 (part 1 was last Saturday)
by David Harwood

This week I’m going to start examining the brief article on agapē Rabbi Weiner sent out on January 5.

To begin:

Agapaō (the verb) and agapē (a noun) convey the emotion we call love. These words became familiar to the Jewish people through the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Septuagint. In the Septuagint ahavah (Hebrew for love) is translated as agapaō/agapē over 200 times.

I have very rarely read an explanation of agapē which recognizes that this word was well known to those who wrote the New Covenant Scriptures. The Hebrew Scriptures had been translated into Greek (the Septuagint). This translation was utilized by the Jewish people for devotional and study purposes. It is impossible to read the Septuagint without encountering agapē.

If you’d like to look at every time agapē is found in the Septuagint, go to this link on the Love of God Project’s website. I really wish you would. It is important background to understanding agapē. If you do, you’ll find that practically every time you read the word love/ahavah in the Tanach it was translated as agapē in the Septuagint.

It’s amazing to me that in the age of computer Bible study programs people continue to promote things like this:

Agapē , because it was used so seldom and was so unspecific in meaning, could be used in the nt to designate the unmerited love God shows to humankind in sending his son as suffering redeemer.

Paul J. Achtemeier, Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper’s Bible Dictionary, 1st ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985).

“Used so seldom?” Why would a scholar write this? Perhaps they were taught this by others, who never researched it, by others, who repeated what they’d been taught by others, who had never researched it, etc. Friends, agapē can be found over 200 times in the Septuagint.

Here’s an example of the beginning of a definition of agapē from a study Bible:

Agapaō is a word that exclusively belongs to the Christian community. It is a love virtually unknown to writers outside the NT.

Ahem… over 200 times in the Septuagint.

Here is more of the same misinformation put forward as fact:

The Greek word agapē (love) seems to have been virtually a Christian invention—a new word for a new thing …

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, page for March 10

This Greek term for love (agapē) was not used much in Classical or Koine Greek literature until the church began to use it in a specialized sense.

Utley, R. J. (1999). Vol. Volume 4: The Beloved Disciple’s Memoirs and Letters: The Gospel of John, I, II, and III John. Study Guide Commentary Series (140). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.

One of the Greek words for love is ‘agapē ’. Before the days of Christianity, this word was rare.

Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed.) (588). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

Ahem, ahem, excuse me… over 200 times in the Septuagint. (In case you missed this, that’s over Two Hundred. That’s a lot.)

When exposed to the multitude of times agapē is found in the Septuagint such statements become head-scratchingly ludicrous.

Through their exposure to, and study of, the Septuagint the writers of the New Covenant Scriptures were familiar with this word in its varied nuances. Over the next few weeks, I intend to present these nuances to you as we survey the Scriptures. You’ll find that agapē was not seldomly used, nor a word that exclusively belonged to the Christian community, a Christian invention, rarely used, or a new word for a new thing that was unknown outside the writers of the New Testament.

(Over two hundred… easy to read, difficult to imagine. Maybe this will help.)

Agapē
Agapē
Agapē
Agapē
Agapē
Agapē
Agapē
Agapē
Agapē
10.Agapē
Agapē
12.Agapē
13.Agapē
14.Agapē
15.Agapē
16.Agapē
17.Agapē
18.Agapē
19.Agapē
20.Agapē
21.Agapē
22.Agapē
23.Agapē
24.Agapē
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35.Agapē
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180.Agapē
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182.Agapē
183.Agapē
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185.Agapē
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187.Agapē
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190.Agapē
191.Agapē
192.Agapē
193.Agapē
194.Agapē
195.Agapē
196.Agapē
197.Agapē
198.Agapē
199.Agapē
200.Agapē

Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Shabbat 13-Jan-24
Parashat Va’era Exodus 9:17-35 Ezekiel 28:25-29:21

RR – 1/13/24 Agape by David Harwood – part 2

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