On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:04:01 -0800, ..Matt..
trdell1234 at (no spam) gmail.comnospam> spake thusly:
A while back was having a discussion about the meaning of Agape.
Found this article
http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/love.htm
Is it correct
This is the problem with quoting Thayer's though, if that is
what it lists as the definition (I didn't double check it), since
a description is not a definition and they try to make it one.
I.e., Thayer's often adds what it wants and falsely treats
the language as if it came into existence at the same time
as Christianity, or as a particular doctrine did. (:
While Christians came to think of agape as the kind of love
that God exhibited to mankind by giving His Son for man's
sins, the Greek word, while not often used, existed before
Christianity. This is why I don't like Thayer's. It tries to
use words in the way it wishes they were.
There is no way that the following is part of the definition,
no matter how bad anyone wants it to be:
"of the benevolence which God in providing salvation for men,
has exhibited by sending His Son to them and giving Him up
to death... of the love which led Christ, in procuring human
salvation to undergo sufferings and death... of the love with
which God regards Christ..."
So while it may be a nice description of the type of love agape
is, again, a description does not qualify as a definition and
therefore, it is not accurate.
