135. THE SYNONYMOUS WORDS
FOR
"LOVE".
- THE VERB.
- agapao = to regard with favour, to make much
of a thing or a person, on principle. The cause or ground of No.
2.
- phileo = to kiss, to be fond of, having
regard to feeling as distinct from principle. The demonstration
of No. 1. Hence No. 2 is never used of man's love to God :
this is always No. 1. Both words are used of God's love to man.
No. 2 is used of the Lord's love for Lazarus (John 11:3, 36) but not in
v. 5, where the sisters are included. See the notes on John
21:15-17; and on John 12:25.
- THE NOUN.
- agape. No. 2 below, was the common word
used by the Greeks, for love; and even this is far lower than the N.T.
philadelphia ( = love of the brethren). Agape is spontaneous
love, irrespective of "rights". The word was supposed to be peculiar
to the N.T., but it is found in the Papyri.
- philanthropia = philanthropy, or love of man,
which did not go beyond giving man his "rights", among the Greeks.
It is used in a higher sense in Tit. 3:4; occurs elsewhere only in Acts
28:2. Cp. the Adverb philanthropos (Acts 27:3, "courteously").
- THE ADJECTIVE.
agapetos = beloved. The word used of the Lord Jesus
by the Father. See Matt. 3:17; 12:18; 17:5. Mark 1:11; 9:7.
Luke 3:22; and in Mark 12:6. Luke 20:13, by Himself. A special
epithet of the Saints in the Epistles.
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