During the last year, most of these blog postings have been about leaving “agape” untranslated. Lately, I’ve been thinking about other words from the original Greek New Testament that cannot be translated because modern English is such a spiritually weak language. Another obvious word is “Logos” from John 1:1-14.
I’ve always been bothered by the question: why did the author of that Gospel begin with a poem about that very strange Greek word “Logos”? After seeking the answer for a few decades, I’ve started to think that a possible reason is he wanted to make the point that his whole Gospel was about the Logos.
I’ve never been satisfied by all the regular explanations, speculating that the Logos poem was a little prelude that was put there to identify Jesus with the Logos; then the rest of the gospel was about Jesus. So recently, I started wondering: what if it was the other way around? What if John identified Jesus with the Logos so that an important explanation could be made about the Logos?
I reread the poem from that perspective, understanding that the point was to say, “This whole Gospel is about the Logos.” What was expressed there was the formless, eternal essence that is the basis of Creation. And so how in the world could we ever expect such a meaning of “the Logos” to fit into the translation of our common, everyday English “word.” That means the translators make a terrible mistake when they strip all the meaning of spiritual power from the Logos when they translate it as “word.” Of course, all interpreters have assumed that what was meant was the “Word of God.” But nowhere is that stated in the Greek; instead, if we leave it untranslated, we get the great faith statement: “The Logos was God.”
The opening of the Gospel of John takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible. “In the beginning was the Logos; the Logos was in God’s presence, and the Logos was God.” (the Anchor Bible) Of course, that reminded me of the great agape statement in 1 John: “We have known and have believed the agape that God has for us. God is agape, and those who remain in agape remain in God and God remains in them.” (1 Jn 4:16 Common English Bible) Of course, the statement would never have been made: “Agape is God.” That would have changed the meaning. But in John 1:1 we do have the statement, though, “The Logos was God.”
(The New Revised Standard Version translated the opening of the Bible not as “In the beginning was God;” but instead, they found that the ancient Hebrew expressed that more like, “In the beginning when God created ….”)
Vss. 3-4 express the eternal creative power by showing that through the Logos all things came into being. Then came the great connection between Logos, life, and light by expressing that what Logos created had life and this life was the light of all people.
And then came the identifying of the eternal creative power, the Logos, with Jesus. But the identifying was done in such a way that we see how Jesus had his identity with the formless eternal essence of the Logos. That then becomes the main theme of the entire Gospel. So that when Jesus speaks “I” in a spiritual sense he means his identity as the Logos, the creative power of God -- the life-giving power -- the light-bestowing power. That is how Jesus, as the Logos, was able to empower people to become God’s children, “begotten not by blood, nor by carnal desire, nor by man’s desire, but by God.” (vss. 12-13 Common English Bible)
In the famous “I am …” and “I will …” statements, Jesus was displaying that he identified more with the formless eternal creative essence (the Logos) than identify with the mere non-eternal form of “Jesus.” The first example came right after he sent the money changers out of the temple -- then when the religious authorities challenged him, he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I with raise it up.” (Jn. 2:19) Obviously, he wasn’t saying that the physical body of Jesus would rebuild the physical temple in 3 days. Instead, he was demonstrating his identity with the eternal creative power. And as such he was proclaiming the New Creation of a New Form of Temple.
Next, was with the Samaritan woman at the well, to whom he said, “Whoever drinks from the water I will give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles into eternal life.” (4:14) So he was identifying with the eternal creative essence (in other words, the Logos), and as such the Logos would bring a spiritual ‘water’ that leads any person who identifies with it to eternal life.
Then when the disciples asked him why he didn’t eat, he told them, “I am fed by doing the will of the One who sent me and by completing his work.” (4:34) Again, at that place, he wasn’t referring to the material body of “Jesus” but the eternal essence he identified with.
When he was challenged about working on the sabbath, he replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.” (5:17) And then to show the spiritual depth of the identity he was expressing, he said, “I don’t seek my own will but the will of the One who sent me.” (5:30)
In the remaining, famous “I am …” statements, I think he was demonstrating his identity with the formless eternal creative essence, and not with the material form of Jesus. But when he used the words “my own” or “my own will,” then he meant the material form of Jesus. Here is the list. “I am the bread of life.” (6:35) “I am the light of the world.” (8:12) “You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world.” (8:23) “I haven’t come on my own; God sent me.” (8:42) “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (8:58) “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (10:9) “I am the good shepherd.” (10:11) “This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I may take it up again.” (10:17) “I give them eternal life. … I and the Father are one.” (10:28 & 30) “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (11:25-26) “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” (14:6-7) “The Father who dwells in me does his works. Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (14:10-11) “I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you.” (14:16-17)(14:19-20) “Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.” “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. … Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.” (15:1-5) “When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. … I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I am in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one.” (17:1-2, 21-23)
Thus we can see that he was identifying with the formless, eternal essence (and not with the form of Jesus) when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” So the “I” and the “me” referred to the Logos, not to Jesus. That’s why we should understand that statement to mean “The formless, eternal essence is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the formless, eternal essence.”
Chapters 14-17 also contain the verses about the giving of agape to the disciples and about his commanding that they share agape with one another. For example, he prayed, “I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your agape for me will be in them, and I will be in them.” (17:26) There he was showing that a main spiritual purpose to the Logo’s work through Jesus was to bring God’s spiritual power of agape to people, and he made sure that it was working in the lives of his disciples.
By accepting that all those quotes refer to Jesus finding his identity more with the unlimited eternal essence than with any materially limited ego-identity -- then those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but to the unlimited eternal essence. And I believe his will was for us to consider our identity with the formless, eternal essence, and not with any form of ego.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
A New Look at 1 Corinthians 13
About a year ago (1/22, 23, and 28) I posted a study of 1 Corinthians 13. Since then my work with agape power has led me to even deeper insights into the radical message that Paul gave there. After all, the purpose of that chapter is Paul’s explanation of the strange new spiritual gift he called “agape.” (The chapter could not be about what is commonly meant as love, because he did not use any of the Greek common words for “love.” And anyway, he had no reason to explain love.)
We remember that Paul had just finished, in chapter 12, a list of spiritual gifts. So then he warned his readers that what he was going to show them next was unusual -- by saying, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible, p. 474, 2008 Vol. 32) So what was this unusual religious innovation that he thought was so important he described it as a “more excellent way”?
Whenever approaching the shocking 13th chapt., I keep in mind Paul’s view of agape expressed in Rom. 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” That helps us understand why he began the 13th chapt. by showing that he considered “agape” to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts that anyone can receive. He was using a spiritual explanation in those unusual verses. (Because I quoted extensively in the Jan., 2010, postings, I won’t repeat those Biblical quotes. And I don’t need to repeat my carefully explained evidence for leaving “agape” untranslated.)
First, he explained that other spiritual gifts were nothing without agape. He even explained that charity is most effective when done through the power of agape. After those comparisons, that would have upset the Corinthians, Paul was ready to lay out the details showing what agape power could do. But in an even more unusual method, he didn’t start by talking about what the transforming power of agape can do to us. Instead, he talked directly about what agape itself is.
He started that description by pointing out that agape is patient and kind. WHAT? So whatever that strange spiritual power is, patience and kindness are of the very essence of what it is. He seems to be saying this: the way agape's spiritual power works in a person and between persons in a faith community, it is patient and kind. What does that mean?
The King James Version uses the expression “suffereth long” instead of “patient.” That adds a new depth of meaning for all those people who wrongly want religion to guard them against suffering. So agape is the spiritual power found in suffering. That’s why Paul said that agape “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (vss. 4-7) What an amazing spiritual power!
So we have to look to what spiritually is the foundation of patience and kindness. In Galatians, when Paul concluded, “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 Common English Bible) -- he was referring to what followers of Jesus Christ must do to 'crucify' the influence of any ego-identity.
Several verses later he said, “be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires." That’s when he gave the list: "The fruit of the Spirit is agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal. 16-23) Those “spiritual fruits” all go together. Of course, agape comes first, because its spiritual power opens us up to both God and to other people in such a way that what comes into our being is a profound sense of joyous well-being.
That deep spiritual sense allows us to accept other people in a life-affirming way that we become neither agitated with them nor attach any degree of importance to anything they may to do us. That's how we're able to live in a forgiving, merciful way. Even though we might think that is not humanly possible, with agape, all is possible.
Paul then explained more about agape when he then said that it helps us move beyond any ego-centric behavior. He seems to be saying that agape is our very witness that true spiritual power is on the side of patience, kindness, justice and truth -- and that it is against envy, conceit, judgementalness, self-righteousness, and all other results of ego-identity behavior.
Then he concluded that all the other spiritual gifts will eventually fail in their effectiveness, but agape will never fail. (vs. 8 Common English Bible) So, he then said he understood that we need agape in order to become fully mature in our spiritual development; otherwise, we remain childishly stunted in our growth in faith. And finally, even though we know that faith, hope, and agape abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agape.” (vs. 13) Greater that faith and hope?!
Those statements would have bothered Greeks when they were read in the First Century. Those words show a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. (So, again, we lose that shocking, new, powerful quality if we just translate “agape” with our English word “love.” But by leaving the word as Paul wanted it, we are better able to see what he was showing us.)
When we hear the way Paul explained agape in that chapter, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new faith discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God. Paul was telling his generation, and all generations since then, to expect that when we open ourselves to the power of agape, we will find it to be patient, kind, non-judgmental, and not ego-inflating.
That seems to mean to me that God will not force agape on us, so each of has to be completely willing to open our heart -- but also that agape will eternally be there for us. Even though agape is the most important power that God has for us, we have to freely accept the gift and use it or else it will mean nothing to us -- and our lives will amount to nothing until we are willing to work with that all-important spiritual power.
Later on, near the end of that epistle, Paul said, “Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. Everything should be done in agape.” (16:14 Common English Bible) That’s how he thought of the total influence of agape -- that we should use agape to do everything that we do in life.
It is that spiritual power of agape that brings to the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual power of patience itself; the spiritual strength of kindness; the wise rejoicing in the truth; and the basis of such a profound compassion that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
We remember that Paul had just finished, in chapter 12, a list of spiritual gifts. So then he warned his readers that what he was going to show them next was unusual -- by saying, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible, p. 474, 2008 Vol. 32) So what was this unusual religious innovation that he thought was so important he described it as a “more excellent way”?
Whenever approaching the shocking 13th chapt., I keep in mind Paul’s view of agape expressed in Rom. 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” That helps us understand why he began the 13th chapt. by showing that he considered “agape” to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts that anyone can receive. He was using a spiritual explanation in those unusual verses. (Because I quoted extensively in the Jan., 2010, postings, I won’t repeat those Biblical quotes. And I don’t need to repeat my carefully explained evidence for leaving “agape” untranslated.)
First, he explained that other spiritual gifts were nothing without agape. He even explained that charity is most effective when done through the power of agape. After those comparisons, that would have upset the Corinthians, Paul was ready to lay out the details showing what agape power could do. But in an even more unusual method, he didn’t start by talking about what the transforming power of agape can do to us. Instead, he talked directly about what agape itself is.
He started that description by pointing out that agape is patient and kind. WHAT? So whatever that strange spiritual power is, patience and kindness are of the very essence of what it is. He seems to be saying this: the way agape's spiritual power works in a person and between persons in a faith community, it is patient and kind. What does that mean?
The King James Version uses the expression “suffereth long” instead of “patient.” That adds a new depth of meaning for all those people who wrongly want religion to guard them against suffering. So agape is the spiritual power found in suffering. That’s why Paul said that agape “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (vss. 4-7) What an amazing spiritual power!
So we have to look to what spiritually is the foundation of patience and kindness. In Galatians, when Paul concluded, “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 Common English Bible) -- he was referring to what followers of Jesus Christ must do to 'crucify' the influence of any ego-identity.
Several verses later he said, “be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires." That’s when he gave the list: "The fruit of the Spirit is agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal. 16-23) Those “spiritual fruits” all go together. Of course, agape comes first, because its spiritual power opens us up to both God and to other people in such a way that what comes into our being is a profound sense of joyous well-being.
That deep spiritual sense allows us to accept other people in a life-affirming way that we become neither agitated with them nor attach any degree of importance to anything they may to do us. That's how we're able to live in a forgiving, merciful way. Even though we might think that is not humanly possible, with agape, all is possible.
Paul then explained more about agape when he then said that it helps us move beyond any ego-centric behavior. He seems to be saying that agape is our very witness that true spiritual power is on the side of patience, kindness, justice and truth -- and that it is against envy, conceit, judgementalness, self-righteousness, and all other results of ego-identity behavior.
Then he concluded that all the other spiritual gifts will eventually fail in their effectiveness, but agape will never fail. (vs. 8 Common English Bible) So, he then said he understood that we need agape in order to become fully mature in our spiritual development; otherwise, we remain childishly stunted in our growth in faith. And finally, even though we know that faith, hope, and agape abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agape.” (vs. 13) Greater that faith and hope?!
Those statements would have bothered Greeks when they were read in the First Century. Those words show a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. (So, again, we lose that shocking, new, powerful quality if we just translate “agape” with our English word “love.” But by leaving the word as Paul wanted it, we are better able to see what he was showing us.)
When we hear the way Paul explained agape in that chapter, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new faith discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God. Paul was telling his generation, and all generations since then, to expect that when we open ourselves to the power of agape, we will find it to be patient, kind, non-judgmental, and not ego-inflating.
That seems to mean to me that God will not force agape on us, so each of has to be completely willing to open our heart -- but also that agape will eternally be there for us. Even though agape is the most important power that God has for us, we have to freely accept the gift and use it or else it will mean nothing to us -- and our lives will amount to nothing until we are willing to work with that all-important spiritual power.
Later on, near the end of that epistle, Paul said, “Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. Everything should be done in agape.” (16:14 Common English Bible) That’s how he thought of the total influence of agape -- that we should use agape to do everything that we do in life.
It is that spiritual power of agape that brings to the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual power of patience itself; the spiritual strength of kindness; the wise rejoicing in the truth; and the basis of such a profound compassion that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Agape language and hope
Occasionally I continue checking blogs that mention agape. Recently I found a story from “Wit and Wisdom” May 6, 1998; quoted in onlinechristianforums.com/storytellers-stories/22661-speaking-agape. Here is a tightly edited version:
“In the early 1960s, Brother Andrew, from Holland, smuggled a load of Bibles in his VW across the Romanian border and past communist guards. He checked into a hotel and asked the hotel clerk where he might find a church. The clerk looked at him a little strangely and answered, ‘We don't have many of those you know. Besides you couldn't understand the language.’ ‘Didn't you know?’ Andrew replied, ‘Christians speak a kind of universal language.’ ‘Oh, what's that?’, asked the clerk. ‘It's called Agape.’
“When Andrew finally met with two members of a church, they sat staring at each other across the room until Andrew spotted a Romanian Bible, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a Dutch Bible. He turned to 1 Corinthians 16:20 and held the Bible out, pointing to the name of the book. They quickly found the same chapter and verse in their Romanian Bibles and read: ‘All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.’ These men spent half an hour conversing and sharing - just through the words of Scripture. They were so happy in this fellowship that crossed all cultural boundaries that they laughed until tears came to their eyes.’
“At the hotel, the clerk approached Andrew and remarked, ‘Say, I looked up 'agape' in the dictionary. There's no language by that name.’ Andrew replied, ‘I was speaking in it all afternoon.’”
That story is a good illustration of what can happen in a person’s life when the spiritual power of agape works to bring the influence of God’s Presence. Because this can happen anytime and any place, that’s why Jesus talked about the influence of God (formerly referred to by the antiquated translation the “Kingdom of God”) as a present reality and also as hope. During the last few years I have come to believe that spiritual agape is how God brings us awareness of divine Presence and holds out hope of even greater influence in our lives.
The connection between such present reality and hope is what Paul was reflecting when he wrote: “This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)
And it is that spiritual meaning that Paul brought to the Early Church, and that has been passed along thru all the intervening generations -- with the hope that agape would be re-discovered.
That hope has been realized during the last 100 years. During those lost centuries, when no one could remember what was the spiritual meaning behind that strange Greek word “agape,” the hope still lingered that someday the true meaning would be brought back to life. We are now living in those days of re-discovery. That's why it's so important to put into practice the excitement of that discovery.
“In the early 1960s, Brother Andrew, from Holland, smuggled a load of Bibles in his VW across the Romanian border and past communist guards. He checked into a hotel and asked the hotel clerk where he might find a church. The clerk looked at him a little strangely and answered, ‘We don't have many of those you know. Besides you couldn't understand the language.’ ‘Didn't you know?’ Andrew replied, ‘Christians speak a kind of universal language.’ ‘Oh, what's that?’, asked the clerk. ‘It's called Agape.’
“When Andrew finally met with two members of a church, they sat staring at each other across the room until Andrew spotted a Romanian Bible, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a Dutch Bible. He turned to 1 Corinthians 16:20 and held the Bible out, pointing to the name of the book. They quickly found the same chapter and verse in their Romanian Bibles and read: ‘All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.’ These men spent half an hour conversing and sharing - just through the words of Scripture. They were so happy in this fellowship that crossed all cultural boundaries that they laughed until tears came to their eyes.’
“At the hotel, the clerk approached Andrew and remarked, ‘Say, I looked up 'agape' in the dictionary. There's no language by that name.’ Andrew replied, ‘I was speaking in it all afternoon.’”
That story is a good illustration of what can happen in a person’s life when the spiritual power of agape works to bring the influence of God’s Presence. Because this can happen anytime and any place, that’s why Jesus talked about the influence of God (formerly referred to by the antiquated translation the “Kingdom of God”) as a present reality and also as hope. During the last few years I have come to believe that spiritual agape is how God brings us awareness of divine Presence and holds out hope of even greater influence in our lives.
The connection between such present reality and hope is what Paul was reflecting when he wrote: “This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)
And it is that spiritual meaning that Paul brought to the Early Church, and that has been passed along thru all the intervening generations -- with the hope that agape would be re-discovered.
That hope has been realized during the last 100 years. During those lost centuries, when no one could remember what was the spiritual meaning behind that strange Greek word “agape,” the hope still lingered that someday the true meaning would be brought back to life. We are now living in those days of re-discovery. That's why it's so important to put into practice the excitement of that discovery.
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