“Agapé” in the Great Shema

Many years ago I started wondering why an ancient Greek word started being used again after not being used for hundreds of years. That word is “agapé.” 

In the 1920’s a Swedish pastor wrote a book about "agapé" in the New Testament. Slowly Christians started using it as people realized that the word “charity” was actually a translation of it. But I wondered how “charity” could be a translation of “agapé.” It turns out that “caritas” is the Latin translation.

Clergy started quoting from the Swedish book in their sermons. I heard the quotes from as widespread a list of preachers as Billy Graham and Rev. Martin Luther King. Then after World War II, agapé started being used in the names of churches and youth choirs. 

At first I couldn’t trace back its origin any farther than to find out it was very important to the first Christians. But what did they think it meant? I finally realized a mistake had been made in the 19th Century. For some strange reason, Bible translators started translating it as “love,” even though it was very clear that whatever the first Christians thought it meant, it didn’t mean love. 

So where did the first Christians get the word? Well, after years of searching, I found it in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (made by 70 scholars in Egypt a century before Jesus). It was in the most famous passage in Deuteronomy — called the “Great Shema” (because ‘Shema’ is the ancient word, which is — as usual — weakly translated in English as ‘hear’ or ‘listen,’ even though that is far too calm a word for its full meaning). 

You see ‘Shema’ is a Call word: commanding a spiritual experience of the faith community. It is used like blowing the shofar horn: gathering the whole people into a worshipping experience. When those 70 scholars started translating the Great Shema they would have known that it was very important what word they chose to express the way of answering the call to bring each worshiper’s whole being (“all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength”) into a profound experience of divine Presence. 

But they probably realized that no commonly used Greek word carried that full meaning of spiritual power. And that spiritual-experience word they chose was ‘agapé.’ That then becomes the key to the meaning of agapé. Then when the 70 scholars translated Leviticus, they made the profound leap to have that spiritual experience be the basis for what forms the community of the faithful people — the call is extended to “your neighbor as yourself;” thus making the spiritual meaning of agapé the basis for forming a community in worship. Then in the Gospels we have Jesus make the final huge, radical, profound leap to call for that spiritual experience extended to enemies. 

And so the Greek version of the Gospels used ‘agapé.’ I saw that was the reason St. Paul used the word ‘agapé’ to point to the power of spiritual experience.

The word “Agape” used in the following 23 postings

Over 20 years ago, I started every morning’s meditation time by focusing on Paul’s important description of the spiritual basis of hope. When I found out that the original Greek version of Romans 5:5 did not contain what was at that time the common word for love but instead used the unusual, archaic word ‘agape,’ I used that word in meditating.

After a few months of doing that, I realized that ‘agape’ had such spiritual depth that it should be used in English versions because the English word ‘love’ has the same meaning as the Greek word that Paul purposely did not use. So the English version of Rom. 5:5 should read: “Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s agape has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Of course, that gives the basis for ‘agape’ referring to a spiritual power that was created in every person’s heart.

Then I began going thru the whole New Testament and copied the scripture passages with ‘agape’ replacing ‘love’ wherever ‘agape’ appeared in the original Greek. That produced quotes like: “Nothing therefore can come between us and the agape of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. … For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the agape of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35-39) Then I used all those reworked passages as the basis for my book, The Seven Steps of Agape Prayer.

That practice ended up giving me new insight into the famous verses in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. I finally was able to see that chapter 13 was actually Paul’s way of explaining to the little Corinthian church what ‘agape’ meant. Before that I had always wondered why Paul felt the need to explain love. Of course, he didn’t. But those Greeks in Corinth must have thought it strange that Paul had kept using an old, unused word to talk to them about spiritual power. So if we mistakingly try translating those passages with the English word ‘love,’ we miss that whole explanation that Paul was giving.

So here is the spiritual impact of what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 13: “I’m going to show you an even better way. If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have agape, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains, but I don’t have agape, I’m nothing. If I give everything that I have and hand over my body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have agape, I receive no benefit whatsoever. Agape is patient, agape is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but is happy with the truth. Agape puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Agape never fails. … Now faith, hope, and agape remain -- these three things -- and the greatest of these is agape.” (1 Cor. 12:31-13:8, 13)

So of course, if we find places in the gospels where ‘agape’ appeared, we get such new understanding as: “I give you a new commandment: have agape for each other. Just as I have agapan you, so you also must agapao each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you have agape for each other.” (Jn. 13:34-35)

Then I started seeing in modern writing that where the spiritual meaning of love appeared, we could gain new understanding by substituting ‘agape’ for ‘love.’ So I have reproduced those quotes in the following 23 blog postings.

Agape in LOUIS SAVARY & PATRICIA BERNE’s “Kything: the Art of Spiritual Presence”

Again, the word ‘agape’ is not used, but the subtitle is a clue that ‘kything’ can be interpreted as ‘sharing in the flow of agape,’ so whenever ‘love’ is used in that spiritual understanding, the word was changed to ‘agape.’

"By its very definition, kything is an agapic presence. Agape in its fullest sense leads to union, it creates a freely-established bond between you and the person with whom you share agape.

"The ability to forgive is really part of the spiritual energy of courage. The need for forgiveness surfaces when a relationship has been harmed. It takes courage to recognize and acknowledge the negative feelings caused by the other person and then take a further step, namely, to begin replacing these negative feelings with trust, compassion, caring, and working together. In order to go forward together successfully, it is also important that you accept the other person’s limitations of character and establish an agape relationship with that person as he or she is, not with the person you wish he or she were.

"Even after you have forgiven the other person, fear and mistrust as psychological feelings may still be present in you and need to be dealt with, but the spiritual energy of courage is a senior force that can carry you beyond your fear and anger in order to help re-create the broken relationship in a healthy, reality-based way.

"In forgiving people, you look beyond their offense and see their larger goodness. In having agape for them for their wholeness and their greater purpose in life, you can view their moment of brokenness as a step on their journey.

"In kything with such persons, you connect primarily with their spirit, their essence, their wholeness. You are in touch with a dimension of them that is much larger then their failures and hurtful actions.

"People have called cosmic consciousness by different names such as the unitive experience, the oceanic experience, divine perspective, the big picture. The point is that this spiritual energy gives you the capacity to look at your life and the world from a perspective that is much more cosmic in scope than your ego. Cosmic consciousness involves seeing your life not merely from the present moment but from a transcendent moment. When those with whom you kythe invite you to look at your life from the perspective of eternity, the way God looks at it, they are calling forth this spiritual energy in you. You can feel an integral part of a magnificent, living totality. When kything, it is this cosmic perspective, the unity of all things, that is seen as most important. The focus is on the network of relationships rather than on individual uniqueness. Because kything occurs in the domain of spirit, past, present, and future are equally in existence and available to my spirit.

"Ultimately, both sharing agape and kything are designed to help you transcend your limits and become consciously and spiritually one with the cosmos. The process of getting to that level of maximum consciousness is the challenging and rewarding work of spiritual growth. It is the work of a lifetime."

‘Agape’ as a new word

When I was reading other blogs that mentioned ‘agape’ in spiritual terms, I found one that listed all the NT passages that used ‘agape.’ That blog was bebereans.blogspot.com/2011/03/exercise-in-agape-love by Ed from Newark, N. J. In it Ed showed that he was starting to realize the spiritual meaning of agape. He talked about ‘agape’ as a new word because of the way St. Paul was giving it new meaning.

But then when he gave a list of where ‘agape’ was found, he still didn’t realize fully that ‘agape’ could not be translated into English; so he tried to find the meaning of all those scripture readings by using the common English word ‘love.’ In doing that, of course, he missed the point that St. Paul was giving new meaning to ‘agape’ -- but not as some sort of a new word for love. Paul wasn’t talking about love.

When Ed tried to account for the strange use of ‘agape’ in those readings, he commented: “Whenever you introduce a new word into language it’s necessary for that word to be defined, St. Paul defines it for us in 1 Corinthians 13 beginning in verse 4.” So there was a slight recognition that there was something ‘new’ about the way ‘agape’ was used by Paul and some others in the Early Church. And Ed pointed out agape’s strictly spiritual meaning. Still, all of that loses the original meaning from Paul if we merely use the word ‘love.’ Then we are left with the strange impression that Paul was trying to explain love. But why would Paul have felt the need to do that?

But when I gave a similar list in my posting to this blog on Aug. 20, I did what I think Paul would have wanted us to do and that was leave ‘agape’ as a Greek word. I did that because I finally realized, after years of studying and praying about the meaning of agape, that what Paul was mainly doing in his writings about ‘agape’ was trying to explain what his strange word meant and what was the power behind the spiritual reality that word stood for.

So here again, our very limited English vocabulary makes it hard to find words to express a spiritual basis for intense intimacy, affection, respect and caring. We need a spiritual term for “complete acceptance, support, and commitment.” But there is no English word that can express the profound spiritual basis that links God’s action toward us that flows out from us in actions of caring, affection, respect, and intense intimacy.

Many writers, who won’t use a Greek word, have been forced to assign spiritual meaning to the strange 2-word expression, ‘unconditional love,’ -- or they try giving a spiritual meaning by using the cumbersome phrase, ‘divine love given to another person.’ But because there is no single word, a profound mistake in translation happened when ‘love’ was used when the Bible was rendered into all the English versions appearing in the last 200 years. And 400 years ago, translators came up with the new word, 'charity,' but within 100 years it had lost all spiritual meaning.

I think Paul initially had the same problem with the Greek language. When he first began traveling north, he couldn’t find a Greek word for what he was trying to tell his Greek-speaking audiences. None of the normal words in common, everyday usage carried any spiritual meaning. Also he seemed to be trying to explain that only through a profound walk with God can a person begin to truly, deeply understand what happens when God opens us up and draws us into a close experience of Presence. No ordinary word could possibly help with such an explanation.

Because the first Greek-speaking audiences Paul addressed were Jewish, he had an advantage after studying with a few of the best scholars of his region. From that study, he would have known about the 70 scholars in Alexandria who translated the Torah into Greek (called the 'Septuagint'). As far as I can track it, that translation seemed to have been the first time when the verb form of ‘agape’ was used in the important Jewish ‘Shema’ (that Jesus used for the Great Commandment). And at the time of the Septuagint translation, ‘agape’ was an unusual, archaic word. So when the teachings of Jesus were translated into Greek, that version of the Shema became the clue to use ‘agape’ (and the verb form, ‘agapao,’) throughout the Gospels. For example in Matthew’s version, Jesus added a second commandment that was “like” the first: “You shall agapao your neighbor as yourself.”

So it makes sense to me that Paul used the Greek translation of the Shema to get the idea to use that unusual, archaic word ‘agape’ as his important spiritual word. Paul used that idea to begin teaching that God’s agape not only opened us to divine Presence, but also agape opened us up to intense intimacy, affection, respect and caring with those around us.

What an insight to show agape’s double power! So by the time Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, he could express this profound insight: through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the spiritual reality of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. And Paul also explained that only the power of God’s Presence can transform a human life to perform such profound actions.

Can Agape be misused?

Recently I found yet another of those blogs claiming that 2 Timothy 4:10 proves that “agape” was used also negatively in the NT. Once again this confusion is caused by thinking that ‘agape’ was used as a word for love. But we can get a little closer to straightening this out if we leave ‘agape’ untranslated; then the verse more understandably reads: “...for Demas has deserted me, because his agape was set on this present world; he has gone to Thessalonica.”

Of course, that is such a vague verse, that not much can be “proved” from it at all. We don’t really know what the verse was referring to that Demas did. Every translation puts it differently. I based the translation I used on the New English Bible, which strangely used the word ‘heart’ for ‘agape.’ Whatever is actually meant there, the expression is very unusual (as is every use of ‘agape’).

So, because of all of that, we can only speculate about the meaning. Unfortunately, the problematic expression became clouded by its usage in churches. After that letter became part of the final rendition of the Bible, for centuries that expression “love for the world” was taken out of context from that verse and became a negative expression. (And of course, I don’t think “love for the world” was the original meaning at all -- whatever such a strange expression would mean, anyway.)

My speculation focuses on the spiritual meaning of agape. That leads me to ask, “Is it possible to misuse the power of agape?” To get perspective on a possible answer, I went back to Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

Over a year ago, I posted to this blog a study of Romans 12:9-10 -- “Agape must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly affection. Honor one another above yourselves.”
It is critically important that he began those verses with agape. His point in doing that was to set the stage for the dependence of the verses that followed on agape being used sincerely and faithfully.

Most of chapter 12 is a list of practical actions that spiritual agape helps us do when we open up and let it flow in our life. But it also contained warnings about agape misuse. The main warning is that when agape is used in the wrong way, the result is doing harm.

For positive guidance, Paul talked about the action of treating others as kind family members would treat each other — with respect, showing honor toward other people. For him, such moral action came from spiritual motivation. The spiritual energy behind such action has a transformational quality that works in a person’s life to help her or him not be conceited or proud, but live in harmony and peace with everyone, even to the point of “blessing those who persecute you.” He also pointed out that the spiritual energy involved with agape helps with being patient in affliction. What he spelled out there is the ethic of extending hospitality to strangers. BUT ALL OF THAT ONLY WORKS WHEN AGAPE IS USED SINCERELY AND FAITHFULLY.

Paul used negative warnings to drive home the difficulty people have when they separate agape from God. I think when he started by saying, “Agape must be sincere” -- he was referring to keeping it in its spiritual context. As I’ve recalled so many times, he always meant “the agape of God;” as he said in Rom. 5:5 -- “the agape of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” That is agape’s true and only source. So there is tremendous danger caused by thinking that agape has any other source or any other function than the Holy Spirit.

We must let the Holy Spirit use agape to be transformational in our living. For example, Paul warned about what happens when people try to repay evil for evil, and take revenge. If people resist the proper functioning of the Holy Spirit and are not willing to make the huge effort involved with living by the Holy Spirit’s directing agape, then their minds stay enslaved to the old pattern of the selfish, egotistical, violent era of history. So what I think was meant in 2 Tim. 4:10 is the misdirection of agape. People can get terribly lost if they go out into the world thinking that agape is nothing more than human-generated love.
 
Paul wrote: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom. 12:20) But very few people in the 1st Century understood the importance of living that way. They thought it was not humanly possible, so they resisted. Of course, it is the action of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible. That’s what was reflected in 2 Tim. 4:10.

And of course, we are still seeing examples all around us today of very few people understanding the importance of living that way. That lack of understanding can also lead to people misusing the power of agape.

But I think we are seeing a slow change, because fortunately we can see so clearly, by all the evidence of the last 2,000 years, that the old historical pattern (selfish, egotistical, power-hungry, violent) produces so much destruction that it must be ended. That destructiveness cannot be stopped if people continue ignoring the realization that agape comes from God -- as God’s gift to us -- to use to create a new way of living.

When we keep agape connected with the Holy Spirit, it has a transformational quality that helps people be kind, compassionate, and charitable with everyone. Agape guided by the Holy Spirit can break down the pattern of taking revenge against enemies that mistakenly tries to overcome evil with evil.

Living that way requires a strong, lasting decision. We have to decide to let the Holy Spirit liberate our mind from the old pattern of history in order to take part in the new way of living. Only spiritual energy is powerful enough to bring about such liberation. Agape is spiritual power that opens us and liberates us when we tap into its spiritual flowing.