Jeremiah 31:3 · Symbol · Love
The Words Agape, Philia, Chesed and Ahavah
Ahavah and chesed in Hebrew and agape and philia in Greek are four of Scripture's words for love, with 38, 247, 114 and 1 uses as the site's lexicon counts them.
Chesed stands in all 26 verses of Psalm 136, in the refrain His loving devotion endures forever.
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.
- The word
- ἀγάπη (agape), G26
- First appears
- Matthew 24:12 “Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love…”
Summary
Scripture speaks of love with a small family of words in each of its languages. The Hebrew verb ahav and its noun ahavah name the love of people for one another and for God, and chesed names a loyal kindness. The Greek verb agapao and its noun agape carry most of the New Testament's teaching on love, and phileo names the affection of friends. The words overlap, the same word can name a holy love or a wrong one, and each is read by how its verses use it.
- Ahav (H157) is the Hebrew verb to love, the verb of the command to love the LORD in Deuteronomy 6:5, and ahavah (H160) is its noun.
- Chesed (H2617) is a loyal kindness, which the Berean text renders loving devotion, kindness or mercy.
- Agapao (G25) and agape (G26) name God's love, the love He commands and also love set on the wrong things.
- Phileo (G5368) means to love as a friend and also to kiss, and John uses it beside agapao for the Father's love of the Son.
- The New Testament has no noun storge and never uses eros, two of the Greek names C. S. Lewis gave to his four loves.
Love in Hebrew and Greek
Abraham's love for Isaac and Jesus' command to love the neighbour show the verbs ahav and agapao at work.
The English word love stands for several Hebrew and Greek words in Scripture. A reader of the Berean text meets love in Deuteronomy, Hosea, John and 1 John without seeing which word lies under it. The difference can matter, as it does in Peter's three answers on the shore in John 21.
These words carry the value of love from the Law to the letters of John, so the way the writers used them shows what Scripture means by love. This word study answers one question: what do the four words of its title mean, and where do they stand? It maps where each word stands and follows the Hebrew words from Genesis to Micah. It then gives four cautions for reading them, turns to storge and eros, and sets out the two old readings of the verbs in John 21.
“Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”The form is ahavta, you love, a perfect of ahav, in the same command that tells Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’The form is agapeseis, you shall love, a future of agapao, and in the next verse Jesus extends the command to enemies.
Where the Words Stand
Seven words, three Hebrew and four Greek, stand 779 times between them.
The Psalms hold the most uses of ahav and chesed, John and 1 John the most of agapao and agape, and philia stands in one verse.
| Word | Sense in the lexicon | Uses | Books with the most uses | First use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | ||||
| ahav, אָהַב, H157 | to love, lover | 211 | Psalms 39, Proverbs 27, Deuteronomy 22, Hosea 16; 28 books in all | Genesis 22:2, whom you love |
| ahavah, אַהֲבָה, H160 | love | 38 | Song of Solomon 11, Proverbs 5; 14 books in all | Genesis 29:20, his love for her |
| chesed, חֶסֶד, H2617 | kindness | 247 | Psalms 127, 2 Samuel 12, Genesis 11, Proverbs 11; 28 books in all | Genesis 19:19, great kindness |
| Greek | ||||
| agapao, ἀγαπάω, G25 | to love | 143 | John 37, 1 John 28, Luke 13, Ephesians 10; 22 books in all | Matthew 5:43, Love your neighbor |
| agape, ἀγάπη, G26 | love | 114 | 1 John 18, 1 Corinthians 14, Ephesians 10, Romans 9; 24 books in all | Matthew 24:12, the love of most |
| phileo, φιλέω, G5368 | to love | 25 | John 13, Matthew 5; 7 books in all | Matthew 6:5, they love to pray |
| philia, φιλία, G5373 | friendship | 1 | James 1 | James 4:4, friendship with the world |
agape, ἀγάπη, G26, phileo, φιλέω, G5368, philia, φιλία, G5373
Ahav, Ahavah and Chesed Through the Old Testament
Seven verses from Deuteronomy to Micah show the Hebrew words in a command, a blessing, a covenant, a song and the prophets.
Jeremiah records three of the words in one line of the LORD's speech. The noun ahavah stands in ahavat olam, an everlasting love, and the verb ahav in ahavtikh, I have loved you, and chesed closes the line.
THE COMMAND TO LOVE THE LORD
Moses commands Israel with ve-ahavta, and you shall love, the same form that commands love of the neighbour in Leviticus 19:18.
KINDNESS TO THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
Naomi asks the LORD to show her daughters-in-law the chesed they had shown to their dead and to her, and the Berean text has loving devotion.
JONATHAN'S COVENANT
Jonathan made his covenant with David be-ahavato, in his love, and the Berean text renders the noun because he loved him.
LOVE STRONG AS DEATH
The Song of Solomon holds 11 of the 38 uses of ahavah. This verse has two of them, the love mighty waters cannot quench and the love all the wealth of a house could not buy.
FOUR FORMS IN ONE COMMAND
The LORD's command to Hosea holds ehav, love, ahuvat, loved, and ke-ahavat, as the LORD loves, with ohavei, loving, which the Berean text renders offer in the line on raisin cakes.
ROPES OF LOVE
The LORD says He led Israel with ropes of love, and the noun is ahavah.
TO LOVE MERCY
Micah joins ahav and chesed in ve-ahavat chesed, to love mercy in the Berean text.
Jonathan's covenant, Love strong as death, Four forms in one command, Ropes of love, To love mercy
Chesed's range in the lexiconsH2617
The site's lexicon glosses chesed as kindness and gives it a second and rare sense, shame, which stands in Leviticus 20:17 and Proverbs 14:34, where the Berean text reads disgrace. Strong's dictionary of 1890 gives its range as kindness, by implication piety toward God, and rarely reproof.
Four Cautions in Reading the Words
Four points the lexicons and the Greek text settle about reading the words for love.
Agapao and ahavah for misplaced loveG25 and H160
Agapao names God's love and the love God commands, and it also names love set on the wrong thing. The Pharisees love the chief seats in the synagogues (Luke 11:43), men loved the darkness rather than the Light (John 3:19), and Demas deserted Paul in his love of this world (2 Timothy 4:10). Strong's gives ahavah as affection in a good or a bad sense. The object of a love, and the verse it stands in, show whether the love is holy.
Phileo, to love and to kissG5368
The lexicon gives phileo two senses, to love and to kiss, and Strong's adds that the kiss is a mark of tenderness. Judas uses the verb for the signal of the betrayal: "The One I kiss is the man; arrest Him" (Matthew 26:48).
The article in God is love1 John 4:8 and 4:16
In 1 John 4:8 and 4:16 the Greek reads ho theos agape estin, with the article on God and none on love. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown drew the consequence in their commentary of 1871: "There is no Greek article to love, but to God; therefore we cannot translate, Love is God."
Strong's numbers and the standard lexiconsStrong's and Abbott-Smith
Strong's numbers are an index that ties an English word to its Hebrew or Greek word, and the short definitions beside them date from 1890. The glosses in the site's lexicon come from the STEP Bible lexicons of Tyndale House, and the Greek one is a brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922).
The Neighbouring Words
Five more words stand beside the four: two Hebrew words of compassion and three Greek compounds of phil-.
racham, the verb, רָחַם
to have compassion; 47 uses
racham, the noun, רַחַם
womb; 45 uses
philadelphia, φιλαδελφία
brotherly love; 6 uses
philadelphos, φιλάδελφος
loving the brothers; 1 use
philanthropia, φιλανθρωπία
benevolence; 2 uses
The lexicon in full1 table or figure, 2 verses
Racham, the womb and compassionH7355 and H7356
by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb.Jacob's blessing on Joseph ends with the noun racham in its first sense, the womb.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.The verb racham stands twice, first for a father's compassion on his children and then for the LORD's on those who fear Him.
Five more words of love and kindness2 Hebrew and 3 Greek
A table of five words, two Hebrew and three Greek, each with its sense and count from the site's lexicon, its range in Strong's dictionary of 1890, and the verses where it stands.
| Word | Sense and uses | Range in Strong's | Verses |
|---|---|---|---|
| racham, the verb, רָחַם, H7355 | to have compassion; 47 uses | to fondle; by implication, to love, especially to compassionate | Psalm 103:13, twice; Isaiah 49:15; Hosea 1:6, in the name Lo-ruhamah |
| racham, the noun, רַחַם, H7356 | womb; 45 uses | compassion (in the plural); by extension, the womb | Genesis 49:25, womb; Genesis 43:14, mercy |
| philadelphia, φιλαδελφία, G5360 | brotherly love; 6 uses | fraternal affection | Romans 12:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; Hebrews 13:1; 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Peter 1:7, twice |
| philadelphos, φιλάδελφος, G5361 | loving the brothers; 1 use | fond of brethren, i.e. fraternal | 1 Peter 3:8, love as brothers |
| philanthropia, φιλανθρωπία, G5363 | benevolence; 2 uses | fondness of mankind, i.e. benevolence | Acts 28:2, extraordinary kindness; Titus 3:4, His love for mankind |
Storge and Eros
Paul uses philostorgos once, in Romans 12:10, and astorgos twice, in Romans 1:31 and 2 Timothy 3:3.
The site's lexicon has no entry for the noun storge or for eros, so storge stands in the New Testament only inside these two adjectives. Richard Chenevix Trench observed in his Synonyms of the New Testament that eros and two words of its family "never occur in the New Testament".
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.Paul sets philadelphia, brotherly love, beside philostorgos, which the Berean text renders devoted.
unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,The first word of the verse is astorgoi, which the Berean text renders unloving.
The four loves of C. S. LewisC. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis's The Four Loves (1960) has four chapters on the loves, titled Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity. He gives the first its Greek name, "The Greeks called this love storge", and he writes of friendship as "that Philia which Aristotle classified among the virtues". The four loves are Lewis's arrangement of human love.
Agapao and Phileo on the Shore
In the Greek of John 21:15 to 17 every answer Peter gives uses a form of phileo.
When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.” Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus told him, “Shepherd My sheep.” Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.The Berean text reads love in every question and answer; the Greek has agapas in the first two questions and phileis in the third.
Two verbs, and the change deliberateRichard Chenevix Trench; Adam Clarke
Richard Chenevix Trench, in Synonyms of the New Testament (section xii, 1871 edition), held the two verbs distinct and wrote that the alternations of John 21:15 to 17 "are singularly instructive". To Peter the first question's agapao "sounds too cold; not sufficiently expressing the warmth of his personal affection", so "He therefore in his answer substitutes for it the word of a more personal love". At the third question "now at length he has conquered", since Jesus asks with "the word which Peter feels will alone express all that is in his heart".
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible (1832), also held the verbs distinct and ranked them the other way. He gave agapao as the verb that "signifies to love affectionately, ardently, supremely, perfectly" and phileo as the verb that "signifies to love, to like, to regard, to feel friendship for another".
The objection: the two holders of this reading disagree on which verb is the warmer, Trench naming phileo and Clarke agapao, so the distinction does not settle what the change means.
One love said in two verbsAugustine of Hippo
Augustine, in Tractate 123 on the Gospel of John, wrote that the scene shows "that love and liking are one and the same thing". His Latin Bible rendered the two Greek verbs with diligo and amo, and he reasoned from the third question: "for the Lord also in the last question said not Diligis me? but, Amas me?"
The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands.John writes agapa, a form of agapao, for the Father's love of the Son.
The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.John writes philei, a form of phileo, for the same love, and the Berean text renders both verses alike.
The objection: John repeats the question in nearly the same words, and readers of the first position hold that a writer who alters one word inside such a repetition means something by it.
The word page for phileo, Strong's G5368, gives its own reading of the scene.
Books to Read Next
Four works on the words for love, three of them free to read in full.
Synonyms of the New Testament
Richard Chenevix Trench · 1871
Section xii sets agapao beside phileo and reads the three questions of John 21:15 to 17.
Read on archive.orgA Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament
G. Abbott-Smith · 1922
Its entries give each Greek word's senses with their New Testament verses, among them the love feasts of Jude 12.
Read on archive.orgThe Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
James Strong · 1890
Its brief dictionaries give the range of ahav, ahavah and chesed and the line Strong drew between phileo and agapao.
Read on archive.orgThe Four Loves
C. S. Lewis · 1960
Its chapters on affection, friendship, eros and charity set out the four loves of its title.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
The Love That Came First
1 John 4:19 holds two forms of agapao, agapomen, we love, and egapesen, He loved.
The tagged Greek text marks agapomen as a present and egapesen as an aorist, and between them John sets protos, first.
We love because He first loved us.John names the love God showed first as the cause of the love His people return.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG glosses (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922), with the Strong's definitions (1890) the rows carry.
- The word-by-word morphology of the Hebrew and Greek text in the site's database.
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, with brief dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original (1890)
- Richard Chenevix Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, section xii (New York: Charles Scribner, 1871, from the third London edition), pages 68 to 70.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on John 21:15.
- Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 123.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on 1 John 4:8.
- C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960), the contents and pages 42 and 69.
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