If you want to interpret the Bible correctly, here are two errors to avoid. One is word studies that do not consider all the information on a word. The second is using etymology to give a word a new meaning.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I care about properly interpreting the Bible. There’s no guarantee that you or I will do that perfectly. I’m hoping for an in-depth Bible study on the new Earth by the authors of the biblical texts. It won’t surprise you that interpreting the Bible depends upon words, and those words are in sentences.

Sentences and paragraphs are where you go to establish meaning. Everything has a context.

Verses should not be interpreted based upon one word. The exception to that applies to one-word sentences like the Aramaic word, Maranatha, “Come Lord” (1 Cor 16:22).   Studying words is a worthwhile and helpful approach to interpreting the Bible better.

You need to be wise about the sources of your information. I don’t trust assertions by preachers about the meaning of a word, when they have not had college education on the Bible or studied Hebrew and Greek. That doesn’t mean they have to be expert. However, they need to use the tools created by experts, such as lexicons and Bible dictionaries.

Danger 1: When Someone Claims Some Word in Hebrew or Greek Means XYZ

How many times have you heard a preacher say something like this:

“There are three Greek words for love: eros, phileo, and agape. Agape is God’s unconditional love for us.”

Are dictionaries and commentaries too hard to understand?

 I have heard this a few times, and it’s misleading. This usually comes from someone not using academic tools. Refrain from thinking, “All that stuff from scholars is hard to understand and they are all non-Christian liberals anyway.” I’ve heard both attitudes expressed. The first I don’t understand because it came from a person who works at JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

I grant that some tools do require significant training. I would not ask people at a Bible study to buy a commentary on the Greek text of Galatians. Other tools, however, like dictionaries and most commentaries, should be accessible and readable by most avid readers.

I personally know several biblical scholars who are committed Christians. They are definitely not all liberal.

They don’t call it “Bible study” for nothing. It can require work on your part to gain information and look up words. I’ll talk about resources in another post. What you need to avoid is Bubba Joe’s commentary on Romans, when Bubba never went to college. There are things you need to learn to help you read Romans well.

I’m not looking down my nose at anyone. At my conversion, I was given a copy of Good News for Modern Man. I didn’t know anything about biblical languages, geography of the Bible lands, historical background or anything. I still gained from reading that paraphrase. However, I really needed help on what was not obvious. I fully believe that the Holy Spirit helped me learn about God from that Bible without any of my degrees. However, this is step one. You can grow your understanding of the Bible better with some study. If it helps, no one alive can honestly claim to understand the entire Bible. There is too much we don’t know. So, understanding everything isn’t a realistic goal. An excellent goal for all of us is to learn more, at whatever point we are at. There’s much more that I want to learn.

Commentaries by pastors and others often offer application content. They make statements because that’s what they think or they once heard a preacher on the radio say it. That does not necessarily make it bad. Matthew Henry taught himself Greek and Hebrew.

Plus, knowing Hebrew and Greek is very helpful, but it’s not magic. It doesn’t resolve all questions. I encourage you to learn more, but depend upon the Holy Spirit at whatever your Bible knowledge level is.

Back to Words for Love

The statement that there are three words for love in Greek leads to misinterpretation of the Bible. First, eros is not used in the New Testament. Period. Yes, it can refer to erotic love. However, the apostle Paul uses words like desire or lust, and names specific sexual acts that are condemned in Scripture.  He does not use eros.

Phileo

Phileo is not a noun or a word for love. It is a verb. If the preacher says that it is something, it is a red flag that the preacher does not know basic Greek. I consider that a problem. Imagine that I am going to tell you about fishing and make declarations like, “There are three kinds of fishing.”

I have not fished since I was about fourteen. So I don’t have any real basis to talk about fishing. My dad took me surf fishing a time or two. What I learned from that is that the mussels on the pier pylons make good fish bait. I can’t get over restaurants charging $20 for a plate of fish bait.

Even as I am no expert on fishing, when the pastor says that there are three words for love, including phileo, he or she lacks basic Greek knowledge and should not be saying anything about the Greek text.

Philia is a noun for love. This word can refer to friendship or love. You’ve doubtless heard of Philadelphia. It’s the “city of brotherly love.” There’s also philosophy, which is the love of wisdom. Maybe you have a friend or two who is into philosophy.

Philia, the noun, is used once in the New Testament: James 4:4:

“Adulteresses, do you not know that philia, friendship with the world is enmity (hostile feelings and actions) toward God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world is made an enemy of God.”  
Philia is not used here in a positive sense.

The Greek verb agapao is far more common. We find this verb often in John’s Gospel. You’ve probably heard a sermon illustration from Jesus’ question to Peter, “Simon, son of John do you love agapao me more than these?”  Peter replies that, “Yes, Lord. You know that I love (phileo) you.” In 21:16, we see Jesus asking Peter again, “Do you love (agapao) me?” Peter replies that, “Yes, Lord. You know that I love (phileo) you.” In 21:17, Jesus asks the same question, but uses phileo.

A common sermon illustration is that Jesus asks for Peter’s unconditional love, but Peter only offers friendship love. Wait a minute, however. How does John’s Gospel use these two verbs?

Phileo and Agapao/agape in John’s Gospel

John observed that many religious leaders believed in Jesus, but did not say anything like that because they did not want to get banned from the synagogue, “for they loved (agapao) honor from people more than honor from God” (John 12:43). That’s not what we think of as agape. But wait, there’s more.

On the one hand, the greatest commandment Deut 65, quoted by Jesus is, “ You shall love (agapao) Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind (Luke 10:27).

On the other hand, the Song of Songs uses agape in a very different sense. The man says, “How beautiful and how delightful you are, my love (agape), with all your charms! Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters” (Song7:6-7 NASB). Then, in a context still referring to physical love, the Song of Songs says, “Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For agape is as strong as death…” (Song 8:6 NASB).

Many want to read the Song of Songs as an allegory of Christ and the church. In the references to the woman’s breasts,  Martin Luther said these are an allegory of the Law of Moses and gospel of Christ. Charles Spurgeon offered devotional thoughts that the present the Song as an allegory.  If you read the Song of Songs slowly and carefully as love poetry, you will not get that idea. For more on allegorical interpretations, see:

https://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_song1_tanner.html#gsc.tab=0 . As an aside, guys, I don’t suppose your wife or girlfriend would appreicate you describing her the way the Song of Songs does the woman. A neck like a tower? Teeth like sheep?

The rabbis near the time of Jesus debated whether the Song of Songs, due to its content, even belonged in the Bible. As you read it, consider whether each mention of love points to God’s unconditional love. I don’t think so. I think interpreters simply can’t accept erotic love poetry in the Bible. I think that’s nice, but I don’t think that’s what the love in the Song of Songs is about.

So agape and agapao don’t mean solely the unconditional love of God shown at the cross, as in Romans 5:1-11.

 
All the biblical words for love were in use before Jesus was born. Agape wasn’t that common. The verb phileo was very common. There isn’t a Greek word that means God’s unconditional love. However, early Christians took agape and gave it a new sense, because this is how the Old Testament in passages like Deuteronomy 6:5 and Isaiah 43:4 use it.

Even native Greek speakers in Paul’s day got words wrong. When Paul preached about the anastsis, “resurrection,” his audience thought he meant that Anastasis was the consort of Jesus (Acrs 17:18). That was because Greeks denied the possibility of resurrection.

Doing Word Studies Well

You need to be careful when doing word studies. Consider the underlying words and how they are used in the Bible. Even reading in only English, the word “love” is about as flexible as it is for us. I love God. I love my wife. I love Dr. Pepper. I love riding my Trek Madone road bike. These uses of love have different connotations. Be careful when doing word studies to consider the context of each use of your word. Don’t leave any data out.

Danger 2: Word Studies and Etymology

 One has to beware another common error: using etymology to know what a word means. Etymology is the study of the source of a word and how they have been used over time. I’ve lived long enough for “bad” to mean bad. Then, “bad” meant good in the 1970’s. Now “bad” means bad again. See also the use of “heavy” in “Back to the Future.”

The etymology of a word is often used in sermons and Bible study materials to create special meanings. For example, the Greek word for “church” is ekklesia. This word is made up of two parts. Ek is a preposition that means from or out of. The word klesia is from the word Kaleo, O call. So, you could propose that the church is the “called out ones.” However, it is never used that way.  

Consider the word “church,” the translation of the Greek word ekklesia.  In its earliest uses, ekklesia means an assembly of the citizens of a city, usually to vote on some matter or reach a legal decision. It  had nothing to do with religious gatherings. The Greek Old Testament uses the word to refer to the congregation of Israel. So, when you use the word, it is a gathering of believers. That means that you cannot go to church, because you and others who come are the church. The church is never a building in the Bible.

What about Apostasy?

That’s not a really big deal, but I have heard worse uses of etymology. In my New Testament survey class, we got to 2 Thessalonians. In 2 Thess 2:3, Paul states that the day of the Lord won’t come until the apostasia occurs. You can probably guess that this word came into English as apostasy. This word was firmly in place in Paul’s day. It meant rebellion, abandonment, or breach of faith. However, the professor took the word apart. Apo is a Greek preposition that means, “from.” Stasia comes from stasis, which means standing.

The professor therefore said that apostasia, means, “from standing.” He put a book on the desk and showed that a book can go from standing by falling over or being picked up. The Rapture will pick up believers. Therefore, he argued, this could mean that the church must be raptured before the day of the Lord.

I won’t talk about the Rapture. I will point out that the word apostasia was never used by any Christians that way. It always meant falling away or adopting false droctrines. How could they mean “rapture”? The Rapture was first proposed by J. N. Darby in the 19^th century.

Sometimes, when you encounter a word with an uncertain meaning, taking the word apart this way may be necessary. However, if it already had an established use, it should not be taken apart to get a new meaning.

Interpreting the Bible Wisely

Wow! That’s a lot of detail.  Not to worry. You need not know Hebrew or Greek to interpret the Bible properly. If you do not know Greek or Hebrew, you are not out of luck. There are several study Bibles that provide helpful information for interpreting Scripture.

 Generally, a committee  of scholars make these. I was on one such committee. That keeps the translation from being only one person’s personal view, like the Scofield or John MacArthur Bible. These present the views of those two people, not of a trained team of biblical scholars. Good tools can help you. Beware, however, of Bible translations done by  one person.

Such translations are not based upon research in academic literature, but the opinions of the person who wrote the notes. This contrasts significantly with, say, the NIV Study Bible. I have one of those. It has a ton of notes, so many that if I wanted to do bicep curls, I could use it. Seriously, however, you would do well to avoid any study Bible  with notes done by one person. Personally, I thought the Bible was God’s word, not the viewpoint of one person. I don’t have the arrogance to want to have a Kenneth Litwak version.

I’ve touched on several points here. Please feel free to post comments or questions on this blog post. If you found this post helpful, please share it with someone else. It would also be a great to help to me if you would subscribe to my mailing list, at kennethduncanlitwak.com.  I’ll never sell your email address. I need to build my email list for a publisher to take seriously my book proposal for a book about praying Scripture. Thank you.