Page 65 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible revised

Sometimes there is no match between languages. Example, love in English Language.

There is no unambiguous one-to-one correspondence between two languages, especially in the
idiomatic sense (real meaning). Vocabulary can also be difficult if not, at times, impossible to yield
appropriate receptor words. There are four different words for love in Greek while the English language
offers only one - love. STERGEIN is rooted in one's own nature. ERAN is the love of passion and sex.
PHILEIN is based on a pleasurable response from something. AGAPAN is a love that is evoked from a
sense of value found in an object which causes one to highly prize that object. English is unprepared to
adequately reproduce these shades of meaning.

Stergein is rooted in obligatory affection for objects of similar nature. It is the natural affection that
human parents have for their children and similarly, the protective devotion of animals for their
offspring. This word is not found in its root form in the Greek New Testament but does appear twice
with an “alpha” prefix which negates the original meaning. Thus, “unnatural affection” is the usual
translation of Romans 1:31 and 2 Timothy 3:3. It is also found with PHILEIN in Romans 12:10 to produce
a compound meaning “kindly affection.” Stergein is obligatory love.

Eran is not found in the Greek New Testament in any word variant. It was used by pagan writers to
describe sexual passion, the dynamic enveloping of the conscious mind, to the near disregard of
surroundings. Eran is passionate love.

Philein is used about forty times and is the pleasure love that returns from a person or object. It is often
a very normal, “unimpassioned” friendship of one person for another. For example, put two motorcycle
riders in the same room at some event and when they discover their mutual interest, they will most
likely be lost in their own private world of conversation about chrome and rubber. Put two graduates of
the same college in the same workplace and they will develop a unique friendship because of the
pleasurable memories of life at that college. In each situation, the affection developed because of
pleasure, in spite of no other commonality. In the first case, it was the PLEASURE of motorcycles: the
roar of hot exhaust, the danger of taking curves too fast, the brilliance of polished chrome, the thrill of
aerated freedom that drew these riders together. Philein is a pleasure responsive love (not a love for
pleasure).

Agapan is used in its verb, noun, and adjective forms over three hundred times. It is evoked by an
“awakened sense” of value for a person or object. Agapan goes beyond the pleasurable response of
Philein to recognize the “precious value” in something. In contrasting Philein and Agapan, the former is a
love of pleasure and the latter is a love of esteem; the former takes pleasure in and the latter gives value
to; the former delights in receiving while the latter excels in giving. Agapan was used grudgingly by
secular writers during the Greek Classical period and use of the noun form, Agapesis, was rare. This was
true, perhaps, because the human condition did not frequently share in this type of love, plus the other
three encompassed the whole human experience (Stergein-Obligation, Eran-Passion, Philein-Affection).
Here was a word, nearly dormant, waiting for something to give it prominence, and that happened with
the telling of God's love for people through His “esteem” for us. Imputed love is that love that we did
not deserve. Agapan possessed the necessary concept to fully expound the love of God. Agapan was
made for biblical writers. Agapan is God's merciful esteem for us.

Sometimes the word order in one language does not match the word order in the other.

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