Paul in Hebrew

But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 NASB

The greatest – How many times have you read this verse?  How often have you been told that love is the answer?  How frequently has Christian theology proclaimed that God’s fundamental characteristic is love?  All of these questions rely on a particular translation of Paul’s Greek term agápē.  But Paul probably wasn’t using this term in its Greek context.  He was probably using this Greek word for the more expansive Hebrew term ʾāhab the usual way Hebrew expresses all the variations found in Greek.

Satisfied that we’ve looked at this Hebrew concept, we might be tempted to say that we now know Paul meant personal, religious, and moral elements.  But maybe there’s more to it than just this.  If Paul is thinking Hebraically, he would connect the term ʾāhab with two other crucial Hebrew words, ʾemet and ḥesed.  These three are perhaps the most powerful terms describing God’s character.  Paul would hardly ignore them in a statement about love.  It seems to me that when we read Paul’s pronouncement, we must keep these Hebrew words in mind, and if Paul is reflecting a Hebrew pattern, then perhaps our idea of agápē doesn’t quite fit what Paul means.  Abraham Heschel makes a comment about the crucial nature to the Hebrew ideas about God that helps us draw a deeper conclusion:

“Love and Truth are the two ways that lead the soul out of the inner jungle.  Love offers an answer to the question of how to live.  In Truth we find an answer to the question of how to think.  This division, however, is dangerous and arbitrary.  There is love at the heart of Truth.  But is there Truth in our heart, in our love?  Significantly, ‘love’ is both a noun and a verb.  Yet ‘truth’ is never a verb . . .  It is impossible to find Truth without being in love, and it is impossible to experience love without being truthful, without living Truth.”[1]

Love, of course, in the Hebrew ʾāhab, but love as a verb of relationship could just as easily be the Hebrew term ḥesed, a term that demands a much deeper involvement with God and others.  If Paul’s version of love is the greatest of his three words, than ḥesed might be more appropriate since it is the quintessential relational word and a word that is uniquely Hebraic.  Furthermore, ḥesed is intimately connected to ʾemet (truth), as Heschel points out.  Perhaps we need to search a bit deeper into Paul’s vocabulary and see if he’s providing subtle clues about the nature of the Hebrew God.  If he is, then we should read agápē not as the typical expression of “self-sacrificing” love we find in Christian circles, but rather as one facet of a more complete term

ḥesed.  The greatest love isn’t simply the love that gives of itself.  It is the love that bonds with God, gives back to Him, reaches out to others with the same divine compassion, and motivates us to action.  Self-sacrifice is part of the equation, but only part.  And all of this, all the parts, stand on the truth of God’s commitment to His creation, ʾemet (truth), the reliability of the divine.

Topical Index:  ʾemet, ḥesed, ʾāhab, agápē, love, 1 Corinthians 13:13

[1] Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth, p. 45.