By Ed Vasicek on
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Bible, Theology & Philosophy
Featured Poll

Poll Results

Which word represents the richest meaning of the concept of God’s “love” in your opinion

Hesed (aka, Chesed) Votes: 4
Agape (agapao) Votes: 1
Phile (phileo) Votes: 0
Ahavot Votes: 0

(Migrated poll)

N/A
0% (0 votes)
Total votes: 0

Discussion

Fri, 11/04/11
God’s steadfast lovingkindness, his faithful mercy and love is best represented, in my opinion, by (c)hesed(h). I think that Romans 8:36-39 is a midrash on the latter part of Psalm 44, where Paul quotes vs. 22. The psalm ends with God’s hesed (steadfast love, ESV), and thus vs. 37-39 are an application of the concept of hesed in the era of the Messiah (i.e, the church age).

What are your views on which word is most potent and why?

"The Midrash Detective"

Fri, 11/04/11
As a word, chesed is much richer. It’s not the Greeks’ fault, though. There is just so much more narrative, poetry and preaching in the OT employing the Hebrew term.

Arguably, the NT usage of agape freights a whole lot of the OT chesed with it. But just looking at it sort of lexically, chesed is so wonderfully heavy.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.