I wrote a poem about this scenario. In my teens, which is the right time to be pondering such a scenario.
The final verse of said poem is:
Ni iris — laborejen. Malkontraŭ la malbeno.
We went — to the office. Un-against the un-blessing.
I’d like to think that’s still my answer. But it’s not.
At this stage of my life, there are worse things to be doing than spending 10 hours cuddling my honey.
The great Scots comedian Billy Connolly had a good strategy for this:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=a0RqqF62Xac
“THANK GOD YOU’RE HERE!
AND NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON!
YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!”
And proceed to disarm them with the shaggy dog story that ensues…
A non-theological response:
I’m grabbing all the definitions of agapaō from ἀγαπάω, DGE Diccionario Griego-Español, and highlighting those for which they give New Testament or Septuagint instances.
As you can see, there’s a fair area of coverage for the verb; theologians have tried to pin it down in a nice schema, but a concept as vague as “love” is not going to fit nicely.
A ref. to pers.
I 1 welcome with displays of affection (caress, cuddle, etc.), make an affectionate gesture Odyssey; NT.Marc .10.21 (kiss)
• of animals: to caress Plutarch
I 2 fig. Treat with great affection, pamper Xenophon
II love
1 in a relationship between a loving couple: love, caring or affection, in opposition to mere sexual desire Democritus, Plato, Anaxilaus, Aristotle, Dio Chrysostom
• in the LXX with a more general value, freq. in an erotic sense: LXX Ge .29.18, ref. the incestuous desire of Amnon towards Tamar, LXX 2 Kgs .13.1, with. different shades in the same cont. (cf. A II 3 and BI 3) LXX Os .3.1, Ca LXX .1.3, LXX Ca .1.4, LXX Ca .1.7, 3.1-4.
2 more generally: Love, appreciation, esteem mainly towards a king or important person Pindar, Isocrates, Polybius, Dio Chrysostom, Xenophon, Dio Cassius
• towards relatives, esp. children Plato, Xenophon, Dio Chrysoston, Menander LXX Pr.4.3
• esteem of friends, like Isocrates, Aristotle, Dio Chrysostom, in epistolary formulas in papyri
3 of a king or important person: to esteem, appreciate, have in their favour Democritus, Polybius
• from parents to children LXX Ge .25.28.
4 favor, sympathizing, inclination towards people Polybius, Andocides, Aeschines, Isocrates
• empathize, having affinity with Dio Chrysostom
5 of people: to have high appreciation, to liking some, to be fond of someone for their special characteristics or occupations Plato, Xenophon, Dio Chrysostom
III Religious Sense.
1 render funeral honors Euripides
2 of gods: to feel predilection, love ὅτι ἠγάπησέν σε κύριος ὁ θεός σου LXX De .23.6 , cf. Ep.Rom .8.37, Demosthenes, Dio Chrysostom
• esp. ref. to being loved by Hellenistic divinities. freq. of Oriental or Egyptian origin in papyri; Jesus Christ the much loved (by God), the beloved son, Ep.Eph .1.6 1 Ep.Clem .59.2, Dio Chryostom; Jerusalem Rev. .20.9, Inscription
• loving of man towards divinity Dio Chrysostom, cf. LXX De .6.5, 11.1, Ps .30.24, Eu.Matt.22.37 , Josephus, Julian
3 love, driven by not only a religious but philosophical or social imperative, in primitive societies Plato
• in sects or schools, e.g. those following a “Homeric” or Pythagorean life, regard for one’s teachers Plato, Chrysippus
• in Judaeo-Christian literature. LXX Le .19.18, cf. 34, Ev.Io.13.34, Eu.Matt .5.44, Eu.Luc .6.27, 35, Ign. Magn .6.2
• abstract reference to this kind of selfless love 1 Ep.Io. .3.18
• to show love Ev.Io.17.26.
B referring to a thing or action
I 1 liking to do something Odyssey, LXX. Os .12.8, Theopompus
• liking something Plato, Aeschines, Lucian
• have a habit of Aristotle
2 of possessions. Love, crave Plato, Isocrates, Demosthenes, 2 Ep.Petr .2.15
• to wish for, desire Plato, esp. OT and NT LXX Ps .39.17, 2 Ep.Ti .4.8
• with infinitive LXX Ps .33.13 1 Ep.Clem .22.2, τὸ παθεῖν desire martyrdom Ign. Tr .4.2, cf. imperial inscription
3 abstract. Love, cherish, have high price Thrasymachus, Plato, Pseudo-Archytas, Isocrates, Josephus, Xenophon LXX Si .4.12 1 Ep.Petr .3.10
• of perceptions Aristotle
II be happy, content Plato, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Antiphon, Lycurgus, Lucian, Herodian, Alciphron, Thucydides, Xenophon, Aristophanes, Lysias, Aristotle
• in comparative contexts to prefer Xenophon, Demosthenes, Ev.Io.12.43, Plutarch
So DGE identifies, specifically in the New Testament, the following nuances; and note that there’s plenty more nuances even in the Septuagint, let alone Classical literature
Can be German as Romain Bouchard said, can be English, can be Dutch (mostly as Sander (name)); Zander, Sander, and Xander are abbreviations of Alexander. Xan Fielding was born in 1919, and the oldest Xander listed under Xander was Xander Berkeley, born 1955. But the name was popularised through Xander Harris of Buffy.
As a *surname*, Zander (surname) appears to be only German.
Often, deactivated accounts are deactivated only temporarily; even if not, deactivation only means you are declining to engage with Quora any more, not that you are removing your content. If you want to truly decamp from Quora, you *delete* your account, which is a different thing.
If I deactivate my account on Quora, does it delete all the content I produced?
Untrue assumption about the Greek words for love:
There are four Greek words for love that are important for Christians to understand. They are agape, phileo, storge, and eros. Three of them appear in the Bible.
The linked page gives examples of each. Unsurprisingly, the one that does not appear is eros.
The noun agapē first arises in Koine. (In fact, the first attestations, other than as a proper name, are in the Septuagint.) But the related verb agapaō was used for 800 years before Christ, both agapē and agapaō have been used for 2000 years since Christ, and there’s nothing intrinsically Christian about agapē.
In fact, the Church definition of agapē as “self-denying, divine love” is, well, it’s an eisegesis. In reality, agapē is just unmarked love; and philia was likely the more unmarked term in Classical times. Look at ἀγάπη, DGE Diccionario Griego-Español, the latest big Greek dictionary:
May or not be a comment; but to elaborate on Peter Flom’s answer.
In Byzantium, there was no comparable ban on interest. So Jews were not the money lenders in Orthodox Christian Europe. Jews were driven to do different shit-work that Christians there wouldn’t touch.
Literally shit-work. Jews were predominantly tanners in Byzantium. Before the industrial revolution, tanning involved the use of animal dung to soften animal hides.
Hence the references in 14th century Greek vernacular poems:
Cf. Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller who visited Byzantium in the 12th century. He may have gotten a bit mixed up:
For their condition is very low, and there is much hatred against them, which is fostered by the tanners, who throw out their dirty water in the streets before the doors of the Jewish houses and defile the Jews’ quarter. So the Greeks hate the Jews, good and bad alike, and subject them to great oppression, and beat them in the streets, and in every way treat them with rigour. Yet the Jews are rich and good, kindly and charitable, and bear their lot with cheerfulness.
The tanners fostering the hatred are in fact Jewish.
Much more in Byzantine Jewry in the Mediterranean Economy, and several other sources.
Critical insight with the four-way classification of love in Koine Greek (Greek words for love): do not assume that the Greek classification was that clear cut. These are theologically useful idealisations. Like I already pointed out in Nick Nicholas’ answer to Why isn’t there a non religious equivalent of agape love?, the Diccionario Griego–Español’s definitions of agapē are:
- Sexual love, with a link to Song of Songs thank you very much. (Inb4 “no, no, there’s no sex in the Song of Songs, it’s all metaphor.)
- General sense: love, affection
- Religious sense: love between god and humanity; Christian love, charity
- a favour; alms
- agape, communal feast; funeral feast; church, community
English certainly makes a distinction between erōs and agapē, without using the word “sex”: it’s the distinction between love and “being in love”. Modern Greek speakers would translate storgē as “caring” for a child, and would just as readily speak of agapē for a child. And while Aristotle defined philia carefully as a kind of love-as-loyalty, in ancient usage it overlaps with storgē, and lovers can feel it too (hence the –philia words in English.)