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From: mls@panix.com (Michael Siemon)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: eros in LXX: concluding lexicographic note
Message-ID: <May.18.00.55.59.1993.9602@geneva.rutgers.edu>
Date: 18 May 93 04:56:00 GMT
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This might be better directed to s.r.c.bible-study, which I have begun
reading, but since my earlier notes were posted to this forum, I will
conclude here as well.  A week ago, I managed to find time to consult
a Septuagint Concordance and a LXX text with apparatus at the library,
and I can now usefully conclude my look at the Greek words for love as
used in the Christian background of the Septuagintal translation of the
Jewish scriptures.

The principal result is that there is a cluster of uses of the verbal
noun from _erao:_, _eraste:s_ meaning "lover."  This cluster occurs just
where one might most expect it, in the propethic image (and accusation)
of Israel as faithless spouse to YHWH.  The verses in question are Hosea
2:5,7 & 10; Jeremiah 4:30, 22:20 & 22; Lamentations 1:19; and Ezekiel
16:33, 36 &37 and 23:5, 9 & 22.

	[ Hosea seems to have originated this usage, which Jeremiah and
	  Ezekiel picked up;  Lamentations is dependent on, though not
	  likely written by, Jeremiah. ]

The "erotic" meaning (in its allegorical use, not at all literally) is
evident.  So too in English, unless you complement it with a phrase like
"of the arts" the word "lover" is going to have an overtone of sexual
relationship.  There is no surprise here, but it is worthwhile to see
that standard Greek usage *does* show up in the translations from the
Hebrew! :-)

More interestingly, and some confirmation of my guess that later Koine
usage avoided the verb _erao:_ because of its homonymy to _ero:_ (say),
_eromai_ (ask), there is an error in Codex Vaticanus (normally, a very
valuable witness) where a form of _erao:_ is used in a completely absurd
context -- 2 Samuel 20:18, where the  meaning *must* be "say."

In addition to the above (and the uses I have already mentioned in Proverbs),
Esther 2:17 uses the verb in its most natural application, 

	kai e:rasthe" ho basileus Esthe:r  --  and the King loved Esther

and, rather more interestingly, 1 Samuel 19:2 supplies a modest degree of
support to the gay appraisal of the relationship of David and Jonathan:

	kai Io:nathan huios Saoul e:[i]reito ton Dauid sphodra
	-- and Jonathan, Saul's son, loved David intensely

	[ I'm using the bracketed [i] for io:ta subscript, which I
	  don't yet have a reasonable ASCII convention for. ]

(The relevance of this to the gay issue is not anything implicit about
the "historical" facts, but just that a quasi-official translation of
the Hebrew text in the Hellenistic period makes no bones about using the
"erotic" verb in this context.  Given the quite general usage of _agapao:_
for erotic senses, this need not mean anything "more" than _agapao:_ alone
would mean, but it DOES disambiguate the relationship, as far as this
translator goes!)
-- 
Michael L. Siemon		I say "You are gods, sons of the
mls@panix.com			Most High, all of you; nevertheless
    - or -			you shall die like men, and fall
mls@ulysses.att..com		like any prince."   Psalm 82:6-7
