My first Greek lesson

This semester I'm taking a Pauline literature course on the letters to the Corinthians and Philippians. As of this point, I've only had class once, so I don't have a whole lot to report on just yet. However, there was one quite fascinating discussion that we had last week. This has some Greek wording with it, so be warned!

There are two Greek words for love used in Paul's letters: eros and pothos. The main distinction we talked about in class was based on the subject of the love. For eros, that is the love for the beloved when the beloved is present with the lover. For pothos, it is the love for the beloved when the beloved is absent. One other Greek word that is important in this distinction is lupe, or sorrow, grief, pain.

Next, we had a bit of math thrown our way. Here is the equation my professor wrote on the board:

Pothos = eros + lupe

To translate:

Love of one who is absent is the love felt when they are present mixed with the grief and sorrow of them being absent. Another way to describe this is bittersweet love. (Or as my professor prefers to call it, sweet-bitter love.)

Many of the New Testament epistles focus on the theme of longing, which can be seen as this pothos love that Paul has for the churches and people to whom he is writing. (For example, Romans, Corinthians, Philippians, and Galations all exibit this theme of pothos longing.)

I find this rather fascinating and meaningful. As Paul longs for the church (or rather the Church), I long for my family, friends, and community at home. It is this love I've known in their presence mixed with the sorrow of not being in the presence currently. Bittersweet is a pretty accurate description of how I feel about being here at seminary most days. I love my time here, but I also am longing (pothos) for those I love back home and those spread across this country and throughout the world.

I find Greek translations and meanings like this extremely helpful for reading Scripture, as well as adding new ways for myself to express how I feel. The English word love simply does not have all the meaning and connotations that I might require it to. Eros and lupe create pothos. Perhaps my next project will be to examine where the idea of hope or promise comes into pothos. That'd be nice.

Peace and blessings. I pothos you.