The Beginning

There’s a famous song that goes “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”¹ But what is the beginning? How do you know when you’re there? Sometimes it’s obvious; you begin to read a book when you open it. Other times, the beginning is more ambiguous; does a romantic relationship begin with the first date, at a certain dating milestone, or when the couple agrees to be exclusive? With the Bible, one might argue that the beginning is Genesis; it’s the first book of the Bible, and details the creation of the world we live in. However, while that is a perfectly valid view, I’m not certain that is where a blog about the Bible should begin.

There is an argument to be made that God loved us before time began, therefore God’s love is the real beginning of everything. The Bible states that “[God] chose us in him before the foundation of the world;”² Jesus says “‘you loved me before the foundation of the world,’”³ and the love that God has for Him is linked to His love for believers. There is also a verse that references grace given to us “before the ages began.”⁴ If we were loved, chosen, and given grace before the beginning of creation, surely that is the real beginning?

Another reason is more personal. I believe that love is central to understanding who God is, the Bible itself, and how we’re meant to live our lives; without an accurate understanding of love, you’re missing an important piece of the puzzle, which prevents you from seeing the whole picture. Jesus Himself attests to the primacy of love. When asked what the greatest commandment is, He responds “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”⁵ And perhaps the most famous Bible verse is about love: ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”⁶ Since love is so prominent a theme in Scripture, it seems like a good starting point.

There are any number of verses I could start with, and good reasons for starting with each one, but again, I don’t think any of them are where we should begin. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew (most of the Old Testament) and Greek (the New Testament); both languages have multiple words for love, each with their own unique meaning that impacts the passages they are used in. Therefore, to understand the Biblical concept of love, the best place to start is with these words and their definitions. In this introductory post, we will examine three Hebrew words that are commonly used to refer to love; subsequent posts will refer to Old Testament texts, and we will save the Greek words for when we are ready to examine the New Testament.

Why am I taking this approach, instead of explaining all of the words at once? There are two reasons for this. The first is that I do not want to overwhelm my readers with too much information all at once; the second is that I want the information about each language and its vocabulary to be fresh in your mind when you examine the relevant texts. This is the approach my professors took at Seminary, and I found it very effective in helping me learn.

There are a few things you should know before we begin. First, the alphabet is completely different from the English alphabet; for this reason, while I will provide the Hebrew words, I will transliterate, or write them in the closest corresponding letters in English. Second, Hebrew is read from right to left, and what appears to be the last letter of a word is actually the first. Third, the Hebrew alphabet is full of consonants; the accompanying vowels are the little symbols that appear underneath the consonants. Finally, while I have studied Hebrew, I am far from fluent and definitely not an expert. I have done a fair amount of research, but I do not claim to have a perfect or complete understanding.

The first Hebrew term is the root word אהב, which I will transliterate to ahv. The ahv word family refers to a wide variety of emotions, from lust to romance to friendship.⁷ The verb אָהַב(ahav) encompasses everything from God’s love for righteous people, to a person’s love for friends and family, to passion and lust.⁸ The verb  אָהֵב (ahev) is frequently used to refer to adulterous relationships,⁹ but can also refer to a purer kind of love, such as between family members or friends, as well as for inanimate objects or intangible concepts.¹⁰

The second Hebrew root word that is often translated as love is חסד, which I will transliterate to hsd. The hsd family is more difficult to translate, as there is more nuance to its meaning. The verb חֶסֶד (hesed) is often translated as “love,” but that single word does not do justice to the Hebrew word, which is why many translations use a phrase such as “loving-kindness” or “steadfast love” instead. Hesed refers to a faithful, compassionate love that never fails.¹¹ I like to refer to hesed as love in action; compassion towards someone is usually accompanied by doing something for them to meet a need, such as providing food for the hungry.

The third Hebrew root word we will examine is רחם, which I will transliterate to rchm. Rchm is related to the Hebrew word for womb, and thus refers to a mother-like love.¹² רָחַם (racham) is the main verb in this word family, and is identified with both compassion¹³ and mercy.¹⁴ It is similar to hesed but, along with being a specifically parental kind of love, racham lacks the connotations of steadfastness and permanence that accompany hesed.

I could go on and on about these words, but this brief summary seems a sufficient foundation for an exploration of the Old Testament. The next few posts will examine different texts that discuss love, which Hebrew word or words are used, and how they impact the meaning of the passage.

1. “Do-Re-Mi,” The Sound of Music ↩︎
2. Ephesians 1:4, ESV; all Bible verses quoted in this post will be from the ESV unless otherwise stated. ↩︎
3. John 17:24 ↩︎
4. 2 Timothy 1:9 ↩︎
5. Matthew 22:37-39 ↩︎
6. John 3:16 ↩︎
7. John C. Peckham, The Love of God: A Canonical Model. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015), 77. ↩︎
8. Siegfried H. Horn, Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Dictionary. (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1960), 663. ↩︎
9. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, and Bruce K. Waltke. TWOT. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981), 14. ↩︎
10. Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and C.A. Briggs. “אהב,” in The BDB. (Peabody, Ma: Hendrickson, 2003), 13. ↩︎
11. Henry W. Holloman, “Lovingkindness,” in Kregel Dictionary of the Bible and Theology. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 305. ↩︎
12. John C. Peckham, The Love of God: A Canonical Model. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015), 86. ↩︎
13. Henry W. Holloman, “Compassion,” in Kregel Dictionary of the Bible and Theology. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 77. ↩︎
14. Henry W. Holloman, “Mercy,” in Kregel Dictionary of the Bible and Theology. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 315. ↩︎