Agape and Hesed-Ahava. David L. GoicoecheaЧитать онлайн книгу.
New Testament Jesus is seen as the son
of David and his kingdom of love or agape
is seen as the fulfillment of this kingdom of hesed.
Matthew sees Jesus’ altruistic agape as extending
this hesed to the entire human family and
the followers of Jesus are to be missionaries
who bring the Good News of God’s love to everyone.
This promise makes sense of suffering, which
can be seen as punishment bringing us to God.
Ahava is quite different from hesed
as we see in Deuteronomy 6:5
Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God is the one,
the only Yahweh. You must love Yahweh
your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength.
Ahava is very different from hesed in that
hesed is a duty to do good to the other whereas
ahava is a felt desire to be with and is
what we mean by the various kinds of love
such as affection, friendship, eros, and agape.
The root ahava is used well over 200 times
in the Hebrew Bible and is an emotional feeling
that is contrasted with any sort of hatred.
Ahava has to do with our love for God
and our love for our neighbor and thus
ahava is the source of the Jewish ethics.
The Song of Songs gives a beautiful description
of ahava in which each image expresses
a quality of ahava and its lovely love,
for his banner over me is ahava
and I am sick with ahava
for Ahava is stronger than death
and many waters cannot quench ahava
for Yahweh’s conversation is sweetness itself
and we belong to each other
and my love’s desire is for me
and all my desire is for him.
So hesed is a promise of love from God
if we do our duty to him and others.
Ahava is the yearning to be close to
and a love for each other with our very veryness.
As we can see in the Psalms there is
a variety of ways to understand hesed
and ahava for in Psalm 5 we wonder
if hesed is primarily God’s love for man
and in Psalm 69 it is indicated that
we must love our neighbor with hesed.
Psalm 119 tells us
that we come to see God’s ahava for us
which he shows us with his hesed.
So in the Psalms these terms get
opposite meanings and in the prophet Hosea
that opposite usage is very evident,
for according to Hosea
Yahweh has ahava for Israel
and she should have
a responsible hesed to him.
She goes a whoring with a false ahava
but God’s Davidic hesed will save her.
For even though Israel betray ahava
and then betray hesed
Yahweh’s hesed will bring her back to Ahava.
This last statement seems to be
an excellent understanding of hesed and ahava
but what goes before seems confused.
In any case the Hebrew view is that
because God first loved the Jews they
are God’s chosen people and they will
be able to love God and each other.
And if they do not God will be merciful
and bring them even through punishment to love.
As we ponder how the agape of Matthew’s Jesus
will fulfill the hesed and ahava of the Jews
we might in general terms think of Ahava
as belonging to the Mosaic covenant theology
and hesed as belonging to the Davidic
promise theology with its emphasis on duty.
The command to love with Ahava tells us
that we should have as our main task
to nourish a loving heart that can feel
great affection for God and for our neighbor.
God’s promise of an everlasting hesed to David
can be associated with his grace
that will help us to grow in piety and do
the right thing and if not we will be punished.
But that punishment is a type of grace itself
and it can help David and the children of David
do their duty and be loyal to Yahweh.
The Hasidic Jew who is faithful to
the covenant will go beyond what
the law requires and strive to be selfless.
The promise to David shows an
unconditional loyalty of God’s hesed
toward the family of David forever.
Agape’s traits of eternal love and
unconditional love are already there
in hesed and it is this Davidic promise,
which is given to Abraham, that
he will have land, nation, and name.
And in the Davidic promise of hesed there
is even something of universal love,
for Abraham is promised that his name
will be a blessing for all peoples of the earth.
Matthew’s Agape Fulfills Hesed-Ahava
In the Sermon on the Mount we hear how
the agape of Jesus fulfills hesed and ahava
for at Matthew 5:43–47 we read
You have learned how it was said:
you must love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.
But I say to you: love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you.
In this way you will be
sons of your Father in Heaven,
for he causes his sun to rise
on bad men as well as good,
and his rain to fall on honest
and