It is unfortunate that the 21st Century meanings of truth and love do not do justice to the important ancient Greek and Hebrew words translated as truth and love in most English Bibles. Now we tend to talk easily of scientific truth, religious truth, and personal truth, giving the most weight to scientific truth but each of us entitled to our own truth. And we love God, neighbor, peanut butter, football, and our iPhones. It is common now to talk of four types of truth, objective, subjective, normative, and complex. And we are just told now that love has many meanings. So, what is our 21st century theological understanding to be of Jesus saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life” or that we should love our neighbor as ourself?
Truth in Hebrew
The primary 1st century Hebrew word for truth was ‘Emet (אֱמֶת) meaning firmness, faithfulness, or truth. An example is Psalm 119:142 – Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is the truth.
There was no optional meaning of the Hebrew word such as personal or religious truth and no Hebrew word suggesting a different kind of truth except maybe one translated opinion as in this verse: But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. – 2 Peter 2:1
Truth in Greek
The primary 1st century Greek word for truth was Aletheia (ἀλήθεια) which was understood as meaning reality. It is translated as truth in John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. There is no modifier such as religious or personal in front of the word and no suggestion that it was an opinion. That was Jesus Christ, God in flesh, declaring that he is the truth.
The idea of separating scientific truth and religious truth and allowing personal truth was a product of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. For 1st century Biblical writers, truth was rooted in God alone.
A 21st century person who wants to “follow the science” instead of following God must be prepared to be on the move because scientists are continually learning about God’s creation. The informed Christian still believes that truth is rooted in God alone and that learning more about and worshipping and serving God are appropriate goals. Of course we are all entitled to our own opinions, but opinions may or may not be truths.
Love in Hebrew
A powerful 1st century Hebrew word for love, often translated in the Bible as “steadfast love or loving kindness” was Hesed (חֶסֶד). It’s basic meaning was goodness or kindness, supporting the idea that Biblical love has nothing to do with emotion or with hunger for peanut butter but has hands and feet and focuses on God and on helping people and improving processes that help people.
Love in Greek
The key Greek New Testament word translated as love in English Bibles is Agape (ἀγάπη). Arguably the most pertinent use of that word in the New Testament is in the response of Jesus to a question about the greatest law. He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ – Matthew 22:37-38. And the story of The Good Samaritan makes it clear that Agape has nothing to do with emotion or hunger but is about doing things to meet the needs of others.
It is interesting that the 4th-3rd century Latin Vulgate, the official Bible of the Catholic Church, translated Agape as caritas and that the King James Version followed that example and translated it as charity. So now we have 1 Corinthians 13:13 published as “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” in the English King James Bible and as “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” in the NRSVCE Bible.
The expert opinion of why this happened is that caritas and charity at the times of those translations had much deeper meaning than charity has today. Now donating $100 a year to a food bank qualifies. In the forth and seventeenth centuries they implied dedicated focus on helping others.
Any Solutions?
So, what do we do about the changing of meanings of important words? What words today would carry the meanings that Jesus intended when speaking of Aletheia or Agape? Unfortunately, there are several hundred English versions of the Bible. Maybe one more, translating Aletheia as “God’s Truth” and Agape as “sacrificial care for others” would be appropriate.