love (for God)

Nida (1952, p. 125ff.) reports on different translation of the Greek and Hebrew terms that are translated as “love” when referring to loving God:

“The Toro So Dogon people on the edge of the Sahara in French West Africa speak of ‘love for God’ as ‘to put God in our hearts.’ This does not mean that God can be contained wholly within the heart of a man, but the Eternal does live within the hearts of men by His Holy Spirit, and it is only love which prompts the soul to ‘put God in the heart.’

“The Mitla Zapotec Indians, nestled in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, describe ‘love’ in almost opposite words. Instead of putting God into one’s own heart, they say, ‘my heart goes away with God.’ Both the Toro So Dogon and the Zapotecs are right. There is a sense in which God dwells within us, and there is also a sense in which our hearts are no longer our own. They belong to Him, and the object of affection is not here on earth, but as pilgrims with no certain abiding place we long for that fuller fellowship of heaven itself.

“The Uduks seem to take a rather superficial view of love, for they speak of it as ‘good to the eye.’ But we must not judge spiritual insight or capacity purely on the basis of idioms. Furthermore, there is a sense in which this idiom is quite correct. In fact the Greek term agapé, which is used primarily with the meaning of love of God and of the Christian community, means essentially ‘to appreciate the worth and value of something.’ It is not primarily the love which arises from association and comradeship (this is philé), but it defines that aspect of love which prompted God to love us when there was no essential worth or value in us, except as we could be remade in the image of His Son. Furthermore, it is the love which must prompt us to see in men and women, still unclaimed for Jesus Christ, that which God can do by the working of His Spirit. This is the love which rises higher than personal interests and goes deeper than sentimental attachment. This is the basis of the communion of the saints.

“Love may sometimes be described in strong, powerful terms. The Miskitos of the swampy coasts of eastern Nicaragua and Honduras say that ‘love’ is ‘pain of the heart.’ There are joys which become so intense that they seem to hurt, and there is love which so dominates the soul that its closest emotion seems to be pain. The Tzotzils, living in the cloud-swept mountains of Chiapas in southern Mexico, describe love in almost the same way as the Miskitos. They say it is ‘to hurt in the heart.’ (…)

“The Q’anjob’al Indians of northern Guatemala have gone even a step further. They describe love as ‘my soul dies.’ Love is such that, without experiencing the joy of union with the object of our love, there is a real sense in which ‘the soul dies.’ A man who loves God according to the Conob idiom would say ‘my soul dies for God.’ This not only describes the powerful emotion felt by the one who loves, but it should imply a related truth—namely, that in true love there is no room for self. The man who loves God must die to self. True love is of all emotions the most unselfish, for it does not look out for self but for others. False love seeks to possess; true love seeks to be possessed. False love leads to cancerous jealousy; true love leads to a life-giving ministry.” (Source: Nida 1952)

In Mairasi, the term that is used for love for God, by God and for people is the same: “desire one’s face.” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

In Ogea the word for “love” is “die for someone.” (Source: Sandi Colburn in Holzhausen 1991, p. 22)

love (by God)

Translator Lee Bramlett submitted this on the translation of the Greek word that is translated into English as “love” (referring to God’s love). This letter was then reposted by Wycliffe Bible Translators (see here ):

“Translator Lee Bramlett was confident that God had left His mark on the Hdi culture somewhere, but though he searched, he could not find it. Where was the footprint of God in the history or daily life of these Cameroonian people? What clue had He planted to let the Hdi know who He was and how He wanted to relate to them?

“Then one night in a dream, God prompted Lee to look again at the Hdi word for ‘love.’ Lee and his wife, Tammi, had learned that verbs in Hdi consistently end in one of three vowels. For almost every verb, they could find forms ending in i, a, and u. But when it came to the word for love, they could only find i and a. Why no u?

“Lee asked the Hdi translation committee, which included the most influential leaders in the community, ‘Could you ‘ɗvi’ your wife?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was gone.

“‘Could you ‘ɗva’ your wife?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. That kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.

“‘Could you ‘ɗvu’ your wife?’ Everyone laughed. ‘Of course not! If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say ‘ɗvu.’ It just doesn’t exist.’

“Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, ‘Could God ‘ɗvu’ people?’

“There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded. ‘Do you know what this would mean? This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected His great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.’

“One simple vowel and the meaning was changed from ‘I love you based on what you do and who you are,’ to ‘I love you, based on Who I am. I love you because of Me and NOT because of you.’

“God had encoded the story of His unconditional love right into their language. For centuries, the little word was there — unused but available, grammatically correct and quite understandable. When the word was finally spoken, it called into question their entire belief system. If God was like that, did they need the spirits of the ancestors to intercede for them? Did they need sorcery to relate to the spirits? Many decided the answer was no, and the number of Christ-followers quickly grew from a few hundred to several thousand.

“The New Testament in Hdi is ready to be printed now, and 29,000 speakers will soon be able to feel the impact of passages like Ephesians 5:25: ‘Husbands, ‘ɗvu’ your wives, just as Christ ‘ɗvu’-d the church…'”

In Hawai’i Creole English the love that God has is often translated as love an aloha. Aloha has a variety of meanings, including “hello,” “goodbye,” “love,” “thank you,” etc.

The Philippine languages of Cebuano, Tagalog, and Pampanga use a word (gugma, pag-ibig, and lugud respectively) that is also used for a “noble, refined love of people for each other,” distinct from romantic love. (Source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )

In Mairasi, the term that is used for love by God, for God and for people is the same: “desire one’s face.” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also love (Jesus for young, rich man), God is love and this devotion on YouVersion .

complete verse (John 14:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 14:21:

  • Uma: “‘People who receive and follow my commands, they are the ones who love me. My Father loves the people who love me, and I also love them, and show myself them.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Whoever accepts my commandments and follows/obeys them, he is the person who really loves me. The person who loves me is loved by my Father. And I also love him and I will explain myself to him.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The person who understands my commands and carries them out, he is the one whose breath is big for me, and he is big also in our breath, I and my Father. And I will cause that person to understand that I am his companion.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Whoever stores-away my commands in his mind/thoughts in order to obey them, it is he who loves me. And the one who loves me, my Father loves-him. I also love-him and will make-known to him that which is concerning me.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “That one who takes seriously my commands and follows/obeys these, that is the one who holds me dear. That one who holds me dear, he will also be held dear by my Father. I also will indeed hold him dear and really will cause myself to be really known by him.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He who does what I order makes it apparent that he truly loves me. And my Father will love all who love me. I also will love him and I will make it known that I am the companion of him who loves me.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on John 14:21

Whoever accepts is actually a participial phrase in Greek (literally “the one having”). On this construction see 12.44. The indefinite relative clause may be treated as a conditional clause, for example, “if anyone accepts my commandments.”

Accepts is literally “has.” Some commentators understand obeys (literally “keeps”) as a step beyond accepting, but this interpretation is doubtful. It is better to take the two verbs as a kind of parallelism, as in New American Bible “He who obeys the commandments he has from me is the man who loves me.” New English Bible renders “The man who has received my commands and obeys them….” It is very difficult in some languages to make a distinction between “accepting” and “obeying” commandments. Some translators try to render accepts my commandments as equivalent to “acknowledges my commandments” or “recognizes my commandments,” as if there were two stages involved in a person’s relation to the commandments of Jesus. This interpretation, however, does not carry the meaning of this passage; therefore it may be better to translate “whoever obeys my commandments” or “whoever does what I have commanded him to do.”

My Father will love whoever loves me is literally “the one who loves me will be loved by my Father.” Good News Translation inverts the order of the Greek, changing the passive into an active construction, and making my Father, the agent of the passive verb, into the subject of the active verb. Just as the first clause of verse 21 may be treated as conditional, whoever loves me may also be treated as conditional, for example, “if anyone loves me, my Father will love him.”

The verb translated reveal is used in John’s Gospel only here and in the following verse. As in the Septuagint of Exodus 33.13 it is used of a special divine manifestation. I … will … reveal myself to him is more than merely “showing him who I am.” An equivalent in some languages is “I will come to him” or “… come to him personally.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .