Observations placeholder
Rabbi Joshua ben Nehemiah - Agape
Identifier
001900
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Marc Chagall - Rain
A description of the experience
Wikipedia
Agape, the word translated as love in the instruction love thine enemy, is referred to some 140 times in the New Testament, and so its meaning is the focus of some debate.
That it appears elsewhere in Greek use tends not to influence the arguments. Barclay translates it as continued benevolence, Tertullian viewed it as referring to charity, and ancient philosophers used it in a sense of universal, all encompassing love …..
This kind of love had a high priority in Early Christianity…………. in Mediterranean society rain is seen as positive, and stating that God “rains upon friend and enemy alike” would have been interpreted as a positive ….
The prominent Rabbi Joshua ben Nehemiah has made similar note of rain's equal treatment of the good and the wicked, and saw it as a sign of God's benevolence.