ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses two ancient Hebrew and Greek terms that are usually translated as love in modern English: chesed and agape. If many biblical texts insist that God is beyond human comprehension, then how can the Bible tell readers anything about God? The chapter shows, certain biblical texts implicitly answer this question by suggesting that the most important clue to the mystery of God is to be found in our relationships with other people. The Bible depicts God as beyond human comprehension to a significant extent, which would seem to exclude the kind of knowledge one might gain by equations or incontrovertible evidence. The problem of favoritism and jealousy in families becomes even more pointed when it comes to the Bible's metaphorical representations of God as a lover and husband. The Bible's depictions of God as a lover or husband strike a range of chords, from the viscerally negative to the voluptuously and even transcendently positive.