agapao and phileo - a split word? hopefully...

[Paul Younan]

But then, if two different Aramaic words, are they exactly the same? Or is one indeed "friendly love" and one is "divine love"?

Nope - that's Greek hogwash. <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/laugh.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laugh" /><!-- s:lol: -->

"Khuba" means "love" in the way the English means "love". "Rakhma" means something more along the lines of the English "compassion, mercy, empathy, friendship."

Something to keep in mind - usually the reason for a true "split-word" is that the original has multiple, but different meanings. That's not the case here, right?

Obviously you would know more than me, but I thought that one Aramaic word leading to two totally different words in the Greek (same meaning, arguably, but totally different spelling) was highly suggestive of different independant translations from Aramaic to Greek. In fact, we should expect to see a lot of 'synonym variances' in Greek mss, as a result of different mss being translated from the Aramaic, should we not?

Perhaps - but, overwhelmingly you will notice (if you go back and look at our examples so far) that the true "split-words" arise where the same word in Aramaic means two vastly different things, and those two meanings are represented by two different Greek words.

An example like this one is really weak for split-words. I would not categorize it as a split-word at all. I would say that the Greeks were simply using "translators privelege" and freely translating for the sake of variety. I've done it before, myself. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/happy.gif" alt="" title="Happy" /><!-- s -->