í gape (Gr. agáp’, usually translated “love”; but the term was also used for a festival of love and charity such as the one described below). Communal food, connected with their religious cults, which the early Christians had to encourage brotherly love. It seems that in early times the Lord’s Supper was also celebrated in connection with that meal. It is very probable that the entire cult was directed to remember the last Passover that Jesus celebrated with his disciples, in which he instituted the rite of the Lord’s Supper. Apparently, Paul rebukes the Corinthians for their abuses in connection with this custom (1Co 11:17-34). The expression appears only once (Jud_12), although important textual evidence for it can also be cited in 2Pe 2:13 (cf Act 2:46). See Love.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
greek love. It refers to the fraternal dinners of the Christians of the early Church, celebrated as a symbol of love and solidarity among the members of the ecclesial community in commemoration of the Lord’s Supper. These brothers’ dinners, over time, degenerated into feasting, drunkenness, disunity and immoralities, which were harshly criticized by the apostles 1 Cor 11; Jude 12. ® Eucharist.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
(gr., agape). The most frequent of two words used in the NT when referring to love, which implies the pricelessness of the loved one. It is used in Jude 1:12 (perhaps also Act 20:11; 1Co 11:21-22, 1Co 11:33-34; 2Pe 2:13) with reference to communal meals that fostered brotherly love between believers. The Lord’s Supper, properly observed, was distinct from the feast of love.
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
(Love, share, love party).
This Greek word is the one used in the Bible to express the love of God and of the Christian. It is “sharing”, “giving oneself”, like Jesus on Calvary, who gave us all of his blood. That is love, agape!: – The Eucharist must be a “feast of love”. It is God who gives himself to us, and the Christian who gives himself to God, through his brother, 1 Vor. 11:20-34, Jude 1:12.
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
(Love). Word used in the NT to point to divine love, which seeks by grace the good of the loved one. Sometimes when the á. expressed by a human being, it is translated charity (1 Cor. 13). Among the first Christians it became customary to celebrate a meal of love or á., in which Christian fellowship was practiced and food was provided for the needy. It seems that originally this activity was related to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42, Acts 2:46; Acts 20:11). The abuses Paul writes against in 1 Cor. 11 may allude to it. There are other indications in the NT about these abuses, as in 2Pe 2:13 and Jude 1:11-12. Perhaps for that reason a short time later, the believers separated both things.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
type, COST
see, HOLY SUPPER, BANQUET One of the four words that in Biblical Greek express the word that in the Castilian Bibles is translated as “love”. In the New Testament it is used to designate the love that believers should feel for one another; that same name is given to a fraternal dinner that the first Christians celebrated (1 Cor. 11:17-34). Unfortunately, serious abuses arose during these festivities, which is why they gradually disappeared, at least as a celebration on the occasion of the Holy Supper. (See) However, fraternal parties continue to be celebrated in most Christian churches. (See BANQUET)
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
It is a Greek term (agape), which includes the idea of ”love”. Some 115 times it appears in the form of the action of loving, or love; and there are 143 times that it is used in the form of the verb to love. In 62 the adjective for loved is used. Among Christians at the end of the 1st century and from the 2nd century, ideas and expressions of love for brothers and sisters dominated, and the “Eucharistic encounter” was identified with the Supper of Jesus on the last night of his life. That is why the agapes or fraternal festive meals were practiced with great devotion.
Some, interpreting St. Paul (1 Cor. 11. 17-34) claim to see in the term agape the idea of a Eucharistic meal, or fraternal celebration, prior to the liturgical “breaking of bread”, which would be called “ Lord’s Supper”. (Acts 2:42-47; 4:36; 6:1-6; 20:7-11). It is doubtful whether among Christians the fraternal agape was first separated from the “sacrificial banquet,” in the context of which the consecration of bread and wine and communion by means of the same were proclaimed. No such separation of texts as 2 Petr. 2.13 and Jude. 12.
What is certain is that, from the second century, the doubt dissipated and the fraternity meal was called agape where the rich helped the poor and in whose context the Lord’s Supper was celebrated, as appears in Tertullian (Apologetics chap. 39) and in other writers.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
The Greek word agapé designates in the New Testament the love that comes from God and that must be shared fraternally by Christians 1. One way of showing this love was to eat together, as, according to 1Cor 11,1734, was done before the eucharist Already at the end of the apostolic period, the name “agape”, understood as “love treat”, was given to community meals not always identical to the celebration of the Eucharist and accompanied by prayers (cf Jds 12). Thus, in the community of the Didache (9 10) 2 the Eucharist was celebrated with a common meal. >Ignatius of Antioch refers to “agapes”, but apparently in a sacramental context and with the necessary presence of the bishop 3. But here, as in other early texts, it is not easy to know if he is talking about the Eucharist itself, about the meal preceding the Eucharist or during which the Eucharist is celebrated, or of a meal entirely other than the Eucharist.
In the apostolic tradition there are three meals that have characteristics of agapé. There is a meal presided over by the bishop, who blesses the bread and wine and who instructs and answers questions. Both silence and praise are characteristic of this meal. Food is then sent to the poor and sick. It is not about the Eucharist (26-29/26,117). There is also a solemn evening meal, during which the deacon lights a lamp. The bishop must be present. Psalms are recited. It is a meal that can be combined with the Eucharist (25/26,18-32). Third, there is a meal for widows, at which the presence of the bishop is not required (27/30). Since the times of >Cyprian, if not before, the Eucharist has been celebrated in the morning, with a common meal that sometimes takes place in the afternoon.
Thus, it can be seen that since ancient times the technical term “agape” has become synonymous with “communion” (koinonia), which can include the Eucharist, with a clear dimension of helpful love as the realization of the words of Jesus related to the last supper: “that you love one another” (Jn 13,34). This socio-charitable understanding -equivalent to almsgiving- lasted until the beginning of the Middle Ages, as can be seen in the Prayer on the ígape for the poor-5 and in the Oratio super eos qui agape vel elemosynas faciunt 6 , testimony of an ecclesiology that was very aware of the deep relationship between liturgy and “diakonia”, especially with the most needy 7.
NOTES: 1 Cf W GÜNTER-HG LINK, Amor, in L. COENEN-E. BEYREUTHER-H. BIENTENHARD (eds.), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 1, Follow me, Salamanca 1980, 111-124; SA PANIMOLLE, Love, in P. ROSSANOG. RAVASi-A. GIRLANDA (dirs.), New dictionary of biblical theology, San Pablo, Madrid 2001 2, 60-93; G. QUELL-E. STAUFFER, apapaó, apaé, in TWNT 1, 20ss.; GM SALVATI, Agape, in L. PACOMIO (ed.), Encyclopedic Theological Dictionary, Verbo Divino, Estella 1995, 27. – 2 Cf D. Ruiz BUENO, Apostolic Fathers, BAC, Madrid 1993, 86-88. – 3 Ad Smyrn 8: D. Ruiz BUENO, Apostolic Fathers, oc, 493. – 4 JM HANSSENS, L’agape et l’eucharistie, Ephemerides liturgicae 41 (1927) 525-548; 42 (1928) 545-574; 43 (1929) 177-198, 520-529; P. VISENTIN, Eucharist, in D. SARTORE-AM TRIACCA-JM CANALS (dirs.), New dictionary of liturgy, San Pablo, Madrid 1996′, 729-758; G. Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, Westminster 1945, 82-102. – 5 Gregorian Sacramentary, n 210. – 6 Ueronense Sacramentary, n 1422-1428. -7 Cf H. BALz-G. SCHNEiDER (dirs.), Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament 1, Follow me, Salamanca 1996, 36; PM GY, Agape, in JY LACOSTE (ed.), Dictionnaire critique de théologie, Paris 1998, 11 f.
DecEC
Christopher O´Donell – Salvador Pié-Ninot, Dictionary of Ecclesiology, San Pablo, Madrid 1987
Source: Dictionary of Ecclesiology
(v. love, charity, God Love, John the Evangelist)
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization
In the Old and New Testaments, agapé (love) indicates that spiritual force or feeling that moves a person to surrender to the loved one, or to appropriate the beloved reality, or to do what they feel for. some pleasure or delight. Agapé is not limited to the profane or natural sphere of human experience, but also includes the relationship between man and God. According to the Old Testament, God’s love for man is characterized by spontaneity, gratuitousness, strength, unitive virtue, the drive to share life, fidelity, the tendency to be exclusive, the ability to renew oneself in forgiveness ; and man’s agape for God is characterized by joy, self-giving, fidelity, observance of the law.
Jesus of Nazareth. with his praxis, he concretely shows the depth, the unpredictability and the immoderation of God’s agape. Speaking of man’s agape for God, Jesus underlines his radicalism, which moves the believer not to be seduced by riches and ambitions and not to be discouraged by persecution. From the agapé towards the neighbor, Christ emphasizes the availability to attend to the needy, as well as the obligation to love even the enemies. The agape is a kind of “unit of measure” of the present life of the believer: and it is also what allows (and will allow until the end of time) to make a serious discrimination between the worthy children and the unworthy children of the heavenly Father- who loves without limits and without measure.
Paul is also a singer of the agapé of God, which is manifested in the sending of the Son and the Spirit. in Christ’s death on the cross and in universal election: for the apostle, agapé is the anticipation of the future: it is the virtue that remains beyond death. In Santiago’s letter it is remembered that the agapé…