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On Translating "first love"
I noticed
that in Rev 2:4 the ISV renders the verse: "However, I have this against
you: You have abandoned the love you had at first." Is there an alternate
reading of that? I always thought it meant that they had lost their first
love (as in their A#1, top of the heap, Big cheese)....in other words...
rather than loosing their first (Chronologically speaking) love... it meant
the love (Christ) that should have been number one in their lives. I don't
know that this is how the Greek reads... I'm just asking because I have
never seen it translated as, "love you had at first."
We believe the nuance of
the original Greek text is accurately expressed by our admittedly unusual
rendering. The real question we're dealing with here is the age-old question
of objective vs. subjective love. Is it love for God (objective) or love by
God for us (subjective)? Is "your first love" objective or subjective in the
Revelation 2 passage. We've opted for objective.
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