Charity (Hastings' Dictionary)

From 1 Co 8' onwards ' charity ' is frequently employed in AV as the tr. of d^djn; ; in KV it does not occur. The Gr. word «y<e«-ti is supposed to have been coined by the IjXX. It is found in no prolanc author, not even in Josephus, snd only once in Philo (i. ;lb;i). In LXX it occurs 2 S 1^' (A) 13'», lEc 9i«, Ca 24- ">■ ' 35- 10 68 71- 84- 8- ^", Jer 2« always as tr. of ■ij-K ; and in Wis 39 618, sir 48". It has been supposed that the LXX felt the need of a wonl of purer stujfrcstion than any in existence, but 2 8 1315 (the love of Amnon (ur Tamar) disproves thai supposition. >Vhot the L.\.\ seems to have felt the need of wo» a ttrortger word than either iy^rr:ris or fiX.'x, with which they elsewhere translate n^rrht. Thus La 2 S ISi', £c 91-s it is used in emphatic contnut to ' hate.' When Christianity came, having received the new revelation of the love o/ Otnt, it found this word as vet unspoilt by couunon use, and adopted it to exprt-ss the new divine itlea. Perhaps the fact that the LXX h.id usetl it to express the iJiUnsity of love, mode it the more easily a/iopted, for this was now also a leading thought, as in 1 Jn 48. is • uod is love,' and 4^0 Herein is love, not that we loved Uod,' etc. The word is used 117 times in NT (including: iyiww, love- feasts,' Judeia land 2 P 2" L Tr Wll)), always of love with which God has somethint' to do. Its distribution, accord, to Moulton and Geiicn's XT C'lmcord,^ is as follows : Synop. 2 (Mt 24", Lk 114^, Jn 7, Ro 9, 1 Co 14, 2 Co 9, Gal 8, Eph 10, Ph 4, Col 6, 1 Th 6, 2 Th 3, 1 Ti 6, 2 Ti 4, Tit 1, I'hilcm 3, He 2. 1 P S, 2 P 2, IJn 18, 2 Jn 2, 3 Jn 1, Jude 3, Rev 2. That Is, Synop. 2, Jd (including Rev) 30, Paul 76, He 2, P 6, Jude 3. It is not used in Mk, Ac, Ja. Jerome experienced the difficulty which has been attributed to the LXX. There was no direct equivalent in Latin for ayamt. Amor was impossible, suggesting idolatry as well as sensuality. Ue sometimes chose dw.ctio, esteem, and sometimes caritas {charUa)t deamess, though both words, being comparatively weak, missed the very point for which tLyetv^ hod first been coined. DUectio is found in Vul^'. 24 times, carilag 90 times (1 P 614 gives a different tr.) ; but the choice of one or the other Heems accidental. Wyclif followed the Vulgate, giving Move for dilfctio and ' charity ' for caritas everywhere, except in Col 18. 13 where he has ' loving ' for diiectio, not love ' ; and in 1 Oo 134 where ho uses the pronoun ' it' for the third caritas. Tindale M,vHtenialically avoided ecclesiastical words, and so dis- carded 'charity ' entirely, using Move' everywhere, except Ro 1418 charitably ' (jMTi ayirtir)^ uid Ool 113 'His dear Hon for ' the Son of his love.' Tindale was followed by Covenialc, the Great Hiblo, and the Geneva Bible, except that the Geneva bus 'charity' in Kev '24- 1». The Bishops restored charity Into the foil, places : Ro 1310 DO 1 Co gl 131-a-».4fet-»- 1>»<141 1014, Col 314, 1 Th 3«- « 6«, 2 Th 13, I Ti 1» 21» 41', 2 TI 21 S", Tit &. 1 P 4»6U 614, t pl7, 1 Jn 81, S Jn«, Judel", Rev 21»: while they accepted llndale's 'charitably in Bo lil^, and his 'dear Son' In Ool 11». The Rhemish Bible, being tr. from the Vulg,, returned to the use of 'charity' and 'love.' following the Vulg. precisely, except that (as with Wyclif) the third charity is omitted In lOolK The translator! of AV followed the Bishops, except In Ro 1310 bii, 1 Th 3i» 68, 1 Jn 31, and Jude », where they capriciously prefer ' love ' to ' charity.' Tlie R V gives ' love " wherever the Revisers found iytiwyi in the text they adopted ; for they reckoned it their special duty to translate the same Gr. wonl by the same Enghsh wtrd, if that coLikl possibly be done. No other Kug. version is so con- sistent. ' Charity ' never occurs. The word ' charity ' entered the Eng. language at two different times. First in the form cherte (from Fr. chierti, chert() and with the ordinary meaning of the Lat. caritas, ' deamess,' both in reference to price and affection. Next in the forms caritat, cantet, cliaritct, chariK, from the j)opular use of the caritas (caritatem) of the Vulg. in the Church to indicate Christian ' love.' The two words were too close to be kept distinct, and in the 17th cent. cherte was discontinued. After the Vulg., charity was used of the love of God, as 1 Jn 48- '" ' God is charite ' (Wyclif) = ' Goii is charitie' (Kheims — ayaTrri is tr. by 'c' tlirough- out 1 Jn in Wyclif and Khemish). Its meaning as applied to man is well e.\pressed by Abp. Hamilton, Catechism (155'2), '(Juliato is cherite '; It is lufe, quliarby we lufe God for his awin saik . . . and our neichbour for God's saik, or in God.' But such a word could not resist the strong tendency to degeneration, if indeed it had not de- generated in the use of the Vulg. itself. As early as Caxton we find the general sense of kindly dis- position, leniency. Thus, Cato 3, ' I . . . beseche alle suche that fynde faute or errour that of theyr charyte they corrects and amende hit." Dr. (J. Salmon (Gnosticisin and Agnosticism, p. 211) thinks it probable that the popular limitation of the word to almsjjjiving arose from its freq. em- ployment in appeals of preachers either for money on behalf of some good object, or for prayers on behalf of the souls in purgatory ; the common exordium being, ' Good Christian people, we pray you of your charity to give so and so.' That there was a feeling about IGll against the use of ' love' in the language of religion is shown by Bacon's remark (KiUS), 'I did ever allow the discretion and tenderness of the Khemish trans- lation in this point, that finding in the original the word dyi-rtj and never Ipws, do ever translate Charity and never Love, because of the indiflerency and eciuivocation of the word with impure love' (the statement is incorrect, since Kheims gives Move' for iyirji 23 times, but it expresses the feeling of the day). But it does not appear that it was in deference to any such feeling that the Bishops and AV introduced 'charity' again, but either to avoid 'the scrupulosity of the Puritans,' or to escape the charge of 'unequal dealing towards a great number of good English words.' 'I'he objec- tions to 'c' as a tr. of dyiirri are that it is now obsolete in the sense of ' love,' suggesting a mild toleration, in place of the noblest and most search- ing of virtues ; and that its use in A V (esp. through- out 1 Co 13) has given rise to the mistaken idea that St. Paul is less the apostle of love than St. John. See Almsgiving and Love. J. Uastinqs.