Deuteronomy 4:37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

This is the first direct scripture indicating that God loves man. Every other love expression before this was man for wife or father for son. If we are to discover any real meaning to the Greek word Agape that we use to express God’s perfect love, then the search begins here. The word in Hebrew is ‘ahab and has no distinction as to how God’s love is any different than that expressed by man, meaning affection.

What distinguishes God’s love towards man is in what He does for man. God saw to it that the seed of them that He loved would be saved from slavery. I think it is important to realize that His love could have been demonstrated without the inclusion of two vital words to my understanding, sight and seed.

Since Jesus spoke in Aramaic and the New Testament was translated into and from the Greek, we have no real sense of what Jesus meant by love other than His actions. This is very much like His Father in that sense. Chaldean and Aramaic are both influencers of Hebrew and very similar in structure. Hebrew and Chaldean would have a clearer understanding of His Aramaic speech.

In the BLB.org I find the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon has a meaningful word that satisfies my understanding of Agape love. It satisfies my understanding because of what God has done in my life thru His Son Jesus Christ. That meaning is “to germinate”.

If the seed, the Word of God, the Gospel, is planted in my heart, it must be germinated to take root. If there is no root there is no growth, and no production of fruit with seeds of their own. Without germination no life is produced.