Etymology fun times
Feb. 21st, 2026 11:48 amDidn't agree with everything in this article, but it had an interesting deep dive into the translation of the Biblical phrase "love your enemies"
"Echthroi" shows up in Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wind In The Door," I didn't realize that was a Biblical Greek word!
The Greeks had at least two words for enemies. An echthros was someone hated, a personal enemy. Polemioi were the people of a city that one's own community was contending against. (The root polemos means "war.")
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The verb form is second-person imperative. Unlike English, Greek also has a third-person imperative, which is awkward to translate. If Jesus had used it, one might translate this commandment as "Let them love enemies," or passively as "Let enemies be loved." But the commandment is addressed to you.
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The verb form is second-person imperative. Unlike English, Greek also has a third-person imperative, which is awkward to translate. If Jesus had used it, one might translate this commandment as "Let them love enemies," or passively as "Let enemies be loved." But the commandment is addressed to you.