Abstract
Nijay Gupta is right that there has been relatively little scholarship squarely on the theme of love in the letters of Paul, or indeed, the New Testament. There has, however, been some renewed interest in the subject matter in recent times: witness, for instance, a recently edited volume by David Lincicum and Kylie Crabbe, Divine and Human Love in Jewish and Christian Antiquity (Mohr Siebeck, 2024) and a forthcoming monograph by Logan Williams, Christology and Ethics in Galatians: Love and the Shared Self (Cambridge University Press, 2026). Gupta’s study offers another welcome contribution to this burgeoning sub-field.
The introduction and the first chapter provide justification for the study and draw upon a diverse range of perspectives on love from beyond the field of biblical studies. The second chapter usefully documents some key places where love discourse appears in ancient Jewish texts composed in Hebrew, while the third chapter analyses multiple Greek terms for love from a wide cross-section of texts, ranging from the LXX to Epictetus. The fourth chapter considers the place of love within the Jesus tradition and its potential relevance for Paul.
The rest of the book then focuses on love within the Pauline epistles. An aerial view of Paul’s key terms is initially offered (chapter 5). Gupta then dives into some passages that are traditionally held to be at the heart of Paul’s gospel in chapter 6, notably Rom 5.1-11 and Rom 8.31-39. Three further chapters consider respectively: the place of love in Paul’s ‘religion’; the communal aspect of love within Paul’s ekklēsiai; and the extent to which love of the outsider is encouraged by Paul. Finally, Gupta offers a running commentary of Ephesians – the letter that perhaps best attests to a Pauline theology of love – before providing a succinct summary with six well-articulated theses about how Paul conceptualises love.
Gupta’s account is engaging throughout and provides measured exegesis of some key Pauline passages. One highlight of the study is the insights on faith and love as a hendiadys. Close attention is paid to the apostle’s ancient Jewish context, but pleasingly, Graeco-Roman sources are also assessed and not summarily impugned. One small possible area for further consideration could be noted: according to Diogenes Laertius (Lives 7.116), the Stoics put ‘love’ (agapēsis) under the ‘good emotion’ (eupatheia) of ‘wishing’ (boulēsis).
Even if one might occasionally wonder how clearly Paul’s discourse of love is in view and ask if Gupta is reading his own (modern) definition of love onto the text, this is a very fine foray into Paul’s language of love that successfully shows that it is central to his gospel. The study will be of particular benefit to those embarking on research in this area – there is surely more work to be done!