The other day I was in philosophy class and we were discussing the use of the Greek word "philia" in ancient Greece. Philia in Greek means friendship. Being a huge fan of the Bible and Lewis's "Four Loves," I naturally asked how the word "agape" was used in ancient Greece, hoping to learn more about the etymology and the Biblical meaning. For those of you who don't know, agape is the highest form of love. It is the love that the each of the Persons of the Trinity has for each of the other Persons. It is also the love that God has for us and that Jesus demonstrated on the cross. It the kind of covenantal love married couples are supposed to have for each other and the kind of love we are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves with. A good definition is: self-sacrificial love that doesn't worry about consequences and seeks only the best for others.
To my surprise, my professor, an expert in ancient Greek, said that in Greek antiquity (the time of Homer and Achilles and Troy and all the good mythology) that agape was a marginalized word that was rarely used. When it was used, it was used not to describe Christ's love, but to describe the experience one gets when they listen to flute girls play.
Apparently, the writers of the New Testament had to "invent" the word agape in order to describe the extravagant and incredible love of Jesus. No other word could possibly fit the bill. The implication here is simple: Jesus loved us so much that it defied being described by language. No one had ever before seen love like Jesus's, and therefore no one had any word to describe it. God's love for us is so great and incredible that we needed a new word for it. We would do well to remember that.
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