John A. Scott, "The Words for 'Love' in John XXI. 15 ff. Second Note,"
Classical Weekly 40.8 (December 16, 1946) 60-61:
In THE CLASSICAL WEEKLY for Dec. 10, 1945, p. 71
I referred to a note by Professor Gildersleeve in his
Justin Martyr, A. 15.27. The note is: 'Ἀγαπᾶν is a
colder word than φιλεῖν and less intimate. The larger
use in Christian writers is perhaps due to an avoidance of
φιλεῖν in the sense of "kissing". The refinements of
commentators on John 21.15-17 seem hardly tenable
when we remember that the Evangelist himself did not
see the point, as Augustine notes (Civ. Dei 7.11)'.
This note aroused the learned wrath of Professor Benjamin B. Warfield of the Princeton Theological Seminary,
who devoted the issue of The Princeton Theological
Review for April 1918 to an exhaustive study of these
two words for 'love', and he thought his victory so complete that he dared to print: 'B.L. Gildersleeve in that
unfortunate edition of Justin Martyr which brought
grief to all his admirers'. However, Professor Gildersleeve was absolutely right and Professor Warfield
surely was wrong in this matter. Ἀγαπᾶν does not
denote a more intimate and delicate sentiment than
φιλεῖν either in Classical or in Biblical Greek.
Id. (at 61):
As to the charge that the edition of Justin Martyr
brought grief to all of Professor Gildersleeve's admirers,
it seems to me as unfounded as the assumed distinction
in the words for 'love'. I have read the book many
times and always with increased wonder at its wide
and accurate learning, and the brilliant discussions of
language and of literature, but it is far over the heads
of the college students for whom the books in that
Series were intended. However, that was a characteristic
of all his writings and of his teachings: he aimed to
set a very high standard and hoped that others would
struggle to come up to him, as he would not descend
to them.
The reference is to Benjamin B. Warfield, "The Terminology of Love in the New Testament,"
Princeton Theological Review 16 (1918) 1-45, 153-203 (at 35, 185).