Linguistic Meaning Reflection on 1 Corinthians 13

Note: This is a cut-out and development from the previous post regarding the words caritas and agapē.

First Corinthians 13: The only way to really translate the passage today into English is to use "caritas" directly, or ἀγάπη, agapē. A modern-language word just won't work: they're too overloaded with being "imprecise metaphors" and connotations that distort the original idea. One might as well use the old words as they take less explanation than "undoing" the modern word!

The original meaning of the Greek agapē, recorded in Homer, was to greet or show hospitality, from the verb ἀγαπέω, agapáō. I suspect at heart it has the idea of justice, to show justice by properly greeting or showing right respect, as for the dead, or visitors. (The idea reminds me of the Irish fáilte, the proper welcome guests can expect, though now it is too often used as an Irish equivalent for the English "parlor polite" thank you or the German bitte.)

Therefore, should your English-language Bible in First Corinthians 13 use "love" instead of "charity", it is simply a bad translation, for "love" can mean a host of quite different affections. The real problem is "charity" – why it was dropped in the past 60 years. in popular English it now means something different than "caritas". Etymonline.com says the English word "charity" is from: late Old English, "benevolence for the poor," also "Christian love in its highest manifestation," from Old French charité "(Christian) charity, mercy, compassion; alms; charitable foundation" (12c.), from Latin caritatem (nominative caritas) "costliness; esteem, affection," from carus "dear, valued," from PIE *karo-, from root *ka- "to like, desire."

AnP again: You can see why, from an Old English "benevolene for the poor" the modern English "charity" would be entirely used for the crass "social justice" bureaucratic maintenace of the "poor". "Charity case" or "I don't need your charity." Etc.

My wife noted that "Carissimo / carissima" means "dear, dearest", come from the Latin had cárus, dear. 

See Wikionary here for semantically related Semitic words, such as may have been used in Aramaic that Our Lord spoke. 

Irish
There's also the modern Irish word "cara", friend – Scottish Gaelic "caraid" – from the Old Irish "cara" (Krarant is a possible recreation of the oldest form of the word.) The Old Irish verb was carim, caraim, "I love". (Today one uses the lovely word "grá" for romantic love, as in "Tá grá agam duit.") Welsh had caraf, Breton quaret, and the Gaulish was carantus, perhaps as in the name Caractacus of the Catuvellauni, a name cognate with Welsh Caradog, Breton Karadeg, and Irish Carthach. 

Here is the Douay-Rheims (1899) of 1 Corinthians 13:

13 If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up;

5 Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.

12 We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known.

13 And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

Let's not go back to the Vatican I Church; to the Counter-Reformation Church, yes, or the High Middle Ages Church

If there's a Church we need to go back to, it's the Counter-Reformation Church (1540-1648) or the High Middle Ages Church (1051-1278), not the Vatican I Church (post-Napoleon to 1958).

I had a great-aunt, prettiest girl in her family, who back about 1910 or so, when in high school -- maybe, maybe it was middle school -- was lured away into a convent life. (The school she was in was run by a religious order, naturally.) Of course, alas, it didn't work out. I was given to understand these were German nuns and very strict, and this pretty Irish girl spent a decade on the floors of the convent, scrubbing. In despair, she left -- IIRC, before final vows.

Well, her family, except for her two brothers (one of whom was my grandfather) disowned her. She was a few notches below person non grata. The two brothers were married by then (and a third brother of her age had died tragically). Her two sisters, Brigid and Mary (how Irish can you get?) wouldn't speak to her (and "Aunt B" was "too holy to have lived", it was said), so my disgraced (literally) great-aunt wandered into the empty regions of Pluto, or its earthly equivalent, marrying eventually a kind-hearted Protestant man who tried to care for her, and she died, forgotten by all but my mother, who visited her a few times in her remote, rural exile.

That, too, was the Vatican I Church, the Festung Katholica. I'm sure bishops of the time of Vatican II, and even a latter-day individual like Bergoglio, had similar stories to tell. Any older Catholic you might meet may well have such a story. In fact, many Protestants could tell stories of a not unrelated character. In everything religious, as far as Christianity is concerned, we need to radiate caritas. 

1 Corinthians 13 Douay-Rheims 1899 

13 If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity*, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up;

5 Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.

12 We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known.

13 And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

*If your Bible here has "love" instead of "charity", it is simply a bad translation, for "love" can mean a host of affections. The real problem is "charity" – in popular English now means something different thann "caritas". The only way to really translate the passage is to use "caritas" directly, or ἀγάπη, agapē. The original meaning of the Greek, in Homer was to greet or show hospitality, from the verb ἀγαπέω, agapáō. I suspect at heart it has the idea of justice, to show justice by properly greeting or show respect, as for the dead.