1287 Why 'Labor of Love' Sounds Odd Jun 19, 2018

In English, the term "labor of love" is common enough to not sound abnormal, but this really is an odd phrase. However, the reason this is used is because it was taken straight out of a translation of the New Testament. If you don't believe that, look at the other lines in the same sentence: "work of faith" and "steadfastness of hope""; it sounds off. This phrase, however, would be normal in Koine Greek, which is the original language. This is because there is a level of vagueness in genitives which relate to sources rather than actual possession, similar to the interchangeability between "bread made *from* flour" and "bread made *of* flour". In Koine Greek this is fine, and even in German wherein 'von' means both 'of and 'from' this is normal sounding enough, but often translations of the Bible will sound unnecessarily clunky for reasons like this, though perhaps even 'steadfastness from hope' would have been a clearer translation.