This chapter is based on Merlin Donald’s theory about the three stages of human cognitive evolution — the mimetic, mythic, and theoretic cognitive strategies. The author will show how these three concepts help understand and describe the use of the verb “to love” (אהב) in the Bible. The concepts help categorize the various biblical texts into text of mimetic, mythic, and theoretic cognitions, and this categorization helps to understand how the meaning of the verb develops by blending its meaning from the mimetic (Song of Songs) through mythic (biblical narratives) to theoretic cognition (legal texts) . Ignoring this developing and the effect of ratcheting these cognition one after the other skews the understanding of the verb. Understanding biblical love as hierarchical ignores the date in the Song of Song, and mourning its one-sidedness is reading modern notions into the biblical verb. emotions cultural evolution Merlin Donald culture and cognition...