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kom-pash´un: Compassion is the translation of רח×, raÌ„hÌ£am, “to love,†“pity,†“be merciful†(; ); of rahÌ£ămı̄m, “mercies†(); of חמל, hÌ£aÌ„mal, “to pity,†“spare†(; ); רחו×, rahÌ£uÌ„m (; ; ; ; ), is rendered by the American Standard Revised Version “merciful.†We have σπλαγχνιÌζομαι, splagchnıÌzomai, “to have the bowels yearning,†in ; , etc.; sumpatheÌoÌ„ (), “to suffer with (another)â€; sumpatheÌ„Ìs (, the Revised Version (British and American) “compassionate,†margin, Greek, “sympatheticâ€); metriopatheÌoÌ„ (, the Revised Version (British and American) “who can bear gently withâ€); eleeÌoÌ„, “to show mildness,†“kindness†(; ; , the Revised Version (British and American) “mercyâ€); oikteıÌroÌ„, “to have pity†or “mercy†( bis).
Both raÌ„hÌ£am and splagchnizomai are examples of the physical origin of spiritual terms, the bowels being regarded as the seat of the warm, tender emotions or feelings. But, while raÌ„hÌ£am applied to the lower viscera as well as the higher, splaÌgchnon denoted chiefly the higher viscera, the heart, lungs, liver.
The Revised Version (British and American) gives “compassion†for “mercy†(; ; ; ; ; ; the King James Version “tender love withâ€; for “bowels of compassion,†); for “mercy†(); “full of compassion†for “merciful†(the American Standard Revised Version “merciful†in all cases) (Ex ; ; ; ; ); “compassions for mercies†(; ), for “repentings†().
Compassion, literally a feeling with and for others, is a fundamental and distinctive quality of the Biblical conception of God, and to its prominence the world owes more than words can express. (1) It lay at the foundation of Israel's faith in Yahweh. For it was out of His compassion that He, by a marvelous act of power, delivered them from Egyptian bondage and called them to be His own people. Nothing, therefore, is more prominent in the Old Testament than the ascription of compassion, pity, mercy, etc., to God; the people may be said to have gloried in it. It is summed up in such sayings as that of the great declaration in : “Yahweh - a God full of compassion (the American Standard Revised Version merciful) and gracious†(compare ; ; ; ; ; , “His compassions fail notâ€). And, because this was the character of their God, the prophets declared that compassion was an essential requirement on the part of members of the community (; ; compare ). (2) In Jesus Christ, in whom God was “manifest in the flesh,†compassion was an outstanding feature (; , etc.) and He taught that it ought to be extended, not to friends and neighbors only, but to all without exception, even to enemies (-48; -37).
The God of the New Testament, the Father of men, is most clearly revealed as “a God full of compassion.†It extends to the whole human race, for which He effected not merely a temporal, but a spiritual and eternal, deliverance, giving up His own Son to the death of the cross in order to save us from the worst bondage of sin, with its consequences; seeking thereby to gain a new, wider people for Himself, still more devoted, more filled with and expressive of His own Spirit. Therefore all who know the God and Father of Christ, and who call themselves His children, must necessarily cultivate compassion and show mercy, “even as he is merciful.†Hence, the many apostolic injunctions to that effect (; ; ; , etc.). Christianity may be said to be distinctively the religion of Compassion.