Five-minute study · Day 72 · Matthew 9
Matthew 9:36
A word worth stopping on: moved with compassion σπλαγχνίζομαι splanchnizomai
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. The English word 'compassion' sounds polite. Warm. Gentle. The Greek word underneath it is splanchnizomai, and it has nothing to do with politeness. It comes from splanchna, the internal organs: the intestines, the liver, the lungs. Greeks and Jews both located deep emotion in the gut. When Matthew says Jesus felt splanchnizomai, he means something twisted in Jesus' abdomen. He looked at the crowd and it made him physically sick with grief.
Word study: moved with compassion
- Greek
- σπλαγχνίζομαι
- Pronounced
- splanchnizomai
- Strong's
- G4697
- Definition
- To be moved in the inward parts, to feel deep visceral compassion. From splanchna, the entrails or bowels.
Thayer defines splanchnizomai as 'to be moved as to one's bowels, hence to be moved with compassion.' BDAG notes that in the New Testament it appears only in the Synoptic Gospels, always with Jesus as the subject (or as the subject in a parable told by Jesus). No one else in the Gospels is described with this verb. It belongs to him.
The root noun splanchna referred to the upper abdominal organs: the heart, liver, lungs, and intestines. In ancient sacrifice, the splanchna were the parts roasted first and shared among the worshipers. The Greeks considered these organs the seat of deep feeling. When Aristotle and the Stoics discussed emotion, they located it in the gut. Hebrew has the same physiology: rachamim (compassion) comes from rechem (womb), and the 'bowels' (meah) are stirred by grief or love throughout the Old Testament.
Verbrugge, in the 'New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology,' observes that every use of splanchnizomai triggers action. Jesus sees the crowds and is moved in his gut, then he teaches them (Matthew 9:36-38). He sees the leper and is moved in his gut, then he touches him (Mark 1:41). He sees the widow of Nain burying her only son and is moved in his gut, then he raises the boy (Luke 7:13). The emotion is never passive. It is a physical response that results in immediate intervention. The gut moves, the hands follow.
The word does not describe sympathy from a distance. It describes a reaction so forceful it registers in the body. You feel it before you think about it. Jesus looked at the crowd and his body responded before his teaching began.
Historical context · Fifth century BC to first century AD
Where the Ancients Felt Things
Modern Western culture locates emotion in the heart and thought in the brain. The ancient world drew the map differently. The Egyptians considered the heart the seat of intellect and preserved it during mummification while discarding the brain. The Greeks divided it further: thumos (the spirited faculty) lived in the chest, while the deepest emotions lived lower, in the splanchna.
Homer's warriors feel rage and grief in their bellies. When Achilles mourns Patroclus in the Iliad, the description is visceral, a physical convulsion that moves through his body. The Hebrew Bible follows the same pattern. Joseph sees his brother Benjamin for the first time in decades, and 'his bowels did yearn upon his brother' (Genesis 43:30). The verb is kamar, to grow warm or tender, applied to the intestines. Jeremiah hears the coming destruction and cries, 'My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart' (Jeremiah 4:19). The body absorbs the grief before the mind can articulate it.
By the first century, splanchna carried both literal and metaphorical weight. Paul uses it in Philippians 1:8: 'how greatly I long after you all in the bowels (splanchna) of Jesus Christ.' He is saying: the gut-level ache that Christ felt for people, I feel it for you. Philemon 1:7 and 1:12 use the same word. Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon as 'mine own bowels' (splanchna), his own guts.
When Matthew writes that Jesus was splanchnizomai at the sight of the helpless crowd, the first-century reader understood the physiology. Something in Jesus' body clenched at the sight of human suffering. The compassion was involuntary, overwhelming, and it demanded response. The English word 'compassion,' with its soft edges, barely carries the weight.
For reflection
Splanchnizomai always leads to action in the Gospels. Every time Jesus feels it, he does something. Think about the last time something you saw made your stomach tighten with grief or anger. What did you do with that physical response? The gut reaction is a signal. It is asking you to move.
The word only appears with Jesus as the subject. His compassion is the standard. It is visceral, costly, and it always results in someone being touched.
Sources: Thayer's Lexicon; BDAG; Verbrugge, 'New International Dictionary of NT Theology'