Bowels of His mercy...

[michaeldimmickjr]

Can anyone explain to me what "...bowels of His mercy" means? I guess I'm mainly referring to the word "bowels." I know what it means in the English understanding- is it the same? Something isn't clicking here for me. Please forgive my ignorance.

Michael

 

[ArmyMatt]

well, I just looked it up, and bowel can just mean inner or interior (not just the guts). so maybe it's those deep and inner virtues, like mercy, that are being spoken of. maybe?

 

[michaeldimmickjr]

well, I just looked it up, and bowel can just mean inner or interior (not just the guts). so maybe it's those deep and inner virtues, like mercy, that are being spoken of. maybe?

That does make sense. Thank you very much Matt, I appreciate your quick response!

Michael

 

[ArmyMatt]

no probs brother!

 

[gzt]

It's an old-fashioned and somewhat literal translation. The Greek of, for instance, Luke 1:78 is "bowels of mercy". This is by no means an Orthodox problem alone, there were certainly some interesting early English translations. The thing was that the bowels were seen as the seat of mercy, as it were, or something like that. One common translation that avoids the whole imagery is "tender mercies", but that caused one Byzantinist who looked at a friend of mine's side-by-side Greek translation of some text to comment that Achilles sure spilled a lot of his opponents' tender mercies...

 

[michaeldimmickjr]

It's an old-fashioned and somewhat literal translation. The Greek of, for instance, Luke 1:78 is "bowels of mercy". This is by no means an Orthodox problem alone, there were certainly some interesting early English translations. The thing was that the bowels were seen as the seat of mercy, as it were, or something like that. One common translation that avoids the whole imagery is "tender mercies", but that caused one Byzantinist who looked at a friend of mine's side-by-side Greek translation of some text to comment that Achilles sure spilled a lot of his opponents' tender mercies...

Hah! Thank you for the information!

Michael

 

[ArmyMatt]

It's an old-fashioned and somewhat literal translation. The Greek of, for instance, Luke 1:78 is "bowels of mercy". This is by no means an Orthodox problem alone, there were certainly some interesting early English translations. The thing was that the bowels were seen as the seat of mercy, as it were, or something like that. One common translation that avoids the whole imagery is "tender mercies", but that caused one Byzantinist who looked at a friend of mine's side-by-side Greek translation of some text to comment that Achilles sure spilled a lot of his opponents' tender mercies...

that is interesting. haha, I just did a quick dictionary.com search

 

[Cappadocious]

The bowels were considered a seat of emotion or dynamism, similar to "heart".

"Wine which gladdens the bowels/heart of man..."

 

[ikonographics]

Compassion in Greek is εὐσπλαχνία which literally means to have healthy bowels. I'm feeling rather uncompassionate at the moment!

 

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