The Greek Origin Of The Word "Compassion" Is ...

The Greek origin of the word “compassion” is splangkh-nid’-zom-ahee (Splagchnizomai – Splagchnon means bowels or intestines). German Theologian, Karl Barth gives us a revealing look at to what this Greek word means:

“The term obviously defies adequate translation. What it means is that the suffering and sin and abandonment and peril of these men not merely went to the heart of Jesus, but right into His heart, into Himself, so that their whole plight was now His own, and as such He saw and suffered it far more keenly than they did. Splagchnizomai means that He took their misery upon Himself, taking it away from them and making it His own."