The concept of "compassion" in the authentic Pauline letters

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer a nuanced study of ‘compassion’ in the context of the Pauline Letters. The Letters are considered within the socio-political context of imperial Rome. ‘Compassion’ is a complex emotion; therefore, it has been necessary to include, in my analysis, cognate sentiments such as patience, kindness, gentleness, and perseverance. Since this is a semantic study, the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains, compiled by Louw and Nida (L-N), is used extensively. A dictionary provides a potential meaning, but it is the context of the sentence, the sentence within a larger unit of the text as a whole considered within the prevailing social conditions, that influences meaning. This method reveals that Paul envisages ‘compassion’ as the means to establish communities, not enslaved by the values of ‘the world’, nor grasping things for themselves at the expense of others. In Paul, ‘compassion’ is expansive and inclusive, where the good of the whole community is valued. His paradigm is the sacrifice of Christ. Introduction