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Bible Dictionaries
Pity
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or PITY.—This word occurs once in the Gospels (Matthew 18:33 Authorized Version ) as translation of ἐλεέω apparently in accordance with the practice of the translators ‘that we have not ‘tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing or to an identity of words,’ since the same word ἐλεέω is rendered by ‘have compassion’ in the verse immediately before, as elsewhere.
1. In the Synoptic Gospels four different words occur which carry with them the notion of ‘pity’ or ‘compassion’: σπλαγχνίζομαι (σπλάγχνα), ἐλεέω (ἔλεος and ἐλεήμων συλλυπέομαι, and οἰκτίρμων.
Of these, the first three are used with reference to Jesus: (1) σπλαγχνιζομαι, ‘moved with compassion,’ found in Matthew 9:36; Matthew 14:14; Matthew 15:32; Matthew 18:27, Mark 1:41; Mark 6:34; Mark 8:2, Luke 7:13; (2) ἐλεέω, used in Mark 5:19 by our Lord Himself to describe His own work in the cure of the demoniac, ‘and hath had compassion on thee,’ καὶ ἠλεησεν σε; (3) συλλυαέομαι, Mark 3:5, translation ‘being grieved (for the hardness of their hearts).’ The word occurs nowhere else in NT, but is used by Herodotus and elsewhere with the significance of having pity or compassion (see Liddell and Scott).
By their usage in these passages the Synoptics plainly declare that in His manifestation of human nature our Saviour was drawn towards suffering humanity by that Divine gift of pity which has ever been regarded as one of the higher feelings: sickness, sorrow, being like tired sheep, even bodily hunger, filled Him with compassion for the suffering ones,—while in the solitary use of συλλυπέομαι alluded to above to describe His feeling at the unwillingness of men to receive truth, we can hardly hesitate to give to the word its classical meaning of ‘pity,’ when we remember the outburst of weeping which accompanied His wail over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). And while Himself manifesting forth pity towards men and inculcating the same feeling on His disciples, He also most clearly taught them to think of His Father in heaven as One moved with compassion for His earthly family. The ‘tender mercy of our God’ in the Benedictus (Luke 1:78) is the thought illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who was ‘moved with compassion’ (ἐσπλαγχνίσθη) at the sight of the wounded man (Luke 10:33); as in that of the king who forgave the debtor, being ‘moved with compassion’ (σπλαγχνισθείς, Matthew 18:27); and even more strikingly so in the description of the father of the Prodigal, who, when he saw his son returning, ἐσπλαγχνίσθη καὶ δραμὼν ἐπέπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ (Luke 15:20). So also the solitary use of οἰκτίρμων in the Gospels (used again only in James 5:11) is found in our Saviour’s exhortation, ‘Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful’; γίνεσθε οἰκτίρμονες καθὼς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν οἰκτίρμων ἐστί (Luke 6:36).
It is true that in speaking of God as the ‘Merciful One’ our Saviour was repeating what is a familiar thought in the OT, רַחוּם, ‘compassionate,’ is there used exclusively as an epithet of God (Deuteronomy 4:31), while in Sirach 50:19 we already find the simple רֵחוּם as a name of God (see Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 204); but in our Saviour’s teaching we recognize a new fulness and meaning in the thought that would have been impossible for men to grasp before He came who could say, ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father’ (John 14:9).
2. The teaching of St. John’s Gospel.—It is striking that in St. John’s Gospel we never find any word used which conveys the meaning of ‘pity’ or ‘compassion’; Christ is never described as ‘merciful’ or as ‘showing mercy,’ nor does He so speak of the Father; while even the exhortation to mercy as a duty of man to man is not found there.
Can we give a reason for this? or is the omission purely accidental? We believe the reason is found in the fact that in St. John’s mind the thought of ‘pity’ is absorbed in that of ‘love.’
To St. John was given the task of presenting the life of Christ upon earth in all its eternal meaning. The human idea of pity, as a feeling called forth by man’s needs, is but one manifestation of love. St. John does not stop to show that Jesus Christ both pitied and also loved men, but in passing at once to the thought of love as the bond of union between God and man manifested forth in the Saviour’s life upon earth, he naturally ascribes to it those actions that the Saviour’s contemporaries had felt as acts of mercy. As an illustration of this, we may take the story of the raising of Lazarus. Here is a miracle performed for those who knew more of Christ than merely that ‘He pitied them.’ The familiar cry for help, found so often in the first three Gospels (ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς), is not the message sent by the sisters, but instead, it is a direct appeal to love—‘He whom thou lovest is sick’ (John 11:3). The delay in giving the prompt relief which pity would ask for is explained by ‘Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus’ (John 11:5). At the sight of the sorrow of those about Him we are told ‘Jesus wept’; but the Evangelist apparently hastened to add the remark of the Jews, ‘Behold how he loved him,’ that the thought of His love should even here swallow up that of mere pity. And this fuller presentation of Christ’s feelings for men, he shows, had also been accompanied by a teaching of Christ, both as regards man’s duty to his fellow and also God’s attitude towards the world, which went far beyond what bad been already recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. St. Luke had preserved the saying, ‘Be ye therefore merciful,’ but St. John was the first to record how his Master had taught, ‘A new commandment give I unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you’ (John 13:34).
Christians had already in their hands the teaching of Christ which spoke of God as the ‘Merciful One,’ but now St. John records words which tell them not of a merciful God, but of a loving Father (John 3:16; John 14:23 etc.). It is true that even this conception of God is found in the OT, but a perusal of the passages in which ‘the love of God,’ or God as ‘loving,’ are spoken of, will show that such are always equivalent to the ‘pity’ of God, or God as ‘pitiful,’—that is, in direct relationship to man as a needy creature. In the Fourth Gospel, however, the thought is altogether different: the Father loves men with the same love with which He loves the Son (John 17:26); that same feeling of real affection with which Christ had let them feel He regarded them, He taught them was also the feeling of His Father towards them (John 14:21; John 14:23, John 16:26 f.). The common bond of fellowship between Christ and the Father and between man and God through the Son was the power of the Divine love (John 17:26). But whatever doubt may exist as to the meaning of the omission of the thought of pity in this Gospel, its very omission leads us to see how St. John supplies what might be felt as a want, in the first three Gospels, in another particular.
How are men to think of that pitiful, gracious Saviour who in His own life was so sorely tried and afflicted? Now nowhere in the Gospels—nor indeed in any passage of the NT—is Christ presented to men as an object of pity. The thought that seems to underlie the words of some well-known hymns, and even Isaiah 53, is not found in the NT. Pity is the demand for help, and as an object of our help Christ never appealed to men. On the contrary, He said to the women, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me’ (Luke 23:28); and to the disciple peter, ‘Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?’ (Matthew 26:53). To the Father alone He cries, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass from me’ (Matthew 26:39). But if we are not allowed to pity the suffering Saviour, are we to view His passion with indifference? St. John clearly and abundantly answers this question. While the mystery of pain is not revealed, the message of the Saviour’s agony is declared to be the proof to mankind of His and His Father’s love. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). That love manifested in dying is the same love spoken of in John 3:16, John 16:27, John 17:26.
It may well be doubted if any presentation of the Passion which moves our pity is in accordance with the Gospel (see, for a strong indictment against such, Ruskin’s Lectures on Art, ii. §§ 56, 57); but even if we hesitate to accept this, we must confess that unless we are led through pity to understand love, the message of pity has failed. ‘We must look through the suffering to the triumph.… The crucifix with the dead Christ obscures our faith. Our thoughts rest not upon a dead, but upon a living Christ. The closed eye and the bowed head are not the true marks of Him who reigns from the Cross, who teaches us to see through every sign of weakness the fulfilment of His own words, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself’ (Westcott, The Victory of the Cross, vi., which see throughout).
Literature.—Trench, NT Synon.8 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , 160 ff., 361; Westcott on Hebrews 10:28; Lightfoot on Philippians 1:8; Philippians 2:1; Liddell and Scott, s.vv.; also Maclear on Mark 3:5 (Cambr. Bible for Schools); Butler, Serm. v. vi.; T. G. Selby, The God of the Frail (1902) p. 1.
J. B. Bristow.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Pity'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/p/pity.html. 1906-1918.
