Bowels

Bowels in Scripture function as the seat of deep emotional feeling, particularly compassion and tender affection. The Hebrew me'im and the Greek splagchna (literally “entrails”) are used in both testaments to describe the inner emotional center from which compassion flows. Paul appeals to Philemon in terms of “bowels of mercies” (Phil. 1:8; Philem. 7, 12, 20 KJV), translated in modern versions as “heart” or “affection.” The Revised Version consistently renders splagchna as “tender mercies” or “compassion.”

The expression “bowels of mercies” in Colossians 3:12 is part of a list of virtues to be “put on” as the garments of the new humanity in Christ: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. The physical metaphor reflects the ancient understanding that strong emotion was felt in the abdomen, a recognition of the embodied nature of human emotional life that the biblical languages preserve. In modern translation this visceral language is often softened, but its original force communicates the depth and physicality of the compassion being described.