Saturday, July 01, 2006

Mat 18:27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

Of course, God always forgives us our debts. This is why Christ tells us that we must forgive others.

"Was moved with compassion" is from splanchnizomai (splagchnizomai), which means to "to feel great compassion." It is a New Testament word. It is from splanchnon which means ones insides, intestines.

"Loosed" is from apoluô, which means "to loose from," "to set free," and ""to discharge." Interestingly, in another context the word means "to destroy utterly," "to lose," and "to perish."

"Forgave" is from aphiêmi, which means "to send forth," "to launch," "to send away," "to put away," "to get rid of," "to set free," and "to be released from." It means literally "to go from." It is interesting that this word gets translated as "forgiven." It is Christ's first word in the Gospel Mat 3:15) when he tells John to "suffer" baptizing him. It is often translated as "to leave" or "to let" in the Gospels.