συμπαθέω

From the study of Hebrews 4:15

Range of meaning

From syn ("with") + paschō ("to experience, suffer"). The verb means to share someone's experience or feelings, to be affected along with them, and so to feel compassion that leads to action. In Greek philosophy the related noun sympatheia could also mean a natural connection between things that affect one another, but in moral use it means fellow-feeling with someone's suffering.

Against the English

"Sympathize" (BSB, ESV, NASB, YLT) comes from the same Greek root, but in modern English it often means feeling sorry for someone, sometimes at a distance. The KJV's "be touched with the feeling of" keeps the sense of being personally affected. NIV's "empathize" catches the inner sharing but can lose the practical, helping side.

How it drifted

Modern English "sympathy" has weakened toward a feeling or a sentiment, as in a sympathy card. The Greek verb stays close to its root idea of suffering-with.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the NT it occurs only in Hebrews (here and 10:34, where the readers "sympathized with the prisoners" by visiting and supporting them openly at cost to themselves). 4 Maccabees uses the word group for a mother's deep fellow-suffering with her martyred sons (e.g. 4 Macc 14:13–14; 15:4). 1 Peter 3:8 uses the adjective sympatheis among community virtues.

From the study of Hebrews 10:34

Range of meaning

Literally 'to suffer with' or 'to be affected together with' (syn, 'with', plus pathos, 'experience, suffering'). It covers fellow-feeling and compassion, and also being in someone's situation together with them. BDAG gives 'to have or show fellow-feeling, sympathize with'.

Against the English

BSB 'sympathized' and ESV 'had compassion' are accurate but can sound like private emotion. NIV and NLT 'suffered along with' bring out the shared cost. KJV 'had compassion of me in my bonds' follows a different Greek text.

How it drifted

Modern English 'sympathy' has thinned toward feeling sorry for someone, as in a sympathy card. The Greek verb is about feeling. The action comes from the context: 10:33 calls them 'partners' (koinōnoi) of the persecuted, and 13:3 tells them to remember prisoners 'as if bound with them'.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the NT it appears only here and in Hebrews 4:15, where Jesus the high priest is able 'to sympathize with our weaknesses' because he was tested in every way. 4 Maccabees, a Jewish martyr text from around the same period, uses it of God's care for human nature (5:25) and of brothers' mutual affection under torture (13:23).