What Does Philemon 1:7 Mean in the King James?
For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Here, love becomes rest reaching the deepest inward place where feeling lives.
THE MEANING
The love moving through you can give another person’s inward life a place to rest. That relief reaches beneath pleasant words into the deep center of feeling, and its effect becomes shared joy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that love is only private sentiment: here, love has a real effect on another person’s inward strain.
THE ROOT
ἀναπέπαυται
anapepautai
GROWS FROM
παυ-
pau-
Cease; bring to rest.
“refreshed” in this verse is anapepautai. The Greek says the saints’ inward parts have been brought to rest. The verb shares its root with words for rest: love appears as relief from strain, not extra stimulation.
ALSO GROWS
pauō: To cease or bring to a stop.
παύω
This root gives “refreshed” the sense of strain coming to a pause.
anapausis: Rest or respite.
ἀνάπαυσις
The related noun names the settled rest that this love brings to the saints.
katapausis: Rest or a resting place.
κατάπαυσις
This related form shows the root can name a place or state where exertion ends.
σπλάγχνα
splanchna
GROWS FROM
σπλαγχν-
splagchn-
Inward parts; entrails, and by extension the deep seat of feeling.
“Bowels” preserves a bodily image for the inward seat of tenderness and compassion. The verse says love reaches that deep center of feeling, and there the saints find rest.
ALSO GROWS
splagchnizomai: To be moved with compassion.
σπλαγχνίζομαι
This related verb shows the inward parts as the place where compassion stirs.
eusplagchnos: Tenderhearted; compassionate.
εὔσπλαγχνος
This related adjective links the same root to a tender disposition toward another.
THE PATTERN
Love becomes a form of rest when care reaches the inward life of another.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.THE THREAD
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.The Greek verb translated “rest” here belongs to the same root family as “refreshed” in Philemon. In both verses, relief arrives in the inward life of those carrying strain.
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