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English Language & Usage

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    I’d not heard of this before, and I must admit I’m rather puzzled as to why Cromwell (or the addressees?) was located inside Christ’s bowels when he wrote… Commented Aug 29 at 18:09
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    @JanusBahsJacquet See stats.se for examples of usage. Note that "in the bowels of Jesus Christ" (ἐν σπλάγχνοις χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ) was used by Paul in Philippians 1:8 and "bowels" appears in a similar sense elsewhere - modern dynamic equivalence translations of the Bible sometimes use words like "pity", "compassion", "affection" or "love" instead of the literal "bowels". Commented Aug 29 at 19:19
  • Ah, I’m familiar with that sense of σπλάγχνον (cf. also Modern Greek ευσπλαχνία ‘compassion’), but being more of an ignorer than a scholar of the Bible, I didn’t realise the very literal translation ‘bowels’ had been used in the same extended sense in English. Commented Aug 29 at 19:37