Jesus’s ‘Sorrow’ (Matt. 26.37–8)? Exploring the Connotations of a Tabooed Emotion

Abstract The attribution of λύπη to Jesus in Matthew’s Gethsemane (26.37–38) – typically translated as ‘sorrow’ or ‘grief’ – is often understood as an attempt to humanize Jesus’s anguish with a relatively benign emotion. However, interpreters rarely offer detailed analyses of the term or its connotations, particularly its physical intensity and how it readily triggered condemnation. This article employs semantic theory and affect theory to gain a fuller perspective on Jesus’s λύπη. It surveys the use of λυπ- words in ancient sources, classifies Jesus’s λύπη as ‘deep despair’, and highlights how the emotion was widely regarded as unacceptable for an honorable person, let alone a messiah. Finally, it traces allusions to the emotion within the passion narrative and offers suggestions for interpretation, including the irony that Jesus’s seemingly irredeemable qualities allow him to identify with those in emotional turmoil and more fully become Israel’s Immanuel.