ἐπιεικες

I know this makes me a nerd, but I have a new favorite Greek word. ἐπιεικες - pronounced ep-ie-kase - meaning "not insisting on every right of letter of law". It's kind of an interesting word for Greek students. It only occurs a few times in the New Testament; most notably the NIV translates it as 'gentleness' in Philippians 4:5, "Let your gentleness be evident to all." The problem is 'gentleness' does not give justice to what Paul is probably saying here. The following is my interpretation of what Paul is getting at here in Philippians 4:5... lets see if it changes anything inside you like it has inside me.

ἐπιεικες has a legal quality. William Barclay gives this example:
There are two students. An educator corrects their examination papers; applying justice, one has the grade of eighty per cent and the other has a fifty. From the point of view of justice there is nothing to be said against these marks. Each student receives his or her due. However, if we go a little further; we find that the student who received an eighty was able to do his work in ideal conditions; he has books, he has leisure, he has peace to study, a room where he can have quiet, he has no worries and no distractions, everything has been in his favor. Moreover, we find the other student, the one who scored fifty per cent comes from a poor home, where his equipment is the bare minimum, or he may have been ill and in pain, or he may have recently come through some time of sorrow or of stress or strain, that in fact, all the conditions were against him. In justice this man deserves fifty per cent and no more; but ἐπιεικες will value his paper higher than that.

ἐπιεικες is the quality of a person who knows that rules and regulations are not the last word; it is the quality of a man who knows when not to apply the letter of the law

Jesus is just setting down to teach in the Temple courts when some really religious men brought before him a woman who had been caught with a man other than her husband. The religious men, who knew what they were talking about, reminded Jesus that under the law this adulterous woman should be killed, and then they asked Jesus what should be done with her. Jesus ponders for a bit; then effectively replies, "How about the first person who can claim they have done no evil in their lives, that person can kill her." Amazingly no one took up this offer.
I believe that Jesus (being without sin) could have applied the letter of the Law, and she should, according to the law, have been killed. However, Jesus went beyond justice and introduced mercy.

In the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament you can find this word, ἐπιεικες , used in Psalm 86:5 to proclaim God's quickness to forgive.

With all this said, I have yet to come up with a better translation of ἐπιεικες than 'gentleness'. But now 'gentleness' has become something I strive after.

"Let your gentleness be evident to all."