the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Heart (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (καρδία)
1. Its physical sense.-‘Heart,’ which in the OT is frequently employed to denote the central organ of the body, is not found in the NT in this primary sense, though we have an allusion to it in St. Paul’s ‘fleshy tables of the heart’ (2 Corinthians 3:3). But the influence of the old Hebrew view that ‘the life of the flesh is in the blood’ (Leviticus 17:11) still persists; and in Acts 14:17, James 5:5 ‘heart’ is used to express the physical life that is nourished by food or surfeited with luxury. Owing, however, to the close connexion in the Hebrew mind between body and soul (see article Body), the transition was easy from the physical life to the spiritual; and in the NT It is a spiritual use of ‘heart’ with which we have almost wholly to do.
2. Its psychological sense.-(1) The word is frequently employed in a general way to designate the whole inward life of thought and feeling, desire and will, without any discrimination of separate faculties or activities (Acts 5:3, 1 Corinthians 14:25, 1 Peter 3:4, Hebrews 13:9). (2) In some cases it applies especially to the intellectual powers (Romans 1:21, 1 Corinthians 2:9, 2 Corinthians 4:6, 2 Peter 1:19), though elsewhere (Hebrews 8:10; Hebrews 10:15, Philippians 4:7) the heart and the mind are distinguished from each other. It is in this intellectual reference that the scriptural use of ‘heart’ differs from the ordinary usage of English speech; for though with us, as with the biblical writers, the word is employed with a wide variety of application as descriptive of the inner life and its various faculties, it is not used so as to include the rational and intellectual nature, from which, on the contrary, it is expressly distinguished, as in the common antithesis between the heart and the head. (3) In a few cases it denotes the will or faculty of determination (1 Corinthians 7:37, 2 Corinthians 9:7). In 1 Corinthians 4:5 βουλαὶ τῶν καρδίων, which English Version renders ‘the counsels of the hearts,’ would he more exactly translated by ‘the purposes (or resolutions) of the hearts.’ (4) It stands for the seat of feelings and emotions, whether joyful (Acts 2:26; Acts 2:46) or sorrowful (Romans 9:2, 2 Corinthians 2:4), and of desires, whether holy (Romans 10:1) or impure (Romans 1:24). Especially is it used of the affection of love, whether towards man (2 Corinthians 7:3, 1 Peter 1:22) or towards God (Romans 5:5, 2 Thessalonians 3:5).
3. Its ethical and religions significance.-(1) Occasionally ‘heart’ represents the moral faculty or conscience (Acts 2:37, Hebrews 8:10; Hebrews 10:16, 1 John 3:20). In Hebrews 10:22, ‘having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,’ the conscience, if not identified with the heart, is thought of as inhering in it. (2) As the centre of the personal life the heart stands for moral reality as distinguished from mere appearance (2 Corinthians 5:12). The ‘hidden man of the heart’ (1 Peter 3:4) is the real man, the obedience that comes from the heart (Romans 6:17) the true obedience. Hence ‘heart’ becomes equivalent to character as the good or evil resultant of moral activity and experience. Thus the heart may ‘wax gross’ (Acts 28:27) or may become ‘unblameable in holiness’ (1 Thessalonians 3:13); it may be hardened (Hebrews 3:8; Hebrews 3:15; Hebrews 4:7) and ‘exercised with covetousness’ (2 Peter 2:14), or it may bear the stamp of simplicity (Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22) and be purified by faith (Acts 15:9). (3) But, as this mention of faith reminds us, the heart in the NT is especially the sphere of religious experience. It is there that the natural knowledge of God has its seat (Romans 1:21), and there also that the light of the knowledge of His glory shines in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). There faith springs up and dwells and works (Romans 10:9-10, Acts 15:9), and there unbelief draws men away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12). It may become the haunt of unclean lusts that make men blind to the truth of God (Romans 1:24); but it is into the heart that God sends the Spirit of His Son (Galatians 4:6), and in the heart that Christ Himself takes up His abode (Ephesians 3:17). This life of the heart is a hidden life (1 Peter 3:4, 1 Corinthians 4:5), but it lies clearly open to the eyes of God, who searches and tries it (Romans 8:27, 1 Thessalonians 2:4). And the prime necessity of religion is a heart that is ‘right in the sight of God’ (Acts 8:21). Such a heart can be obtained only through faith (Acts 15:9, Romans 10:10, Ephesians 3:17) and as a gift from God Himself (cf. the OT saying, ‘A new heart also will I give you,’ Ezekiel 36:26) in virtue of that new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17) whereby a heart that is hard and impenitent (Romans 2:5) is transformed into one in which the love of God has been shed abroad through the Holy Ghost (5:5).
Literature.-H. Cremer, Lex. of NT Greek3, Edinburgh, 1880, s.v. καρδία, and Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche 3 vii. 773; J. Laidlaw, Bible Doctrine of Man, new ed., Edinburgh, 1895, p. 121; B. Weiss, Biblical Theology of the NT, Eng. translation , do. 1882-3, i.348.
J. C. Lambert.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Heart (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/h/heart-2.html. 1906-1918.
