Heart

Is used for the soul, and all the powers thereof; as the understanding , conscience, will, affections, and memory. The heart of man is naturally, constantly, universally, inexpressibly, openly, and evidently depraved, and inclined to evil, Jer 17:9. It requires a divine power to renovate it, and render it susceptible of right impressions, Jer 24:7. When thus renovated, the effects will be seen in the temper, conversation, and conduct at large.

See FAITH, HOPE, &c. Hardness of heart is that state in which a sinner is inclined to, and actually goes on in rebellion against God. This state evidences itself by light views of the evil of sin; partial acknowledgment and confession of it; frequent commission of it; pride and conceit: ingratitude; unconcern about the word and ordinances of God; inattention to divine providences; stifling convictions of conscience; shunning reproof; presumption, and general ignorance of divine things. We must distinguish, however, between that hardness of heart which even a good man complains of, and that of a judicial nature.

1. Judicial hardness is very seldom perceived, and never lamented; a broken and contrite heart is the least thing such desire; but it is otherwise with believers, for the hardness they feel is always a matter of grief to them, Rom 7:24.

2. Judicial hardness is perpetual; or, if ever there be any remorse or relenting, it is only at such times when the sinner is under some outward afflictions, or filled with the dread of the wrath of God; but as this wears off or abates, his stupidity returns as much or more than ever, Exo 9:27; but true believers, when no adverse dispensations trouble them, are often distressed because their hearts are no more affected in holy duties, or inflamed with love to God, Rom 7:15.

3. Judicial hardness is attended with a total neglect of duties, especially those that are secret; but that hardness of heart which a believer complains of, though it occasions his going uncomfortably in duty, yet does not keep him from it, Job 23:2; Job 3:1-26:

4. when a person is judicially hardened, he makes use of indirect and unwarrantable methods to maintain that false peace which he thinks himself happy in the enjoyment of; but a believer, when complaining of the hardness of his heart, cannot be satisfied with any thing short of Christ, Psa 101:2.

5. Judicial hardness generally opposes the interest of truth and godliness; but a good man considers this as a cause nearest his heart; and although he have to lament his lukewarmness, yet he constantly desires to promote it, Psa 72:19. Keeping the heart, is a duty enjoined in the sacred Scriptures. It consists, says Mr. Flavel, in the diligent and constant use and improvement of all holy means and duties to preserve the soul from sin, and maintain communion with God; and this, he properly observes, supposed a previous work of sanctification, which hath set the heart right by giving it a new bent and inclination.

1. It includes frequent observation of the frame of the heart, Psa 77:6.

2. Deep humiliation for heart evils and disorders, 2Ch 32:26.

3. Earnest supplication for heart purifying and rectifying grace, Psa 19:1-14

4. A constant holy jealousy over our hearts, Pro 27:14.

5. It includes the realizing of God’s presence with us, and setting him before us, Psa 16:8. Gen 17:1. This is,

1. The hardest work; heart work is hard work, indeed.

2. Constant work, Exo 17:12.

3. The most important work, Pro 23:1-35 This is a duty which should be attended to, if we consider it in connection with,

1. The honour of God, Is. 66: 3.

2. The sincerity of our profession, 2Ki 10:31. Eze 33:31; Eze 32:1-32:

3. The beauty of our conversation, Pro 12:26. Psa 45:1.

4. The comfort of our souls, 2Co 13:5.

5. The improvement of our graces, Psa 63:5; Psa 6:1-10:

6. The stability of our souls in the hour of temptation, 1Co 16:13.

The seasons in which we should more particularly keep our hearts are,

1. The time of prosperity, Deu 6:10; Deu 12:1-32:

2. Under afflictions, Heb 7:5; Heb 6:1-20:

3. The time of Sion’s troubles, Psa 46:1-11

4. In the time of great and threatened dangers, Is. 26: 20, 21.

5. Under great wants, Php 4:6-7.

6. In the time of duty, Lev 10:3.

7. Under injuries received, Rom 12:17, &c.

8. In the critical hour of temptation. Mat 26:41.

9. Under dark and doubting seasons, Heb 12:8. Is. 50: 10.

10. In time of opposition and suffering, 1Pe 4:12-13.

11. The time of sickness and death, Jer 49:11. The means to be made use of to keep our hearts, are,

1. Watchfulness, Mar 13:37.

2. Examination, Pro 4:26.

3. Prayer, Luk 18:1.

4. Reading God’s word, Joh 5:39.

5. Dependence on divine grace, Psa 86:1-17.

See Flavel on Keeping the Heart; Jameison’s Sermons on the Heart; Wright on self-possession; Ridgley’s Div. qu. 20.

The heart in all languages is considered as the leading principle of action and of character. A good man, (saith the Lord Jesus) out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Luke vi. 45.) Hence a change of circumstances in spiritual concerns, from darkness to light, is called "the taking away the heart of stone, and giving an heart of flesh, turning the heart ofthe fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers." Hence the Lord saith, in reference to his whole church, I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever." (Jer. xxx2: 39.)

The Hebrews regarded the heart as the source of wit, understanding, love, courage, grief, and pleasure. Hence are derived many modes of expression. “An honest and good heart,” Luk 8:15, is a heart studious of holiness, being prepared by the Spirit of God to receive the word with due affections, dispositions, and resolutions. We read of a broken heart, a clean heart, an evil heart, a liberal heart. To “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,”

Mal 4:6, signifies to cause them to be perfectly reconciled, and that they should be of the same mind. To want heart, sometimes denotes to want understanding and prudence: “Ephraim is like a silly dove, without heart,” Hos 7:11. “O fools, and slow of heart,” Luk 24:25; that is, ignorant, and without understanding. “This people’s heart is waxed gross, lest they should understand with their heart,” Mat 13:15; their heart is become incapable of understanding spiritual things; they resist the light, and are proof against all impressions of truth. “The prophets prophesy out of their own heart,” Eze 13:2; that is, according to their own imagination, without any warrant from God.

The heart is said to be dilated by joy, contracted by sadness, broken by sorrow, to grow fat, and be hardened by prosperity. The heart melts under discouragement, forsakes one under terror, is desolate in affliction, and fluctuating in doubt. To speak to any one’s heart is to comfort him, to say pleasing and affecting things to him. The heart expresses also the middle part of any thing: “Tyre is in the heart of the seas,” Eze 27:4; in the midst of the seas. “We will not fear though the mountains be carried into the heart (middle) of the sea,” Psa 46:2.

The heart of man is naturally depraved and inclined to evil, Jer 17:9. A divine power is requisite for its renovation, Joh 3:1-11. When thus renewed, the effects will be seen in the temper, conversation, and conduct at large. Hardness of heart is that state in which a sinner is inclined to, and actually goes on in, rebellion against God.

All the phrases, more or less metaphorical, in which this word occurs, are rendered intelligible, without detailed examples, when we are told that the heart was, among the Hebrews, regarded poetically not only as the seat of the passions and emotions, as of love, pleasure, and grief, but also of the intellectual faculties—the mind, the understanding. In the original Scriptures, as well as in the English and other translations, the word ’heart’ therefore, constantly occurs where ’mind’ is to be understood, and would be used by a modern English writer. We say modern, because the ancient usage of the English word ’heart’ was more conformable than the present to that of the Hebrews.

Often including the intellect as well as the affections and will; as conversely the "mind" often includes the feeling and will as well as the intellect. Rom 1:21, "their foolish heart was darkened." Eph 1:18, "the eyes of your understanding (the Vaticanus manuscript; but the Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus manuscripts ’heart’) being enlightened." Thus, the Scripture implies that the heart and the head act and react on one another; and in men’s unbelief it is the will that perverts the intellectual perceptions. Joh 7:17, "if any man be willing to (Greek) do, he shall know." "Willingness to obey" is the key to spiritual knowledge. See Jer 17:9; Hos 7:11, "Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart," i.e. "moral understanding".

Heart. Act 16:14 The seat of the affections, desires, hopes, and motives. Joh 14:1; Est 1:10. The term is also used by the Bible writers to designate the understanding, 1Co 2:9, and intellectual perceptions. It is further a general term for the spiritual nature of man. Isa 1:5; 2Co 4:6. In the latter passage the apostle speaks of the light shining in our hearts, teaching us of Christ as the one who reveals God. The heart is declared to be corrupt and full of evil, Ecc 9:3, and deceit, Jer 17:9, the seat of sin and crime, Mat 15:19, as also of faith. Rom 10:10. The Lord "looketh on the heart," 1Sa 16:7, in contrast to the outward appearance, and we are commanded to cultivate it, as the most important part of our nature, rather than external appearances. Pro 4:4; Joe 2:13. The expression, "to speak in the heart," 1Sa 1:13, is synonymous with "to think."

The present chapter has for its subject a discussion of those elements in human nature which are the sources or centres of emotion, volition, deliberation, and spiritual apprehension. It is comparatively easy for the physiologist or anatomist to mark out the different organs of the human body, and to learn their structure and manifold uses; but the psychologist has a harder task to perform; he has to analyse and classify his own sensations and emotions, to determine so far as possible which are from the body and which from an immaterial source, to compare his own mental constitution with the effects produced on and by the minds of others, to note how different classes of external entities appeal to and call forth distinct feelings, and move in various spheres of existence, touching finer or ruder chords of human sensibility, according to their nature and the aspect in which they are presented. The mental analyst is in danger of running to one of two extremes, and more especially so when applying his study to Scripture. He is sometimes inclined to take the popular words which represent the inner life, in a very loose and vague sense, using the one for the other as people do in their ordinary conversation, as if there were but one organ of emotion and volition in man, receiving different names according to the different relationship it has to sustain. At other times he is tempted to exercise his powers of mental anatomy in ranging and classifying the different powers of the immaterial existence in several groups, assigning each to a separate organ, and thus making the heart, the will, the conscience, and the understanding to be distinct members of a spiritual organisation. Each of these systems represent an aspect of truth, but each is imperfect if taken by itself. We are not in a position to grasp the subject of immaterial existence, and can only approach it relatively and in those aspects in which it exists in connection with bodily life. [Physiology and psychology are now seen to be closely related, and the brain (which is never referred to in the Bible) is regarded as the medium as well as the seat of mental faculties.] We are, as it were, organised grains of dust floating on an ocean of spiritual existence, which permeates our being, connects us with one another, and binds us to that higher sphere of life in which GOD dwells in this spirit-world we live and breathe and know and feel and think and determine, but we understand little of its nature, and certainly we are not in a position to decide whether there is only one hidden agency at work in our bodies, taking many forms through the medium of the brain and nerves, or whether the nucleus of our conscious life is to be considered as composite in its original nature; in other words, whether human nature is like an Aeolian harp, which has many strings, and produces wild and plaintive music through the blind force of the wind; or whether it is like an organ, not only complex in itself, but also played up on by a complex being, who gives expression to his own thought and feeling as he touches its keys.

The Bible does not discuss this subject; it makes use, however, of certain terms which require careful consideration, as they have stamped themselves up on our popular and religious language, and are sometimes used without consideration of the ideas which they were originally intended to convey.

The general Hebrew word for the heart is Lev (לב), answering to the Assyrian libbu. It is usually rendered καρδία in the LXX, but sometimes Greek words signifying the soul, the intellect, or the understanding, are taken to represent it.

Two or three other words are occasionally translated ’heart’ in the A. V., e.g., Nephesh, ’the soul’ (Exo 23:9, al.); Maiim (מעים), the bowels (Psa 40:8); Kir (קיר), the wall of the heart (Jer 4:19); and Kerev (קרב), the inner or middle part (Jer 9:8). Our translators might have adopted a similar rendering in Joh 7:38, which would then run thus--’out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water,’ the heart representing the innermost part of the body. The R. V. has made no correction.

The heart, according to Scripture, not only includes the motives, feelings, affections, and desires, but also the will, the aims, the principles, the thoughts, and the intellect of man in fact, it embraces the whole inner man, the head never being regarded as the seat of intelligence. Hence we read of men being ’wise hearted,’ Exo 31:6; Exo 36:2; of wisdom being put into the heart, 2Ch 9:23; of the heart being awake, Ecc 2:23, Son 5:2; of the thoughts of the heart, Deu 15:9; of words being laid up in the heart, 1Sa 21:12; and of mercy being written on the tablets of the heart, Pro 3:3 in 2Ki 5:26, Elisha says to Gehazi, ’Went not my heart with thee’ (or after thee); here a combination of knowledge and feeling is implied. There is also a beautiful expression in the Hebrew ’to speak to the heart,’ which we render, ’to speak comfortably or friendly,’ Rth 2:13; 2Sa 19:7; 2Ch 30:22; Isa 40:2 (’Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem’); Hos 2:14 (’I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her’).

Whilst it is the source of all action, and the centre of all thought and feeling, the heart is also described as receptive of influences both from the outer world and from God Himself The wisdom of the wise-hearted was given them by the Lord (2Ch 9:23); when Saul turned from Samuel, ’God gave him another heart’ or ’turned his heart into a new direction’ (1Sa 10:9); the Lord gave to Solom on ’a wise and an understanding heart’ (1Ki 3:12); He says concerning his people, ’I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever. . I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me’ (Jer 32:39-40); ’I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit with in you; and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh’ (Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26). Compare Psa 51:10, ’Create in me a clean heart.’ The word is used in the N.T in the same way as in the O.T.

The heart is often referred to in scripture as the seat of the affections and of the passions, also of wisdom and understanding - hence we read of ’the wise in heart,’ also the Lord gave to Solomon ’a wise and understanding heart.’ It is the centre of a man’s being. But before the deluge God’s verdict of man was that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen 6:5. A similar verdict is found in Gen 8:21, after Noah came out of the ark. And the Lord said, Out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts and every form of wickedness. Mar 7:21. The law required man to love God with all his heart. The reception of the gospel must be in the heart, Rom 10:9; and God enables a hearer to receive the good news in ’an honest and good heart,’ upon which there is fruit. Luk 8:15. In new creation there is a ’pure heart,’ the Christian being led by the Holy Spirit. 1Ti 1:5; 2Ti 2:22; 1Pe 1:22.

GOD Being The Strength Of Your Heart

Psa_73:26.

Hearts That Devise Wicked Imaginations

Pro_6:16-18.

Heaviness In The Heart

Pro_12:25.

Inclining Your Heart To The LORD

Jos_24:23.

Letting Your Heart Be Perfect With The LORD

1Ki_8:61.

Merry Hearts

Pro_15:13; Pro_17:22.

Not Imagining Evil In Your Heart

Zec_7:9-10; Zec_8:17.

Not Letting Your Heart Be Troubled

Joh_14:27.

Pouring Out Your Heart Before GOD

Psa_62:7-8.

Proud Hearts

Psa_119:69-70; Pro_21:4; Oba_1:1-3.

Purifying Your Heart

Jam_4:8.

Sorrow Of The Heart

Pro_15:13.

Sound Hearts

Pro_14:30.

The Heart Being Established With Grace

Heb_13:9.

The Heart Of Fools

Psa_14:1; Psa_53:1; Pro_12:23; Pro_15:7; Pro_18:2; Ecc_7:4; Ecc_10:2.

The Heart Of Man

Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21; Psa_73:26; Pro_16:9; Pro_18:12; Pro_19:3; Pro_19:21; Ecc_9:3; Jer_17:9-10; Rom_1:21-22; 1Jn_3:20.

The Heart Of The Prudent

Pro_18:15.

The Heart Of The Righteous

Psa_112:6-8; Pro_15:28.

The Heart Of The Wicked

Pro_10:20; Pro_26:23.

The Heart Of The Wise

Pro_16:23; Ecc_7:4; Ecc_8:2-5; Ecc_10:2.

The Heart Of Those That Have Understanding

Pro_14:33; Pro_15:14.

The Hypocrites In Heart

Job_36:13-14; Isa_29:13; Eze_33:30-32; Mar_7:6-13.

The LORD Knowing The Heart

1Ki_8:28-39; 1Ch_28:9; 2Ch_6:19-30; Luk_16:15; Act_15:8.

The LORD Looking Upon The Heart

1Sa_16:7; 1Ch_28:9; Pro_5:21; Pro_21:2; Pro_24:11-12; Jer_17:9-10; Rev_2:18-23.

The LORD Shining In Your Heart

2Co_4:6.

The Pure In Heart

Mat_5:8.

The Reward For Walking After The Imagination Of Your Own Heart

Deu_29:17-29; Jer_9:13-16; Jer_16:11-13.

The Wise In Heart

Pro_10:8; Pro_16:21.

The Wise Of Heart

Job_37:23-24.

Those That Are Of A Proud Heart

Pro_28:25.

Those That Are Upright In Heart

Psa_32:11.

Those That Harden Their Heart

Pro_28:14.

Those That Have A Froward Heart

Pro_11:20; Pro_17:20.

Those That Have A Perverse Heart

Pro_12:8.

Those That Trust In Their Own Heart

Pro_28:26.

Those That Walk In The Imagination Of Their Heart

Jer_13:9-10; Jer_23:16-17.

Those Whose Hearts Are Perfect Toward The LORD

2Ch_16:9.

Those Whose Hearts Depart From The LORD

Jer_17:5-6.

Those Whose Hearts Walk After Detestable Things

Eze_11:21.

What Destroys The Heart

Ecc_7:7.

What Not To Set Your Heart Upon

Psa_62:10.

What Proceeds From The Heart

Mat_15:10-11; Mat_15:15-20; Mar_7:14-23.

What Rejoices The Heart

Psa_19:8; Pro_15:30; Pro_27:9.

What Shall Keep Your Heart

Php_4:7.

What Takes Away The Heart

Hos_4:11-12.

Where Your Heart Will Be

Mat_6:19-21; Luk_12:33-34.

Whose Heart Becomes Darkened

Rom_1:21-22; Eph_4:17-18.

Whose Heart Is Right With GOD

Rom_2:29.

Whose Heart Shall Be Strengthened

Psa_27:14; Psa_31:24.

HEART.—In the NT ‘heart’ (καρδία) is the word most commonly used to denote the inner nature of man, the secret core of his being, where the springs of his intellectual and moral activity reside. In this, its general significance, it is the equivalent of the Hebrew term לֵב or לֵבָב in the OT. Originally employed to designate the bodily organ which is the centre of the animal life, it came by a natural process of thought to be applied to the invisible centre of the thinking and responsible life. In this sense it occurs with notable frequency in the Gospels; but there, like the corresponding word in the OT, whilst always referring to man’s interior nature, it is used in a variety of applications, according to the particular functions or aspects of that nature which are meant to be expressed. This is the ease also in the other NT writings.

i. Shades of meaning in the Gospels.—Heart in the Gospels is variously regarded—

1. As the faculty of thought, intelligence, and memory.—Persons are spoken of as pondering (Luk 2:19), musing (Luk 3:15), reasoning (Luk 5:22), having thoughts arising (Mat 9:4, Luk 9:47; Luk 24:38) in their heart; understanding or not with their heart (Mat 13:15, Mar 6:52; Mar 8:17); keeping, or laying up, things said or done, in their heart (Luk 1:56; Luk 2:51).

2. As the seat of the affections, emotions, and passions:—e.g. of love for God (Mat 22:37, Luk 10:27), for earthly or heavenly treasure (Mat 6:19-21); of joy (Joh 16:22, Luk 24:32); of sorrow (Joh 14:1; Joh 16:8); of forgivingness (Mat 18:35), purity (Mat 5:8), humility (Mat 11:29); of good or evil dispositions (Mat 12:34-35), perverse inclination (Mat 5:28, Mat 24:48), luxurious tastes and desires (Luk 21:34).

3. As the source of purpose and volition.—The disciples are enjoined to settle in their hearts not to meditate what they shall say (Luk 21:14); the fell design of Judas was put into his heart by Satan (Joh 13:2); the adulterous act is virtually done in the intention of the heart (Mat 5:28).

4. As the organ of moral discernment and religious belief, i.e. of conscience and faith.—Reproofs are given for the hardness of heart which prevents the reception of the truth (Mat 19:8, Mar 3:5; Mar 16:14), and for slowness of heart to believe (Luk 24:25); there is an exhortation not to doubt in the heart, but believe (Mar 11:23); and the pure in heart have the promise of Divine illumination (Mat 5:8).

In one passage only we find the phrase ‘the heart of the earth’ (Mat 12:40).

ii. Christ’s emphasis on the heart.—The superlative importance which Christ attached to the heart and its right condition was one of the pre-eminent characteristics of His teaching. He possessed an unrivalled insight into the workings of the heart (Joh 2:24-25), and could read what was going on there with a penetration and accuracy often startling (Mat 9:4; Mat 12:25; Mat 22:18, Mar 2:8, Luk 9:47). But His unique peculiarity was the seriousness and persistency with which He dealt with the heart, and laboured for its purification as the one concern vital to the well-being of men. To the heart He always appealed, and on its deepest instincts He sought to bring His influence to bear; and although in many of His utterances the heart is not expressly named, it is still obvious that He had it directly in view. This was the ‘inwardness’ which constituted His great secret. The main points on which He insisted were:

1. The heart as the source of all the good or the evil in men’s lives.—He dwelt on this with special earnestness—e.g. in His reply to the tradition-bound objectors, ‘Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,’ etc., ‘the things which defile a man’ (Mat 15:19 f.); and in that suggestive saying, ‘A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil’ (Luk 6:45); and the idea is to be found running through all His teaching.

2. The dispositions and motives of the heart as determining the religious value of actions.—Jesus unfailingly taught that the test of a man’s worth before God was not the outward propriety of his conduct, but the heart-inclinations and purposes by which he was swayed (Luk 16:15). Even a correctly decorous Pharisee like Simon did not stand so high in the Divine estimation as the frail woman who had erred sadly, because, while he was proud and self-satisfied in his moral respectability, she, amid all her failings, was melted into heartfelt penitence and gratitude (Luk 7:36-39). A man’s conduct may be free from all formal commission of impurity, but if he lust after a woman in his heart, the stain of impurity is already incurred (Mat 5:28). Many things outwardly right and proper were done by the religionists of His day—seasons of prayer duly observed, alms given, etc.—which yet He pronounced to be of little moral value because done from a false motive, the desire for social credit, ‘to be seen of men’ (Mat 6:2; Mat 6:5). On the other hand, humble and obscure actions, like the widow’s offering and the publican’s supplication, He declared to be of inestimable worth in the eye of Heaven, by reason of the genuine heart-feeling from which they sprang (Mar 12:41-44, Luk 18:13-14). And in the great Judgment-picture (Mat 25:31-46), He made it clear that it is the frank, unaffected generosity of the heart, finding expression in deeds of simple dutifulness, that ranks high in the Father’s sight and secures the reward of immortal blessedness. Always and everywhere He pierced below surface appearances, and demanded inner rectitude as the criterion of worth.

3. The regeneration of the heart as essential both to a right relation to God and to true happiness.—The repentance Jesus preached meant a change of heart (Mat 4:17; Mat 9:13, Luk 13:3); the conversion He urged as a necessity was a turning of the heart to God as the source of life and grace (Mat 13:15, Mar 4:12, Joh 12:40), a restoration of the childlike spirit (Mat 18:3), a new birth within, apart from which it is impossible to enjoy the blessings of the heavenly Kingdom (Joh 3:3-7).

iii. Evils counteracted by Christ’s teaching.—Of these, four at least may be specially noted:

1. A pretentious ecclesiasticism.—Men’s minds were drawn away from dependence on the mere institutional aspects of religion, and confronted with the absolute necessity of internal righteousness. When orthodox Jews took a stand on their connexion with an ancient religious organization with its high covenanted privileges, and boasted of being children of Abraham, Christ flatly challenged their right to such a title, because of the vile purposes they cherished in their hearts, which proved that they did not possess Abraham’s spirit (Joh 8:39). He avowed that a scorned publican like Zacchaeus, who was outside the pale of ecclesiastical recognition, was more truly a son of Abraham, in virtue of the higher dispositions which had been stirred in his heart, and which placed him in the line of moral and spiritual descent (Luk 19:9). Again, in face of the arrogant presumption that restricted Divine blessing and salvation to those within the bounds of Judaism and its religious system, He held up the kind services of a generous heart as sufficient to raise even a Samaritan to a level of equal worth before God (Luk 10:30-37).

2. An external ceremonialism.—Jesus attacked, sometimes with fiery indignation, the superficiality of that righteousness which was based on a punctilious attention to certain prescribed observances,—the tithing of mint and cummin, when justice, mercy, and the faith of the heart were neglected (Mat 23:23, Luk 11:42); the fastings which had no genuine penitence behind them (Mat 6:17-18); the careful washing of hands, while the heart was inwardly defiled (Mat 15:2-3). It was His dominant idea that on the disposition of the heart the spiritual value of worship depends (Joh 4:24), and He had strong warnings to utter against the offerings at the altar when sinister feelings were nursed within (Mat 5:23), and the ascription of honour to God with the lips while the heart was far from Him (Mat 15:8). With scathing rebukes He exposed the pretensions of those who claimed peculiar sanctity on the ground of their ceremonial scrupulousness, characterizing them as whited sepulchres, outwardly fair, but inwardly full of uncleanness (Mat 23:27). Thus He represented all external acts of righteousness which do not spring out of an upright, pious heart as a mere hypocritical show, and not real righteousness (Mat 6:1-6).

3. A legalistic moralism.—In view of the fact that the great spiritual ideas inculcated by the prophets had been hardened into fixed laws and rules, in formal obedience to which righteousness was made to consist, Christ’s endeavour to recall men to the supreme importance of inner motive was calculated to exert a powerful effect. The confidence which many had in their moral respectability was necessarily shaken when they found themselves forced to look within, and judge themselves by something higher than a legal standard; as, e.g., in the case of the young man who had great possessions, and whose conduct outwardly was without reproach (Mat 19:16-22). And there can be little doubt that the uneasiness and irritation created among the professedly religious classes by Christ’s teaching was largely due to the consciousness it wakened in them of the insufficiency of the grounds on which their claim to righteousness was based. In the light of the stress He laid on the hidden springs of action in the heart, their moral regularity of life, founded on mere conformity to laws and rules, was bound to appear unsatisfactory and poor.

4. A self-sufficient secularism.—Such teaching, setting the renewed dispositions of the heart far above the riches and honours of the world in value, supplied a potent counteractive to the proud security and self-assumption which prosperous worldliness is apt to beget. It forced home the sense of something wanting within, even when the outward fortunes were flourishing. The parable of the Rich Fool is a vivid picture of the real poverty of the man who trusts in his worldly success and is not rich in the things that belong to the inner life (Luk 12:16-21); while in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus there is another picture, fitted to break down the self-confidence of the prosperous, showing that the day will come when conditions may be reversed, and when heart-qualities alone will determine the status and happiness of men (Luk 16:19-31).

iv. The revivifying effect on religion.—By His insistence on the heart as the vital element in righteousness, Christ transformed the whole character of religion. He made it (1) living,—not mechanical, a matter of prescribed and outwardly imposed form, but dynamical, a free, spontaneous spring of high purpose and feeling; not something put on, but a bent and impulse of the spirit within. Thus He gave religion an elasticity and perpetual vitality which prophesy for it permanence and power,—‘a well of water springing up unto everlasting life’ (Joh 4:14). He made it (2) effectually operative,—an energizing force, working itself out in practical life, impressing its hallowed ideas and aims on the world of affairs, and proving its reality by the heightened quality of the actions to which it leads. And He made it (3) a gracious influence,—commending itself to the general conscience, winning reverence, inspiring self-devotion, and transmitting from heart to heart fervours of aspiration after the things of God.

Literature.—Cremer, Bib. Theol. Lex. s.v. καρδἰα; art. ‘Herz’ in PR^{E [Note: RE Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred]} ; Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, i. 265 ff.; Martensen, Christian Ethics (Individual), 80 ff.; Weiss, Bib. Theol. of NT, i. 124.

G. M ‘Hardy.

(Hebr. "leb," or "lebab").

By: Kaufmann Kohler, Tobias Schanfarber, Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., Adolf Guttmacher

—Biblical Data:

The seat of the emotional and intellectual life. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. iv. 23), refers to the moral and spiritual as well as the physical life. Animals have simply a sentient heart without personal consciousness or reason. This is what is meant when it is said that a beast's heart was given to Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iv. 13 [A. V. 16]). Delitzsch ("System der Biblischen Psychologie," p. 252) calls attention to the fact that the Arabic Ḥamasa (p. 513) says explicitly that the brute is without heart ("bi-ghair lubb").

The three special functions, knowing, feeling, and willing, ascribed by modern psychologists to the mind, were attributed to the heart by the Biblical writers (comp. Assyrian "libbu" = "heart," in Delitzsch, "Assyrisches Handwörterb." p. 367). In the Book of Daniel intellectual functions are ascribed not to the head only (Dan. ii. 28; iv. 2, 7, 10 [A. V. 5, 10, 13]; vii. 1, 15), but also to the heart (ib. ii. 30).

Its Psychical Aspects.

The heart as the seat of thought is referred to in "maḥshebot libbo" (thoughts of his heart; Ps. xxxiii. 11) and in "morashe lebabi" (possessions or thoughts of my heart; Job xvii. 11). So "amar beleb" (Obad. i. 3), "amar el leb" (Gen. viii. 21), "dibber 'im leb" (Eccl. i. 16) (= "to speak to the heart" or "to oneself"), mean "to think." The heart knows and perceives (Deut. xxix. 3 [A. V. 4]); it remembers and forgets (I Sam. xxi. 13 [A. V. 12]; Deut. iv. 9). "A dead man out of heart" (A. V. "mind"; Ps. xxxi. 13 [A. V. 12]) means a dead man forgotten. The man of understanding is called "ish [plur. "anshe"] lebab" = "the man of heart" (Job xxxiv. 10, 34), and the man without understanding "ḥasar leb" (Prov. x. 13) or "en leb" (Jer. v. 21), "the man void of heart" or "without heart."

That the heart is the seat of emotion is the generally accepted opinion of all investigators into the psychology of the Bible, though Carl Grüneisen ("Der Ahnenkultus und die Urreligion Israels," p. 39) denies it. All modes of feeling, from the lowest physical forms, as hunger and thirst, to the highest spiritual forms, as reverence and remorse, are attributed by the Hebrews to the heart (comp. Gen. xviii. 5; Judges xix. 5; Ps. cii. 5 [A. V. 4]); so joy and gladness, sorrow and grief, fear and reverence (Zeph. iii. 14; Isa. lxvi. 14; Ps. xiii. 3 [A. V. 2]; Deut. xx. 3, 7, 8; Jer. xxxii. 40). Still the term "nefesh" (soul) is more frequently used with reference to the appetites.

Is the Seat of Volition.

The heart is also the seat of volition. It is self-directing and self-determining. All conscious resolvesemanate from that source (comp. "mela'olibbo" [Esth. vii. 5]; "nadab libbo oto" [Ex. xxxv. 29]; "nesa'o libbo" [Ex. xxxv. 21]; and "natan libbo" [Eccl. i. 13]). When the words "heart" and "soul" are used in connection with each other (Deut. vi. 5), they are not used merely as synonymous terms in order to add force to the expression, for the phrase "with all your heart" denotes the love of conscious resolve, in which the whole being consents, and which must at once become a natural inclination (see Cremer, "Biblico-Theological Lexicon," s.v. καρδία, transl. by William Urwick, p. 347).

It is in the heart that the heart becomes conscious of itself and of its own operations. It recognizes its own suffering. It is the seat of self-consciousness: "the heart knoweth its [A. V. "his"] own bitterness" (Prov. xiv. 10). As the whole physical and psychical life is centralized in the heart, so the whole moral life springs from and issues out of it. This is clear from such expressions as "shalem" and "tam" (perfect), "ṭahor" (pure), "ṭob" (good), and "yashar" (upright), used in connection with the heart. The Biblical writers speak of the false heart, the stubborn and obstreperous heart, and the heart distant from God (Ps. ci. 4; Jer. v. 23; Isa. xxix. 13). The hypocrite is the man with a double or divided heart: where one would say "two-faced," the Psalmist says "two-hearted" ("beleb waleb"; Ps. xii. 3 [A. V. 2]). Lazarus ("The Ethics of Judaism," Engl. transl., ii. 60, note) observes that "the Talmudic 'libbo' rarely reaches the inclusive meaning of the Hebrew 'leb,' which comprises the whole psychic phenomena. As a rule, the Talmudic expression approaches the modern 'heart,' primarily indicating inner conviction as contrasted with external deed" (see Sanh. 106b; Ber. 20a, Munich MS.). There is an interesting discussion between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua as to whether the heart or the head should be regarded as the seat of wisdom (Yalḳ., Prov. 929).

Maimonides, in discussing the term "leb," says that it is a word used homonymously, primarily signifying the organ of life and then coming to mean "center," "thought," "resolution," "will," "intellect" ("Moreh Nebukim," i. 39). See Psychology of the Bible.

"Leb" is used figuratively for the center or innermost part of objects other than the human body, in expressions such as "the heart of the sea" (Ex. xv. 8; Jonah ii. 3); "the heart of heaven" (Deut. iv. 11; A. V. "midst"); "the heart [A. V. "midst"] of an oak-tree" (II Sam. xviii. 14). In this use "heart" has gone over into the English language as a Hebraism when mention is made of the "heart" or "core" (Latin "cor") of a subject or object, meaning its central or innermost part, its central idea or essence. "She'er" (flesh) and "leb" (heart) are used conjointly to designate the whole inner and outer life of man (Ps. lxxiii. 26).

Bibliography:

Franz Delitzsch, System der Biblischen Psychologie, 2d ed., § 12, pp. 248-265;

Charles A. Briggs, A Study of the Use of Leb and Lebab in the Old Testament, in Kohut Memorial Volume, pp. 44, 105;

J. T. Beck, Umriss der Biblischen Seelenlehre, 1843, Eng. transl., 1877, § iii., pp. 78-148;

D. R. Goodwin, in Jour. Bib. Lit. i. 67-72;

Hamburger, R. B. T.;

Protestantische Real-Encyc.;

Schenkel, Bibel Lexicon;

Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl.;

Hastings, Dict. Bible.

K. T. S.—In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature:

Καρδία in the Apocrypha, and in rabbinical literature, have the various meanings of the Biblical term = "heart."

1. As the Seat of the Physical Organism:

Compare Tobit vi. 4-7, and the numerous references in Talmud and Midrash, especially the treatise Ḥullin, which treats largely of the traditional manner of slaughtering animals for ordinary use.

2. As the Seat of All Morality and of All Moral and Spiritual Functions:

The heart being the center of personal life, and in fact of man's collective energies, as well as the laboratory for the appropriation and assimilation of every influence, the moral and religious conditions of man wholly depend upon it. For example, in II Esdras (ix. 31) occurs, "I sow my law in you [in your hearts] and it shall bring fruit in you, and ye shall be honored in it forever." II Macc. ii. 3 reads: "And with other such speeches exhorted he them, that the law should not depart from their hearts." "Yes, therefore, Thou hast given us a heart that we may fear You and call upon Your name" (Baruch iii. 7; comp. Tobit i. 12). That God "requires the service of the heart" is a favorite saying of the Rabbis.

As in the Bible (Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21), the seat of good and evil impulses alike is neither the body nor the soul, but rather the heart (not, of course, the physical organ, but the willing and thinking self); thus the Rabbis frequently use "yeẓer" to interpret the Biblical term . "Esau speaks in his heart" is rendered in Gen. R. lxvii., "The wicked are in the power of their heart, but the righteous have their heart in their power." In Num. R. xvi. it is said, in reference to the report of the spies, "The heart and the eyes are the cause of their sin." "The evil desire is living in the heart" (Ber. 61a). The heart is the organ of conscience. Thus the Septuagint translates Ecclus. (Sirach) xlii. 18, "The heart He searcheth," with συνείδησις = "conscience" (comp. Wisdom xvii. 11).

The heart is also the seat of feeling, of courage, of hatred, of pride, and of deceit. "As the heart is first to feel sorrow, so it is also first to feel joy" (Ex. R. xix.; comp. Prov. xiv. 10). "Set thy heart aright, and constantly endure" (Ecclus. [Sirach] ii. 2). "Do not approach righteousness with a divided heart" (Enoch xci. 4). "My son, love your brethren, and do not turn from them with a proud heart" (Tobit iv. 13). "With his lips the enemy talketh sweetly, but in his heart he planneth to throw thee into a pit" (Ecclus. [Sirach] xii. 16).

There is a famous reference in "Cuzari," ii. 36 et seq., to the effect that Israel occupies the position among the nations which the heart occupies among the organs of the human body. For the heart is most exposed to the ills of the flesh, and most sensitive to all changes of temperament, hatred and love, fear and vengeance, etc.

3. As the Seat of the Intellect and the Will:

"Do not follow thy desires to walk in the ways of thy heart" (Ecclus. [Sirach] v. 2; comp. ib. iii. 24, 25; Baruch ii. 30, 31). In Eccl. R. i. 1 the Biblical passage I Kings iii. 5 et seq. is referred to, where Solomon, in answer to Yhwh's request that he shall ask for something, asks for an understanding(hearing) heart. The Midrash renders "an understanding heart" by "wisdom"; and there it is said that God gives Solomon "wisdom and understanding." "The heart of the ancients was as large as the gate of Ulam, the heart of the later ones as the gate of Hekal; and ours is like the eye of a needle" ('Er. 53a). This refers not to the actual size of the physical heart, but to difference in mental attainments.

Bibliography:

E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments;

Deane, Pseudepigrapha;

Porter, The Yeçer Hara, in Yale Bicentennial Publications;

Wahl's Wörterb.

HEART.—1. Instances are not wanting in the OT of the employment of this word in a physiological sense, though they are not numerous. Jacob, for example, seems to have suffered in his old age from weakness of the heart; a sudden failure of its action occurred on receipt of the unexpected but joyful news of Joseph’s great prosperity (Gen 45:26). A similar failure proved fatal in the case of Eli, also in extreme old age (1Sa 4:13-18; cf. the case of the exhausted king, 1Sa 28:20). The effect of the rending of the pericardium is referred to by Hosea as well known (1Sa 13:8); and although the proverb ‘a sound (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘tranquil’) heart is the life of the flesh’ (Pro 14:30) is primarily intended as a psychological truth, the simile is evidently borrowed from a universally recognized physiological fact (cf. Pro 4:23). The aphorism attributed to ‘the Preacher’ (Ecc 10:2) may be interpreted in the same way; the ‘right hand’ is the symbol of strength and firmness, and the left of weakness and indecision (cf. Ecc 2:14). Nor does it appear that OT writers were ignorant of the vital functions which the heart is called on to discharge. This will be seen by their habit of using the word metaphorically as almost a synonym for the entire life (cf. Psa 22:26; Psa 69:32, Isa 1:5, where ‘head’ and ‘heart’ cover man’s whole being).

2. The preponderating use of the word is, however, psychological; and it is in this way made to cover a large variety of thought. Thus it is employed to denote the centre of man’s personal activities, the source whence the principles of his action derive their origin (see Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21, where men’s evil deeds are attributed to corruption of the heart). We are, therefore, able to understand the significance of the Psalmist’s penitential prayer, ‘Create in me a clean heart’ (Psa 51:10), and the meaning of the prophet’s declaration, ‘a new heart also will I give you’ (Eze 36:26; cf. Eze 11:19). The heart, moreover, was considered to be the seat of the emotions and passions (Deu 19:6, 1Ki 8:38, Isa 30:29; cf. Psa 104:15, where the heart is said to be moved to gladness by the use of wine). It was a characteristic, too, of Hebraistic thought which made this organ the seat of the various activities of the intellect, such as understanding (Job 34:10; Job 34:34, 1Ki 4:29), purpose or determination (Exo 14:5, 1Sa 7:3, 1Ki 8:48, Isa 10:7), consciousness (Pro 14:10, where, if EV [Note: English Version.] be an accurate tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of the original text, the heart is said to be conscious both of sorrow and of joy; cf. 1Sa 2:1), imagination (cf. Luk 1:51, Gen 8:21), memory (Psa 31:12, 1Sa 21:12; cf. Luk 2:19; Luk 2:51; Luk 1:66). The monitions of the conscience are said to proceed from the heart (Job 27:6), and the counterpart of the NT expression ‘branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron’ (1Ti 4:2 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) is found in the OT words ‘I will harden his heart’ (Exo 4:21; cf. Deu 2:30, Jos 11:20 etc.). Closely connected with the idea of conscience is that of moral character, and so we find ‘a new heart’ as the great desideratum of a people needing restoration to full and intimate relationship with God (Eze 18:31; cf. Deu 9:5, 1Ki 11:4). It is, therefore, in those movements which characterize repentance, placed in antithesis to outward manifestations of sorrow for sin, ‘Rend your heart and not your garments’ (Joe 2:13).

3. Moving along in the direction thus outlined, and not forgetting the influence of the Apocryphal writings on later thought (cf. e.g. Wis 8:19; Wis 17:11, Sir 42:18 etc.), we shall be enabled to grasp the religious ideas enshrined in the teaching of the NT. In the recorded utterances of Jesus, so profoundly influenced by the ancient writings of the Jewish Church, the heart occupies a very central place. The beatific vision is reserved for those whose hearts are ‘pure’ (Mat 5:8; cf. 2Ti 2:22, 1Pe 1:22 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). The heart is compared to the soil on which seed is sown; it containsmoral potentialities which spring into objective existence in the outward life of the receiver (Luk 8:15; cf., however, Mar 4:15-20, where no mention is made of this organ; see also Mat 13:18, in which the heart is referred to, as in Isa 6:10, as the seat of the spiritual understanding). Hidden within the remote recesses of the heart are those principles and thoughts which will inevitably spring into active life, revealing its purity or its native corruption (Luk 6:45; cf. Mat 12:34 f., Mat 15:18 f.). It is thus that men’s characters reveal themselves in naked reality (1Pe 3:4). It is the infallible index of human character, but can be read only by Him who ‘searcheth the hearts’ (Rom 8:27; cf. 1Sa 16:7, Pro 21:2, Luk 16:15). Human judgment can proceed only according to the unerring evidence tendered by this resultant of inner forces, for ‘by their fruits ye shall know them’ (Mat 7:20). The more strictly Jewish of the NT writers show the influence of OT thought in their teaching. Where we should employ the word ‘conscience’ St. John uses ‘heart,’ whose judgments in the moral sphere are final (1Jn 3:20 f.). Nor is St. Paul free from the influence of this nomenclature. He seems, in fact, to regard conscience as a function of the heart rather than as an independent moral and spiritual organ (Rom 2:15, where both words occur; cf. the quotation Heb 10:16). In spite of the fact that the last-named Apostle frequently employs the terms ‘mind,’ ‘understanding,’ ‘reason,’ ‘thinkings,’ etc., to express the elements of intellectual activity in man, we find him constantly reverting to the heart as discharging functions closely allied to these (cf. ‘the eyes of your heart,’ Eph 1:18; see also 2Co 4:6). With St. Paul, too, the heart is the seat of the determination or will (cf. 1Co 7:37, where ‘steadfast in heart’ is equivalent to will-power). In all these and similar cases, however, it will be noticed that it is man’s moral nature that he has in view; and the moral and spiritual life, having its roots struck deep in his being, is appropriately conceived of as springing ultimately from the most essentially vital organ of his personal life.

J. R. Willis.

hart (לב, lēbh, לבב, lēbhābh; καρδία, kardı́a): The different senses in which the word occurs in the Old Testament and the New Testament may be grouped under the following heads:

1. Various Meanings

It represents in the first place the bodily organ, and by easy transition those experiences which affect or are affected by the body. Fear, love, courage, anger, Joy, sorrow, hatred are always ascribed to the heart - especially in the Old Testament; thus courage for which usually rū^aḥ is used (Psa 27:14); joy (Psa 4:7); anger (Deu 19:6, “while his heart is hot,” lēbhābh); fear (1Sa 25:37); sorrow (Psa 13:2), etc.

Hence, naturally it came to stand for the man himself (Deu 7:17; “say in thine heart,” Isa 14:13).

2. Heart and Personality

As representing the man himself, it was considered to be the seat of the emotions and passions and appetites (Gen 18:5; Lev 19:17; Psa 104:15), and embraced likewise the intellectual and moral faculties - though these are necessarily ascribed to the “soul” as well. This distinction is not always observed.

3. Soul and Heart

“Soul” in Hebrew can never be rendered by “heart”; nor can “heart” be considered as a synonym for “soul.” Cremer has well observed: “The Hebrew nephesh (“soul”) is never translated kardia (“heart”).... The range of the Hebrew nephesh, to which the Greek psuchḗ alone corresponds, differs so widely from the ideas connected with psuchē, that utter confusion would have ensued had psuchē been employed in an unlimited degree for lēbh (“heart”). The Biblical lēbh never, like psuchē, denotes the personal subject, nor could it do so. That which in classical Greek is ascribed to psuchē (a good soul, a just soul, etc.) is in the Bible ascribed to the heart alone and cannot be otherwise” (Cremer, Lexicon, article “Kardia,” 437ff, German edition).

4. Center of Vital Action

In the heart vital action is centered (1Ki 21:7). “Heart,” except as a bodily organ, is never ascribed to animals, as is the case sometimes with nephesh and rū^aḥ (Lev 17:11, ה, nephesh; Gen 2:19; Num 16:22; Gen 7:22, ה, ruaḥ). “Heart” is thus often used interchangeably with these two (Gen 41:8; Psa 86:4; Psa 119:20); but “it never denotes the personal subject, always the personal organ.”

5. Heart and Mind

As the central organ in the body, forming a focus for its vital action, it has come to stand for the center of its moral, spiritual, intellectual life. “In particular the heart is the place in which the process of self-consciousness is carried out, in which the soul is at home with itself, and is conscious of all its doing and suffering as its own” (Oehler). Hence, it is that men of “courage” are called “men of the heart”; that the Lord is said to speak “in his heart” (Gen 8:21); that men “know in their own heart” (Deu 8:5); that “no one considereth in his heart’ (Isa 44:19 the King James Version). “Heart” in this connection is sometimes rendered “mind,” as in Num 16:28 (“of mine own mind,” Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) ex proprio corde, Septuagint ap’ emautoú); the foolish “is void of understanding,” i.e. “heart” (Pro 6:32, where the Septuagint renders phrenō̇n, Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) cordis, Luther “der ist ein Narr”). God is represented as “searching the heart” and “trying the reins” (Jer 17:10 the King James Version). Thus, “heart” comes to stand for “conscience,” for which there is no word in Hebrew, as in Job 27:6, “My heart shall not reproach me,” or in 1Sa 24:5, “David’s heart smote him”; compare 1Sa 25:31. From this it appears, in the words of Owen: “The heart in Scripture is variously used, sometimes for the mind and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the affections, sometimes for the conscience, sometimes for the whole soul. Generally, it denotes the whole soul of man and all the faculties of it, not absolutely, but as they are all one principle of moral operations, as they all concur in our doing of good and evil.”

6. Figurative Senses

The radical corruption of human nature is clearly taught in Scripture and brought into connection with the heart. It is “uncircumcised” (Jer 9:26; Eze 44:7; compare Act 7:51); and “hardened” (Exo 4:21); “wicked” (Pro 26:23); “perverse” (Pro 11:20); “godless” (Job 36:13); “deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9 the King James Version). It defiles the whole man (Mat 15:19, Mat 15:20); resists, as in the case of Pharaoh, the repeated call of God (Exo 7:13). There, however, the law of God is written (Rom 2:15); there the work of grace is wrought (Act 15:9), for the “heart” may be “renewed” by grace (Eze 36:26), because the “heart” is the seat of sin (Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21).

7. Process of Heart Renewal

This process of heart-renewal is indicated in various ways. It is the removal of a “stony heart” (Eze 11:19). The heart becomes “clean” (Psa 51:10); “fixed” (Psa 112:7) through “the fear” of the Lord (1Sa 25:1); “With the heart man believeth” (Rom 10:10); on the “heart” the power of God is exercised for renewal (Jer 31:33). To God the bereaved apostles pray as a knower of the heart (Act 1:24 - a word not known to classical writers, found only here in the New Testament and in Act 15:8, kardiognō̇stēs). In the “heart” God’s Spirit dwells with might (Eph 3:16, eis tón ésō ánthrōpon); in the “heart” God’s love is poured forth (Rom 5:5). The Spirit of His son has been “sent forth into the heart” (Gal 4:6); the “earnest of the Spirit” has been given “in the heart” (2Co 1:22). In the work of grace, therefore, the heart occupies a position almost unique.

8. The Heart First

We might also refer here to the command, on which both the Old Testament and New Testament revelation of love is based: “Thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deu 6:5); where “heart” always takes the first place, and is the term which in the New Testament rendering remains unchanged (compare Mat 22:37; Mar 12:30, Mar 12:33; Luk 10:27, where “heart” always takes precedence).

9. A Term for “Deepest”

A bare reference may be made to the employment of the term for that which is innermost, hidden, deepest in anything (Exo 15:8; Jon 2:3), the very center of things. This we find in all languages. Compare Eph 3:16, Eph 3:17, “in the inward man,” as above.

(êáñäßá)

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’ (2Co_3:3). But the influence of the old Hebrew view that ‘the life of the flesh is in the blood’ (Lev_17:11) still persists; and in Act_14:17, Jam_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 (Act_5:3, 1Co_14:25, 1Pe_3:4, Heb_13:9). (2) In some cases it applies especially to the intellectual powers (Rom_1:21, 1Co_2:9, 2Co_4:6, 2Pe_1:19), though elsewhere (Heb_8:10; Heb_10:15, Php_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 (1Co_7:37, 2Co_9:7). In 1Co_4:5 âïõëáὶ ôῶí êáñäßùí, 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 (Act_2:26; Act_2:46) or sorrowful (Rom_9:2, 2Co_2:4), and of desires, whether holy (Rom_10:1) or impure (Rom_1:24). Especially is it used of the affection of love, whether towards man (2Co_7:3, 1Pe_1:22) or towards God (Rom_5:5, 2Th_3:5).

3. Its ethical and religions significance.-(1) Occasionally ‘heart’ represents the moral faculty or conscience (Act_2:37, Heb_8:10; Heb_10:16, 1Jn_3:20). In Heb_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 (2Co_5:12). The ‘hidden man of the heart’ (1Pe_3:4) is the real man, the obedience that comes from the heart (Rom_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’ (Act_28:27) or may become ‘unblameable in holiness’ (1Th_3:13); it may be hardened (Heb_3:8; Heb_3:15; Heb_4:7) and ‘exercised with covetousness’ (2Pe_2:14), or it may bear the stamp of simplicity (Eph_6:5, Col_3:22) and be purified by faith (Act_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 (Rom_1:21), and there also that the light of the knowledge of His glory shines in the face of Jesus Christ (2Co_4:6). There faith springs up and dwells and works (Rom_10:9-10, Act_15:9), and there unbelief draws men away from the living God (Heb_3:12). It may become the haunt of unclean lusts that make men blind to the truth of God (Rom_1:24); but it is into the heart that God sends the Spirit of His Son (Gal_4:6), and in the heart that Christ Himself takes up His abode (Eph_3:17). This life of the heart is a hidden life (1Pe_3:4, 1Co_4:5), but it lies clearly open to the eyes of God, who searches and tries it (Rom_8:27, 1Th_2:4). And the prime necessity of religion is a heart that is ‘right in the sight of God’ (Act_8:21). Such a heart can be obtained only through faith (Act_15:9, Rom_10:10, Eph_3:17) and as a gift from God Himself (cf. the OT saying, ‘A new heart also will I give you,’ Eze_36:26) in virtue of that new creation in Christ Jesus (2Co_5:17) whereby a heart that is hard and impenitent (Rom_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. êáñäßá, 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.

The word "heart" is used in the Scriptures to indicate many attitudes of the mind and many various kinds of affections and reactions. It is described as being deceitful in Jer 17:9. This evidently means that it will lead us astray by its feelings and its attitudes so that we must not trust in our own desires, but rather be led by the Word of GOD.

We read that the Lord searches the heart, Jer 17:10. By this is indicated that the Lord examines our motives, desires and feelings to see if they agree with His will.

In Jos 24:23 we read about the heart that is inclined to the Lord.

Our Lord spoke of being "in the heart of the earth." Mat 12:40. This does not refer to the grave which is on the surface of the earth. It refers to hell, which is actually in the center of this earth. The Lord JESUS did go down to that part of hell where the Old Testament saints were kept in conscious comfort until the Lord JESUS would shed His Blood for them. After Calvary, He went down into this place and "led captivity captive." They were now ready to go into GOD’s presence because His Blood had blotted out their sins. The blood of the sacrifices which they had brought only covered their sins.

There is an honest and good heart described in Luk 8:15. This refers to that sweet attitude of confidence and trust in GOD wherein the person listens with a hunger and a thirst for the revelation of GOD’s will through His Word. It indicates that this person loves to receive GOD’s instructions, and to accept GOD’s provisions.

A broken heart is described in Psa 34:18, and Psa 51:17. By this expression is meant that deep grief has fallen upon that friend, tears have flowed, the shadows have fallen, and grief has stricken the spirit.

In Heb 3:12 we read of an "evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." Those who are afflicted in this way are those who doubt GOD, refuse to believe His promise, and seek relief from some other source. They do not believe that GOD is a living Person who will actually work on their behalf.

At the end of the Old Testament in Mal 4:6, we read of a heart that is turned unto the Lord. This is a work of the Spirit of GOD in causing the mind and the desire of the person to come back to GOD from paths of disobedience and sin.

The stony heart is described in Eze 11:19, and chapter 36:26. This describes the person who steadfastly and stubbornly refuses to believe GOD’s Word, and will not have the authority of GOD in his life. He is not moved by any preaching, nor stirred by any invitation. The Word of GOD makes no impression on his soul.

The heart that fails describes that one who is overcome with fear, horror and despair. He has no strength left for the conflict. He is made weak. He seems to be helpless and hopeless. This heart is described in 1Sa 17:32, and in Luk 21:26.

We read in 2Co 3:3 of the fleshy heart. This passage really refers to the physical heart which is made of flesh. Somehow and in some mysterious way the Spirit of GOD works in our souls to bring about deep feelings of worship, love and devotion. One really does feel it in the bosom when those emotions arise.

The understanding heart is mentioned in 1Ki 3:9, 12. The thought is that there is a deep and confiding trustful interest in GOD and in His Word. The figure is in contrast with a simple, mental knowledge which does not affect the life nor the actions.

The expression found in Luk 24:25 "slow of heart" refers to, that attitude of the heart wherein the person questions the truth of GOD’s statements, and hesitates about believing in the Word and work of CHRIST JESUS.

One miracle of GOD’s grace is found in the expression "the multitude was of one heart."

Act 4:32. By this we understand that all this great crowd thought alike, felt alike, acted alike, and planned alike. What a wonderful church this would make. The expression "lay it to heart" describes that attitude in which one will accept the Word that he hears, and will apply it to his own soul. He will make the message a personal message to his own self, and will seek to act upon it. This is true in Ecc 7:2; Isa 47:7; Mal 2:2.

Gen 6:6 (a) This represents GOD’s innermost feelings in regard to His dealings and relationships with men.

Job 23:16 (a) The troubles and sorrows that had come upon Job caused him to be very tender and soft in his spirit so that there was no pride, hardness, nor self-sufficiency in his heart.

Pro 16:1 (a) By this figure is represented the feelings and the desires of men.

Jer 17:9-10 (a) This type represents the purposes and the desires which actuate the thoughts and actions of men.

Mar 7:21 (a) This figure represents the soul and mind of a human being, his innermost self, his real self.

Both Old and New Testaments speak repeatedly of the heart as the centre of a person’s inner life. An examination of the hundreds of references to the heart in the Bible will show that the word is not limited in its meaning to one particular part of a person.

‘Heart’ may refer to a person’s whole inner life – what the person really is (1Sa 16:7; Psa 22:26; Pro 4:23; Mat 22:37; 1Th 2:4); or it may refer to attributes of human personality such as a person’s understanding (1Ki 3:9; Pro 2:10; 1Co 2:9; Eph 1:18), desires (Deu 24:15; Pro 6:25; Mat 6:21; Rom 1:24), feelings (Jdg 19:6; Pro 14:10; Pro 15:30; Joh 14:27; Jas 3:14), determination (Exo 8:15; 1Ki 8:58; Rom 6:17; Col 3:22), or character (1Sa 13:14; Jer 5:23; Rom 2:29; 2Th 3:5; 1Pe 3:4).

Sometimes ‘heart’ is used as another word for a person’s spirit (Psa 51:10; Psa 51:17; Eze 36:26), soul (Deu 4:29; Pro 2:10; Act 4:32) or mind (1Sa 2:35; Eph 1:18; Heb 8:10; cf. Mat 22:37). (See also HUMANITY, HUMANKIND; MIND; SOUL; SPIRIT.)

The heart is what is sometimes referred to as ‘the inner being’, and is the source of all the wrong that a person does (Pro 6:14; Pro 6:18; Jer 17:9; Mar 7:21-23; Rom 1:24-25; Eph 4:18; see SIN). Therefore, the heart must be cleansed to bring forgiveness; or, to use another picture, it must be re-created to bring new spiritual life. Only God can bring about this cleansing or re-creation (Psa 51:10; Eze 36:26; Act 8:21-22; Eph 3:16; Heb 10:22).

Since the heart determines actions, a person must be careful to have right attitudes of heart at all times (Lev 19:17; Psa 4:4; 1Ti 1:5; Jas 3:14). God sees the inner condition and judges the person accordingly (1Sa 16:7; Psa 44:21; Mat 5:8; Rev 2:23; see also CONSCIENCE).