“…and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your might.”-Deuteronomy 6:5
The last half of Deuteronomy 6:5 commands us to love God with all of our HEART, our SOUL, and our MIGHT.
The Hebrew is as follows.
Heart=LEVAV
Soul=NEFESH
Might=BE-KHOL ME’ODEKHA
Out of these three terms, I want to deep dive into the meaning of heart today.
First, let me start off by saying that it is correct to translate LEVAV into “heart“.
LEVAV indeed refers to that central organ inside our chests that pumps blood.
However, where we run into problems is in trying to comprehend the Hebrew understanding of this word beyond it being just an organ that pumps blood.
Grasping how the Hebrews understood LEVAV is absolutely critical to our proper understanding of the entire Word of God.
If you were born and raised in a Western culture, you’re understanding of and the way you use the word “heart” is radically different than the way an ancient Israelite understood and used the word.
In the Western church, the heart is considered to be the seat of our emotions.
It is even considered to be the seat of morality and one’s character.
For example, we will say “He has a good heart” or “She has an evil heart” when using the word “heart” in a moralistic sense.
However, for the ancient Hebrews, the heart was NOT considered the seat of one’s emotions nor a barometer of one’s morality.
Rather for the ancient Hebrew, the heart was the organ connected to the intellect and our conscious thoughts.
In other words, it functioned as how we know the brain works today.
In ancient Israel, the heart was where memories were stored and where logical decisions were made concerning what specific action should be taken with regards to a certain matter.
If we’re going to properly understand the Scripture of the ancient Hebrews, we’re going to have to learn to think like them.
Understand that what I just explained is NOT my opinion or conjecture in any way, shape or form.
Any Bible scholar worth his or her mettle will agree with what I have just explained in this article.
If they don’t, cross that Bible scholar off your list.
It is a well documented HISTORICAL FACT that LEVAV was considered to be the seat of the intellect…just like how we know the brain functions today.
Scientifically speaking, we had no idea the brain was responsible for our intellectual and thought processes until we were well into the Hellenistic Period and up until Medieval times.
After we realized this, the heart was then turned into the organ connected to our emotions, desires, and fiery passions in accordance with the Greek thinking on the subject.
But understand, the redefining of the heart’s function didn’t happen until centuries after the canon of the Bible was closed.
So, while it is technically correct to translate LEV or LEVAV as “heart” in English, the function it intends to communicate is lost on us because we mistakenly assume that the heart is the seat of emotions when to the ancient Hebrews it was not.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re reading the Old Testament or the New Testament, whenever we come across the word “heart“, we should take out a red pen, cross out the word “heart” and in its place insert either “brain” or “mind“.
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