Heart

Heart - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

According to the Bible, the heart is the centre not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life. "Heart" and "soul" are often used interchangeably (Deut. 6:5; 26:16; comp. Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33), but this is not generally the case.

The heart is the "home of the personal life," and hence a man is designated, according to his heart, wise (1 Kings 3:12, etc.), pure (Ps. 24:4; Matt. 5:8, etc.), upright and righteous (Gen. 20:5, 6; Ps. 11:2; 78:72), pious and good (Luke 8:15), etc. In these and such passages the word "soul" could not be substituted for "heart."

The heart is also the seat of the conscience (Rom. 2:15). It is naturally wicked (Gen. 8:21), and hence it contaminates the whole life and character (Matt. 12:34; 15:18; comp. Eccl. 8:11; Ps. 73:7). Hence the heart must be changed, regenerated (Ezek. 36:26; 11:19; Ps. 51:10-14), before a man can willingly obey God.

The process of salvation begins in the heart by the believing reception of the testimony of God, while the rejection of that testimony hardens the heart (Ps. 95:8; Prov. 28:14; 2 Chr. 36:13). "Hardness of heart evidences itself by light views of sin; partial acknowledgment and confession 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."

Heart - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HEART, n. [L. cor, cordis, and allied to Eng.core, or named from motion, pulsation.]

1. A muscular viscus, which is the primary organ of the blood's motion in an animal body, situated in the thorax. From this organ all the arteries arise, and in it all the veins terminate. By its alternate dilatation and contraction, the blood is received from the veins, and returned through the arteries, by which means the circulation is carried on and life preserved.

2. The inner part of any thing; the middle part or interior; as the heart of a country, kingdom or empire; the heart of a town; the heart of a tree.

3. The chief part; the vital part; the vigorous or efficacious part.

4. The seat of the affections and passions, as of love, joy, grief, enmity, courage, pleasure _c.

The heart is deceitful above all things. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is evil continually. We read of an honest and good heart, and an evil heart of unbelief, a willing heart, a heavy heart, sorrow of heart, a hard heart, a proud heart, a pure heart. The heart faints in adversity, or under discouragement, that is, courage fails; the heart is deceived, enlarged, reproved, lifted up, fixed, established, moved, _c.

5. By a metonymy, heart is used for an affection or passion, and particularly for love.

The king's heart was towards Absalom. 2 Sam 14.

6. The seat of the understanding; as an understanding heart.

We read of men wise in heart, and slow of heart.

7. The seat of the will; hence, secret purposes, intentions or designs. There are many devices in a man's heart. The heart of kings is unsearchable. The Lord tries and searches the heart. David had it in his heart to build a house of rest for the ark.

Sometimes heart is used for the will, or determined purpose.

The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Eccl 8.

8. Person; character; used with respect to courage or kindess.

Cheerly, my hearts.

9. Courage; spirit; as, to take heart; to give heart; to recover heart.

10. Secret thoughts; recesses of the mind.

Michal saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. 2 Sam 6.

11. Disposition of mind.

He had a heart to do well.

12. Secret meaning; real intention.

And then show you the heart of my message.

13. Conscience, or sense of good or ill.

Every man's heart and conscience--doth either like or disallow it.

14. Strength; power of producing; vigor; fertility. Keep the land in heart.

That the spent earth may gather heart again.

15. The utmost degree.

This gay charm--hath beguiled me

To the very heart of loss.

To get or learn by heart, to commit to memory; to learn so perfectly as to be able to repeat without a copy.

To take to heart, to be much affected; also, to be zealous, ardent or solicitous about a thing; to have concern.

To lay to heart, is used nearly in the sense of the foregoing.

To set the heart on, to fix the desires on; to be very desirous of obtaining or keeping; to be very fond of.

To set the heart at rest, to make one's self quiet; to be tranquil or easy in mind.

To find in the heart, to be willing or disposed.

I find it in my heart to ask your pardon.

For my heart, for tenderness or affection.

I could not for my heart refuse his request.

Or, this phrase may signify, for my life; if my life was at stake.

I could not get him for my heart to do it.

To speak to one's heart,in Scripture, to speak kindly to; to comfort; to encourage.

To have in the heart, to purpose; to have design or intention.

A hard heart, cruelty; want of sensibility.

HE`ART, v.i. To encourage. [Not much used.]

hart (lebh, lebhabh; kardia): 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 ruach is used (Ps 27:14); joy (Ps 4:7); anger (De 19:6, "while his heart is hot," lebhabh); fear (1Sa 25:37); sorrow (Ps 13:2), etc.

Hence, naturally it came to stand for the man himself (De 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 (Ge 18:5; Le 19:17; Ps 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 psuche alone corresponds, differs so widely from the ideas connected with psuche, that utter confusion would have ensued had psuche been employed in an unlimited degree for lebh ("heart"). The Biblical lebh never, like psuche, denotes the personal subject, nor could it do so. That which in classical Greek is ascribed to psuche (a good soul, a just soul, etc.) is in the Bible ascribed to the heart alone and cannot be otherwise" (Cremer, Lexicon, article "Kardia," 437 ff, 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 ruach (Le 17:11, nephesh; Ge 2:19; Nu 16:22; Ge 7:22, ruach). "Heart" is thus often used interchangeably with these two (Ge 41:8; Ps 86:4; 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" (Ge 8:21); that men "know in their own heart" (De 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 Nu 16:28 ("of mine own mind," Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) ex proprio corde, Septuagint ap' emautou); the foolish "is void of understanding," i.e. "heart" (Pr 6:32, where the Septuagint renders phrenon, Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) 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 Ac 7:51); and "hardened" (Ex 4:21); "wicked" (Pr 26:23); "perverse" (Pr 11:20); "godless" (Job 36:13); "deceitful and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9 the King James Version). It defiles the whole man (Mt 15:19,20); resists, as in the case of Pharaoh, the repeated call of God (Ex 7:13). There, however, the law of God is written (Ro 2:15); there the work of grace is wrought (Ac 15:9), for the "heart" may be "renewed" by grace (Eze 36:26), because the "heart" is the seat of sin (Ge 6:5; 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" (Ps 51:10); "fixed" (Ps 112:7) through "the fear" of the Lord (verse 1); "With the heart man believeth" (Ro 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 (Ac 1:24--a word not known to classical writers, found only here in the New Testament and in Ac 15:8, kardiognostes). In the "heart" God's Spirit dwells with might (Eph 3:16, eis ton eso anthropon); in the "heart" God's love is poured forth (Ro 5:5). The Spirit of His son has been "sent forth into the heart" (Ga 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" (De 6:5); where "heart" always takes the first place, and is the term which in the New Testament rendering remains unchanged (compare Mt 22:37; Mr 12:30,33; Lu 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 (Ex 15:8; Jon 2:3), the very center of things. This we find in all languages. Compare Eph 3:16,17, "in the inward man," as above.

J. I. Marais