In both the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) the word “heart” is used to refer to the whole of the innermost part of the human, NOT merely the emotions.
However, in the twenty-first century English
In both the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) the word “heart” is used to refer to the whole of the innermost part of the human, NOT merely the emotions.
However, in the twenty-first century English the word “heart” is used to express the emotions as an individual compartment of the inner part of the human.
It is common for Americans to divide humans into the physical and the metaphysical.
While this is a widespread insight, the way most Americans compartmentalize the internal (metaphysical) aspect of humans is diverse from many other cultures.
We Americans tend to see people as having two separate parts, wherein one part is the emotions, which we refer to as the heart, then a brain, which houses the mind.
The Bible does not divide man so easily – it focuses on all three making up the whole of a being – this is Biblically called the “heart.”
When both the Old and New Testaments speak about the heart, it never means simply (simply) the human feelings (emotions).
The Biblical word “heart,” is the inner aspect of a man, made of the above three-part all together, with the primary part the:
1) Mental Process, which is the major part (where action & reaction take place), which is to lead a person in their life.
2) Emotions (which only process as reaction), as icing to enrich our lives.
3) Will, the seat of the will (discretionary, volitional, decision-making) where decisions are made between the rational and the emotive.
According to Strong’s, the Hebrew word lebab (3824) is rendered: “heart” (as the most interior organ); “being, think in themselves,” “breast,” “comfortably,” “courage,” “midst,” “mind,” “unawares,” and “understanding.”
Strong’s Greek Dictionary, states that the Greek word kardia (2588) is rendered: “heart,” i.e. (figuratively), the thoughts or feelings (mind); also (by analogy) the middle.1
According to Ed Bulkley, in his book, Why Christians Can’t Trust Psychology, the Scriptures use at least four terms to describe the immaterial part of man: the heart, soul, spirit, and mind. The descriptions and functions of these aspects of man seem to overlap.
The biblical term heart (lawbab or lebab in Hebrew; kardia in Greek) is the clearest summary of the innermost center of the human being.
Perhaps the closest psychological term to the heart is the ego, the Latin word for “I,” borrowed by Freud to denote the “self.”
Peter describes the inner man as “the hidden man of the heart” (I Peter 3:4 KJV), or the “inner self” (I Peter 3:4 NIV). It is the center of one’s being (Proverbs 4:23), where he believes and exercises faith (Luke 24:25; Romans 10:9,10). It is the location of the human deliberation, where wisdom is employed.
Understanding is said to be the function of the mind (Job 38:36), yet the connection to the heart is undeniable. The heart is where a person discerns the difference between right and wrong (I Kings 3:9).
Finally, Bulkley says, the heart is the center of courage, emotions, and will.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).
The heart is the center of man’s character – who he really is (Matthew 15:18).
“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).2
Vine’s Old Testament Dictionary
According to Vine’s:
The Hebrew word Lebab (3824), rendered “heart” is the seat of desire, inclination, or will and can be the seat of the emotions. The “heart” could be regarded as the seat of knowledge and wisdom and as a synonym of “mind.” This meaning often occurs when ‘heart” appears with the verb “to know,” “Thus you are to know in your heart...” (Deut. 8:5, NASB); and “Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive [know]…” (Deut. 29:4, KJV; RSV, “mind”). Solomon prayed, “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad...” (1 Kings 3:9; cf. 4:29). Memory is the activity of the “heart,” as in Job 22:22: “…lay up his [God's] words in thine heart.”
The “heart” may be the seat of conscience and moral character. How does one respond to the revelation of God and of the world around him? Job answers: “…my heart shall not reproach me as long