Truth you can trace
The inner life in Scripture's own words
What the Bible's own vocabulary for the inside of a person actually says: the heart word whose first listed sense is mind, the kidneys the King James calls reins, the nose that is also anger, the womb that is also mercy, and the Greek words that render them. It reports what the lexicons say, what the tagged text shows and what each English version chose, and keeps those three apart.
leb: the word for "heart", and its first listed meaning is the mind
The entry for לֵב (lev, H3820A) gives as its first sense "inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding", and beneath it "mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory", "inclination, resolution, determination (of will)"…
Proverbs 4:23 · 1 Samuel 16:7
Read"As he thinketh in his heart": the most-quoted heart verse does not contain the heart word
The line is almost always quoted alone. In the text it is the middle of three verses about accepting a meal from a man who does not mean the invitation.
Proverbs 23:6 · Proverbs 23:7 · Proverbs 23:8
Readnephesh: the soul you are, not the soul you have
נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) is defined as "soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion", and the first sense given is…
Genesis 2:7 · Psalms 42:5
Readruach: breath, wind and spirit are one word
רוּחַ (ruach) is glossed "wind, breath, mind, spirit", and the sense list moves from "breath" and "wind" through "spirit, animation, vivacity, vigour", "courage", "temper, anger", "impatience, patience"…
Genesis 1:2 · Job 33:4 · Proverbs 20:27
Readneshamah: the breath that makes a body alive
נְשָׁמָה (neshamah) is glossed simply "breath, spirit", with the senses "breath (of God)", "breath (of man)", "every breathing thing", "spirit (of man)".
Genesis 2:7 · Job 33:4
Readaph: "slow to anger" is literally "long of nose"
אַף (aph) is defined by Strong's as "Properly, the nose or nostril; hence, the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire." The TBESH sense list is short and blunt…
Genesis 2:7 · Exodus 34:6
Readracham: the womb and mercy are the same root
Strong's 1890 entry for רַחַם (racham) reads: "Compassion (in the plural); by extension, the womb (as cherishing the fetus); by implication, a maiden." Its list of King James renderings runs…
Isaiah 63:15
Readkilyah: the kidneys are where a person is examined
כִּלְיָה (kilyah) is glossed "kidney". Its senses are "of physical organ (lit.)", "of seat of emotion and affection (fig.)" and "of sacrificial animals".
Jeremiah 17:10 · Psalms 16:7 · Psalms 139:13
Readme'eh: the churning insides
מֵעֶה (me'eh) is defined as "internal organs, inward parts, bowels, intestines, belly", with sub-senses "digestive organs", "organs of procreation, womb"…
Lamentations 1:20 · Isaiah 63:15
Readyare: one root, and it means both terror and reverence
יָרֵא (yare) is glossed "to fear, revere, be afraid". Its Qal senses are listed as "to fear, be afraid", "to stand in awe of, be awed", and "to fear, reverence, honour, respect".
Exodus 20:20 · Deuteronomy 10:12
Readkardia: the Greek heart inherits the Hebrew one
καρδία (kardia) is introduced in Abbott-Smith with the note "[in LXX chiefly for לֵבָב, לֵב]", that is, when Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible met lev or levav, this is the word they normally reached for.
Philippians 4:7
Readnous and dianoia: the Greek mind-words translate the Hebrew heart-word
νοῦς (nous) is introduced "[in LXX chiefly for לֵב, לֵבָב]" and defined as "of the ruling faculty, mind, understanding, reason".
Deuteronomy 6:5 · Mark 12:30 · Philippians 4:7
Readpsyche: "life" and "soul" are the same word, one verse apart
ψυχή (psyche) is introduced "[in LXX very frequently for נֶפֶשׁ]", the Greek soul word standing for the Hebrew one, and its first sense is "breath (Lat. anima), breath of life, life", with the second…
Matthew 16:25 · Matthew 16:26
Readpneuma: wind and Spirit in one sentence
πνεῦμα (pneuma) is introduced "[in LXX chiefly and very frequently for רוּחַ]" and its first sense is "of air in motion", subdivided into "(a) wind: Jhn.3:8" and "(b) breath".
John 3:8 · John 4:24
Readsplanchna: compassion is a word for the internal organs
σπλάγχνον (splanchnon), almost always plural in the New Testament, is defined as "the inward parts (heart, liver, lungs, etc.; Lat. viscera)", and then…
Philippians 1:8 · Colossians 3:12 · Luke 1:78
Readsyneidesis: a word for conscience that the Hebrew Bible does not have
συνείδησις (syneidesis) is defined first as "consciousness" and then, "In ethical sense, innate discernment, self-judging consciousness, conscience"…
Romans 2:15 · Job 27:6 · 1 Samuel 24:5
ReadThe body map: where Scripture puts the inner life
Six regions of the body carry the Bible's vocabulary for the inside of a person: the heart holds thinking and will, breath holds spirit and temper, the nose holds anger, the womb holds compassion…
Genesis 2:7 · Jeremiah 17:10 · Philippians 1:8
ReadBody, soul and spirit: two parts or three, and no verdict here
Two passages are read as dividing a person into three, and both are short.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 · Hebrews 4:12 · Genesis 2:7
ReadThe numbers: how every count in this file was produced
Every count in this file was produced by reading the Strong's-tagged interlinear Hebrew and Greek text row by row, the STEPBible TAHOT and TAGNT data, rather than by looking a figure up in a tool whose method was…
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