The map, with the word and one place it is defined. 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, the kidneys hold the examined self, and the intestines hold both distress and love. Each row states the word, what it carries, and a reference work where that is defined. Every row is drawn from the entries already given and nothing in the table is new.
| Body part | Word | What it carries | Where the definition is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heart | lev / levav (H3820A, H3824) | thinking, memory, will, resolution, conscience, courage, emotion | TBESH H3820A; Strong's H3820 |
| Breath | ruach (H7307), neshamah (H5397) | breath, wind, temper, courage, spirit | TBESH H7307G, H5397 |
| Throat and breath | nephesh (H5315) | the breathing being, appetite, the self | TBESH H5315G |
| Nose | aph (H0639) | the nostril, and anger | Strong's H639 |
| Womb | racham (H7356) | the womb, and compassion | Strong's H7356 |
| Kidneys | kilyah (H3629) | the organ, and the examined inner self | TBESH H3629; Strong's H3629 |
| Intestines | me'eh (H4578) | the organs, and distress or love | TBESH H4578 |
| Inward parts | splanchna (G4698) | heart, liver, lungs, and compassion | Abbott-Smith, σπλάγχνον |
⚠️
What this map is not. It is not a claim that ancient Israelites believed thought happened in the muscle of the heart or mercy in the uterus, and it is not evidence for or against any modern account of emotion and the body.
It is a map of vocabulary. English does the same thing and no one concludes anything from it: we say gut feeling, heartfelt, spleen, bowled over, broken-hearted. The difference is only that the Hebrew and Greek examples sit in a text people read for meaning, so the words are worth knowing.
Sources: the entries above, each with its own lexicon citation.
---