What is the heart
Christian theology says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. With this diagnosis, we are told that no one is good and our heart is sinful only. Conveniently the church provides the cure, belief in their savior, Jesus Christ. But what does the Hebrew Bible actually say about man’s heart? Today I would like to take a look at Jeremiah chapter 17:5-10. But I encourage you to read the entire chapter, even the one that comes before and after. Heck, read all of Jeremiah for yourselves, ask questions, study and learn. Don’t take my word for it.
Chapter 17 begins by talking about the sin of Judah and how the Lord is going to exile them and enslave them to their enemies. Why? Because they sought after idols and turned away from their God. We then are given a comparison between two types of men. Verse 5, thus says Hashem, accursed is the man who trusts in people and makes flesh his strength and TURNS his heart away from Hashem. It goes on to say that he will be like a lone tree in the desert unable to see when goodness comes. It dwells in parched lands in the wilderness.
Then in verse 7, Blessed is the man who trusts in Hashem, then Hashem will be his security. He will be like a tree planted near water, whose foliage is ever fresh and will not worry in a year of drought and will not stop producing fruit. This imagery is very easy to picture and understand.
The first man is trusting in people and turned away from Hashem. I don’t see any reason to read in to this anymore than what it says. I believe the text is telling us that the first man willingly, on his own chose to turn from Hashem. Some translations may use the word depart. The Hebrew word there is yasur and it means to turn away, put away or remove oneself. It was man #1’s choice.
Man #2 has not turned away, in fact instead of trusting in man like #1, man #2 trusts in Hashem and it goes well for him. He is producing fruit and one could assume good fruit, if his leaf is ever fresh and has plenty of water. For man #1, if you are in a parched dry desert what kind of fruit could you possibly produce?
Immediately following the blessed man in verses 7-8, the infamous verse 9 enters. In our modern translation it reads, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it. I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. That was from the NKJV, my Hebrew Bible translates it similar, the heart is the most deceitful of all and it is fragile. The rest is essentially the same. I think they are closer to the real meaning but I have reason to think it is still wrong. I believe that especially the NKJV and other translations like it, have made a gruesome error in their word choices, however it fits very nicely into their Christian theology.
But what if, what if we take a look at the actual Hebrew words for ourselves. What if it says something completely different? The word translated as deceitful is aqov. The root simply means heel and is the same root for the name Jacob. There are some who would say that because Jacob was “deceitful” to his father (we’ll look into this story another time), that aqov must share that same meaning. Remember though, when the twins Esau and Jacob were born, Jacob was second grasping Esau’s heel. Yes, there can be potentially more meaning to his name then simply this but how much “secret meaning” can there actually be?
I find it interesting that in the Greek Septuagint, this same word aqov, is translated to bathuno. Bathuno has the idea of deep hidden things and is often used to describe the deep sea. Did those who translated the Hebrew to Greek know something more about aqov? Remember we are trying to focus on the plain and simple meaning. We know our heel is at the bottom of our body and it can leave marks where ever it goes, knowledge if you will of where we have been and what we have done. So what if a more accurate translation is the heart has a depth of knowledge? Possible, right? Stay with me. It gets even more interesting.
Next the words desperately wicked is translated from the Hebrew word anesh, anash or anas. I had a lot of difficulty finding anything of value for anesh or anas which I find amusing because that is how Strong’s has it. However when I searched anash, I found that this word means weak, frail, sick. So how or why was it translated into desperately wicked? We do find that in several other verses it is translated as incurable or sick. Ok, but if you insert frail or even weak into all those places those words work just as well. A resource that I found suggested the word vulnerable which I think is a great summation of weak, frail, sick. Remember the Hebrew Bible translation used the English word fragile… interesting.
What if Jeremiah 17:9 said, the heart has a depth of knowledge that makes it fragile/vulnerable and who can know it. The verses go on to say, the Lord searches and tests. If all mankind’s heart are only deceitful and wicked all. The. Time. What is there to search or test, right? Continuing on, to give to man according to his ways, the fruit of his deeds. Again if anything and everything is only wicked, what is there to receive, why are the 2 men contrasted, what is the point of the comparison? If the modern translation is correct, there is no need for the ending of the verse, no need for the Lord to search and test. If He can know it, our heart, and it was evil only all the time, no one could ever be blessed. No one could ever be found righteous, but that would be contradictory to what the Old Testament tells us, there were men who were righteous. So I think there is more here then what we have been told and taught. Even if our heart does have deceitful and wicked tendencies, we know that we can chose. Remember what God told Cain, sins desire is towards you, YET YOU CAN RULE/CONQUER IT but if it is a choice and we can chose what is right and be blessed then there is no need for the churches cure and they wouldn’t have any power over you.
When we consider everything we’ve looked at today, I think we can sum it up yet again with fear God and keep His commandments for He will judge every deed.