DT 6:5 in the GNT

Mike Sangrey msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Mon Jul 9 08:52:45 EDT 2001



I think Richard Smith has raised an excellent question (or set of
questions).  Maybe that's just because I find this sort of thing
fascinating, but still...

Anyway, I don't have answers, but I have an additional question or
two.

Could it be that we overlay onto the Biblical cognitive environment a
modern day view of the psychological makeup of a human being?  That
is, today we separate `thinking' and `emoting' and we associate these
two actions with their respective "seats": `mind' and `heart'.
However, is it that the 1st century Greek language, when used by a
semitic mind, viewed the KARDIA as the seat of the `intentions'?
Intention is a more complex animal for it involves both `thinking' and
`emoting'.  It wraps both of these together and associates it with
`goal'.

Are we typically foisting an anachronism on the text when we
understand and seek to explain KARDIA in terms of modern day popular
psuedo-psychology?  I say this in no way to disparage anyone's
thoughts on this; I am honestly seeking to understand it.

And are we seeing in the Gospels the 1st century Jew wrestling with
how best to translate the Hebrew text Deut 6:5 since the underlying
psychological framework has changed (or somewhat changed) from an
ancient Hebrew one to a Hellenistic one?

I would be very interested in any discussion regarding the questions
Richard Smith has raised.

Thank you.

-- 
Mike Sangrey
msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Landisburg, Pa.
                        "The first one last wins."
            "A net of highly cohesive details reveals the truth."





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