Footnote to Carl's reply to Ken

From: Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@wellesley.edu)
Date: Fri May 10 1996 - 11:33:33 EDT


"Thinking with the heart" isn't just Hebrew liturgical psychology. The
entire system of "psychology" in ancient Hebrew thought has everything
shifted down about a foot from our "modern" notions. (Or, as Freud has
pointed out, we have created an upwad displacement of emotion and thought!)

Why the "mind" should be in the head (as we tend to suppose) is not clear,
though modern science shows that the brain is heavily involved (!). But
the Hebrews thought with their hearts, and felt compassion with their guts
("I beg you, by the guts of Christ..."), and used their kidneys to long for
their offspring. I'm not clear that today's notion of loving someone with
one's heart is better than loving someone with one's guts (which is where I
personally seem to be more aware of feelings--but maybe I'm only an ancient
Hebrew at heart--oops, at guts).

"Dynamic equivalence translation" should, I suppose, translate the word
"lev(av)" in the HB as "mind", not "heart", and so on. (Using"guts" might
be a bit much, so "intestines" ??? "Kelayoth" is "kidneys", which the Lord
puts to the test--how do we translate that?)

Edward Hobbs



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