Metaphors in Biblical Hebrew: Deuteronomy 6:5 and the Meaning of לֵבָב ("Heart"?) - podcast episode cover

Metaphors in Biblical Hebrew: Deuteronomy 6:5 and the Meaning of לֵבָב ("Heart"?)

Feb 28, 202310 minTranscript available on Metacast
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Episode description

Deuteronomy 6:5 is typically translated, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." But what does it really mean to love the Lord with your "heart"?

The word translated "heart" here is לֵבָב, which is a word that does, in fact, refer to the organ that we call "heart". Here, the word is obviously being used metaphorically, just like we use "heart" metaphorically in English. But the key question is whether לֵבָב and "heart" are used metaphorically *in the same way*.

In this video, Dr. Kevin Grasso shows how this Hebrew word actually has a different metaphorical use than you might expect, and that there may be a better English word than "heart" to get its meaning across.

Check out our previous episode on Deuteronomy 6:4 here: https://youtu.be/_DRu1aE4y-s