Head:
hed (ro'-sh, Aramaic re'sh, and in special sense gulgoleth, literally, "skull," "cut-off head" (1Ch 10:10), whence Golgotha (Mt 27:33; Mr 15:22; Joh 19:17); mera'ashah, literally, "head-rest," "pillow," "bolster" (1Ki 19:6); qodhqodh, literally, crown of the head (De 28:35; 33:16,20; 2Sa 14:25; Isa 3:17; Jer 48:45); barzel, "the head of an axe" (De 19:5, the Revised Version margin "iron"; 2Ki 6:5); lehabhah, lahebheth, "the head of a spear" (1Sa 17:7); kephale): The first-mentioned Hebrew word and its Aramaic form are found frequently in their literal as well as metaphorical sense. We may distinguish the following meanings:
1. Used of Men:
By a slight extension of meaning, "head" occasionally stands for the person itself. This is the case in all passages where evil is said to return or to be requited upon the head of a person (see below).
2. Used of Animals:
The word is also used in connection with the serpent's head (Ge 3:15), the head of the sacrificial ram, bullock and goat (Ex 29:10,15,19; Le 4:4,24), the head of leviathan (Job 41:7, Hebrew 40:31).
3. The Head-Piece:
It is used also as representing the top or summit of a thing, as the capital of column or pillar (Ex 36:38; 38:28; 2Ch 3:15); of mountains (Ex 19:20; Nu 21:20; Jud 9:7; Am 1:2; 9:3); of a scepter (Es 5:2); of a ladder (Ge 28:12); of a tower (Ge 11:4).
4. Beginning, Source, Origin:
As a fourth meaning the word occurs (Pr 8:23; Ec 3:11; Isa 41:4) in the sense of beginning of months (Ex 12:2), of rivers (Ge 2:10), of streets or roads (Isa 51:20; Eze 16:25; 21:21).
As a leader, prince, chief, chieftain, captain (or as an adjective, with the meaning of foremost, uppermost), originally: "he that stands at the head"; compare "God is with us at our head" (2Ch 13:12); "Knowest thou that Yahweh will take away thy master from thy head?" (2Ki 2:3); "head-stone" the Revised Version (British and American) "top stone," i.e. the upper-most stone (Zec 4:7).
5. Leader, Prince:
Israel is called the head of nations (De 28:13); "The head (capital) of Syria is Damascus, and the head (prince) of Damascus is Rezin" (Isa 7:8); "heads of their fathers' houses," i.e. elders of the clans (Ex 6:14); compare "heads of tribes" (De 1:15), also "captain," literally, head (Nu 14:4; De 1:15; 1Ch 11:42; Ne 9:17). The phrase "head and tail" (Isa 9:14; 19:15) is explained by the rabbis as meaning the nobles and the commons among the people; compare "palm-branch and rush" (Isa 9:14), "hair of the feet.... and beard" (Isa 7:20), but compare also Isa 9:15. In the New Testament we find the remarkable statement of Christ being "the head of the church" (Eph 1:22; 5:23), "head of every man" (1Co 11:3), "head of all principality and power" (Col 2:10), "head of the body, the church" (Col 1:18; compare Eph 4:15). The context of 1Co 11:3 is very instructive to a true understanding of this expression: "I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God" (compare Eph 5:23). Here, clearly, reference is had to the lordship of Christ over His church, not to the oneness of Christ and His church, while in Eph 4:16 the dependence of the church upon Christ is spoken of. These passages should not therefore be pressed to include the idea of Christ being the intellectual center, the brain of His people, from whence the members are passively governed, for to the Jewish mind the heart was the seat of the intellect, not the head.
See HEART.
6. Various Uses:
As the head is the most essential part of physical man, calamity and blessing are said to come upon the head of a person (Ge 49:26; De 33:16; Jud 9:57; 1Sa 25:39; 2Ch 6:23; Eze 9:10; 11:21; 16:43; 22:31). For this reason hands are placed upon the head of a person on which blessings are being invoked (Ge 48:14,17,18; Mt 19:15) and upon the sacrificial animal upon which sins are laid (Ex 29:15; Le 1:4; 4:29,33). Responsibility for a deed is also said to rest on the head of the doer (2Sa 1:16; 3:29; 1Ki 8:32; Ps 7:16; Ac 18:6). The Bible teaches us to return good for evil (Mt 5:44), or in the very idiomatic Hebrew style, to "heap coals of fire upon (the) head" of the adversary (Pr 25:22; Ro 12:20). This phrase is dark as to its origin, but quite clear as to its meaning and application (compare Ro 12:17,19,21). The Jew was inclined to swear by his head (Mt 5:36), as the modern Oriental swears by his beard. The head is said to be under a vow (Nu 6:18,19; Ac 18:18; 21:23), because the Nazirite vow could readily be recognized by the head.
There are numerous idiomatic expressions connected with the head, of which we enumerate the following: "the hoary head" designates old age (see HAIR); "to round the corners of the head," etc. (Le 19:27; compare also De 14:1; Am 8:10), probably refers to the shaving of the side locks or the whole scalp among heathen nations, which was often done in idolatrous shrines or in token of initiation into the service of an idol. It was therefore forbidden to Israel, and its rigid observance gave rise to the peculiar Jewish custom of wearing long side locks (see HAIR). "Anointing the head" (Ps 23:5; 92:10; Heb 1:9) was a sign of joy and hospitality, while the "covering of the head" (2Sa 15:30; Es 6:12; Jer 14:3), "putting the hand upon the head" (2Sa 13:19) and putting earth, dust or ashes upon it (Jos 7:6; 1Sa 4:12; 2Sa 12; 13:19; La 2:10; compare Am 2:7) were expressive of sadness, grief, deep shame and mourning. In Es 7:8 Haman's face is covered as a condemned criminal, or as one who has been utterly put to shame, and who has nothing more to say for his life.
In this connection the Pauline injunction as to the veiling of women in the public gatherings of the Christians (1Co 11:5), while men were instructed to appear bareheaded, must be mentioned. This is diametrically opposed to the Jewish custom, according to which men wore the head covered by the Tallith or prayer shawl, while women were considered sufficiently covered by their long hair (1Co 11:15). The apostle here simply commends a Greek custom for the congregation residing among Greek populations; in other words, he recommends obedience to local standards of decency and good order.
"To bruise the head" (Ge 3:15) means to injure gravely; "to smite through the head" (Ps 68:21) is synonymous with complete destruction. "To shake or wag the head" (Ps 22:7; 44:14; 64:8; Jer 18:16; 48:27; La 2:15; Mt 27:39; Mr 15:29) conveys the meaning of open derision and contempt. "To bow down the head" (Isa 58:5) indicates humility, sadness and mourning, but it may also be a mere pretense for piety. (Sirach 19:26).
Written by H. L. E. Luering
Head: Shaven When Vows Were Taken
Act 21:24
Head: Diseases Of
Isa 3:17
Head: Anointed
Lev 14:18, 29
Head: The Uppermost and Chief Member of the Body
Isa 1:6; 2Ki 6:31
Head: All the Other Members Necessary To
1Cr 12:21
Head: The Body Supported and Supplied By
Eph 4:16
Head: Put for the Whole Person
Gen 49:26; Pro 10:6
Head: Put for the Life
Dan 1:10; 1Sa 28:2
Head: Parts of Mentioned
The skull
2Ki 9:35; Mat 27:33
The crown
Gen 49:26; Isa 3:17
The forehead
1Sa 17:49; Eze 9:4
The temples
Jdg 4:21,22; Sgs 4:3
The face
Gen 48:12; 2Ki 9:30
The hair
Jdg 16:22; Psa 40:12
The scalp
Psa 68:21
Head: Often Anointed
Ecc 9:8; Mat 6:17
Head: Bowed Down
In worshipping God
Gen 24:26; Exd 4:31
As a token of respect
Gen 43:23
Head: In Grief
Covered up
2Sa 15:30; Est 6:12
Shorn
Job 1:20
Sprinkled with dust
Jos 7:6; 2:12
The hands placed on
2Sa 13:19; Jer 2:37
Head: Priests Forbidden to Shave
Lev 21:5,10
Head: Nazarites Forbidden to Shave
Num 6:5
Head: Derision Expressed by Shaking
2Ki 19:21; Psa 22:7; 109:25; Mat 27:39
Head: The Jews Censured for Swearing By
Mat 5:36
Head: When Hoary with Age to Be Respected
Lev 19:32
Head: Liable To
Leprosy
Lev 13:42-44
Scab
Isa 3:17
Internal disease
2Ki 4:19; Isa 1:5
Baldness
Lev 13:40,41; Isa 15:2
Head: Of the Leper Always Uncovered
Lev 13:45
Head: Of Women Generally Covered in Public
Gen 24:65; 1Cr 11:5
Head: Of Criminals Often Cut Off
Mat 14:10
Head: Of Enemies Slain in War, Often Cut Off
Jdg 5:26; 1Sa 17:51,57; 31:9
Head: Illustrative
Of God
1Cr 11:3
Of Christ
1Cr 11:3; Eph 1:22; Col 2:19
Of rulers
1Sa 15:17; Dan 2:38
Of chief men
Isa 9:14,15
Of the chief city of a kingdom
Isa 7:8
(Covered,) of defence and protection
Psa 140:7
(Covered,) of subjection
1Cr 11:5,10
(Made bald,) of heavy judgments
Isa 3:24; 15:2; 22:12; Mic 1:16
(Lifted up,) of joy and confidence
Psa 3:3; Luk 21:28
(Lifted up,) of pride &c
Psa 83:2
(Lifted up,) of exaltation
Gen 40:13; Psa 27:6
(Anointed,) of joy and prosperity
Psa 23:5; 92:10
Head:
besides its natural significance, is used
(a) figuratively in Rom 12:20, of heaping coals of fire on a "head" (see COALS); in Acts 18:6, "Your blood be upon your own heads," i.e., "your blood-guiltiness rest upon your own persons," a mode of expression frequent in the OT, and perhaps here directly connected with Eze 3:18, 20; 33:6, 8; see also Lev 20:16; 2Sa 1:16; 1Ki 2:37;
(b) metaphorically, of the authority or direction of God in relation to Christ, of Christ in relation to believing men, of the husband in relation to the wife, 1Cr 11:3; of Christ in relation to the Church, Eph 1:22; 4:15; 5:23; Col 1:18; 2:19; of Christ in relation to principalities and powers, Col 2:10. As to 1Cr 11:10, taken in connection with the context, the word "authority" probably stands, by metonymy, for a sign of authority (RV), the angels being witnesses of the preeminent relationship as established by God in the creation of man as just mentioned, with the spiritual significance regarding the position of Christ in relation to the Church; cp. Eph 3:10; it is used of Christ as the foundation of the spiritual building set forth by the Temple, with its "corner stone," Mat 21:42; symbolically also of the imperial rulers of the Roman power, as seen in the apocalyptic visions, Rev 13:1, 3; 17:3, 7, 9.
Heart:
hart (lebh, lebhabh; kardia): The different senses in which the word occurs in the Old Testament and the New Testament may be grouped under the following heads:
1. Various Meanings:
It represents in the first place the bodily organ, and by easy transition those experiences which affect or are affected by the body. Fear, love, courage, anger, Joy, sorrow, hatred are always ascribed to the heart-especially in the Old Testament; thus courage for which usually ruach is used (Ps 27:14); joy (Ps 4:7); anger (De 19:6, "while his heart is hot," lebhabh); fear (1Sa 25:37); sorrow (Ps 13:2), etc.
Hence, naturally it came to stand for the man himself (De 7:17; "say in thine heart," Isa 14:13).
2. Heart and Personality:
As representing the man himself, it was considered to be the seat of the emotions and passions and appetites (Ge 18:5; Le 19:17; Ps 104:15), and embraced likewise the intellectual and moral faculties-though these are necessarily ascribed to the "soul" as well. This distinction is not always observed.
3. Soul and Heart:
"Soul" in Hebrew can never be rendered by "heart"; nor can "heart" be considered as a synonym for "soul." Cremer has well observed: "The Hebrew nephesh ("soul") is never translated kardia ("heart")..... The range of the Hebrew nephesh, to which the Greek psuche alone corresponds, differs so widely from the ideas connected with psuche, that utter confusion would have ensued had psuche been employed in an unlimited degree for lebh ("heart"). The Biblical lebh never, like psuche, denotes the personal subject, nor could it do so. That which in classical Greek is ascribed to psuche (a good soul, a just soul, etc.) is in the Bible ascribed to the heart alone and cannot be otherwise" (Cremer, Lexicon, article "Kardia," 437 ff, German edition).
4. Center of Vital Action:
In the heart vital action is centered (1Ki 21:7). "Heart," except as a bodily organ, is never ascribed to animals, as is the case sometimes with nephesh and ruach (Le 17:11, nephesh; Ge 2:19; Nu 16:22; Ge 7:22, ruach). "Heart" is thus often used interchangeably with these two (Ge 41:8; Ps 86:4; 119:20); but "it never denotes the personal subject, always the personal organ."
5. Heart and Mind:
As the central organ in the body, forming a focus for its vital action, it has come to stand for the center of its moral, spiritual, intellectual life. "In particular the heart is the place in which the process of self-consciousness is carried out, in which the soul is at home with itself, and is conscious of all its doing and suffering as its own" (Oehler). Hence, it is that men of "courage" are called "men of the heart"; that the Lord is said to speak "in his heart" (Ge 8:21); that men "know in their own heart" (De 8:5); that "no one considereth in his heart' (Isa 44:19 the King James Version). "Heart" in this connection is sometimes rendered "mind," as in Nu 16:28 ("of mine own mind," Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) ex proprio corde, Septuagint ap' emautou); the foolish "is void of understanding," i.e. "heart" (Pr 6:32, where the Septuagint renders phrenon, Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) cordis, Luther "der ist ein Narr"). God is represented as "searching the heart" and "trying the reins" (Jer 17:10 the King James Version). Thus, "heart" comes to stand for "conscience," for which there is no word in Hebrew, as in Job 27:6, "My heart shall not reproach me," or in 1Sa 24:5, "David's heart smote him"; compare 1Sa 25:31. From this it appears, in the words of Owen: "The heart in Scripture is variously used, sometimes for the mind and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the affections, sometimes for the conscience, sometimes for the whole soul. Generally, it denotes the whole soul of man and all the faculties of it, not absolutely, but as they are all one principle of moral operations, as they all concur in our doing of good and evil."
6. Figurative Senses:
The radical corruption of human nature is clearly taught in Scripture and brought into connection with the heart. It is "uncircumcised" (Jer 9:26; Eze 44:7; compare Ac 7:51); and "hardened" (Ex 4:21); "wicked" (Pr 26:23); "perverse" (Pr 11:20); "godless" (Job 36:13); "deceitful and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9 the King James Version). It defiles the whole man (Mt 15:19,20); resists, as in the case of Pharaoh, the repeated call of God (Ex 7:13). There, however, the law of God is written (Ro 2:15); there the work of grace is wrought (Ac 15:9), for the "heart" may be "renewed" by grace (Eze 36:26), because the "heart" is the seat of sin (Ge 6:5; 8:21).
7. Process of Heart Renewal:
This process of heart-renewal is indicated in various ways. It is the removal of a "stony heart" (Eze 11:19). The heart becomes "clean" (Ps 51:10); "fixed" (Ps 112:7) through "the fear" of the Lord (verse 1); "With the heart man believeth" (Ro 10:10); on the "heart" the power of God is exercised for renewal (Jer 31:33). To God the bereaved apostles pray as a knower of the heart (Ac 1:24-a word not known to classical writers, found only here in the New Testament and in Ac 15:8, kardiognostes). In the "heart" God's Spirit dwells with might (Eph 3:16, eis ton eso anthropon); in the "heart" God's love is poured forth (Ro 5:5). The Spirit of His son has been "sent forth into the heart" (Ga 4:6); the "earnest of the Spirit" has been given "in the heart" (2Co 1:22). In the work of grace, therefore, the heart occupies a position almost unique.
8. The Heart First:
We might also refer here to the command, on which both the Old Testament and New Testament revelation of love is based: "Thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (De 6:5); where "heart" always takes the first place, and is the term which in the New Testament rendering remains unchanged (compare Mt 22:37; Mr 12:30,33; Lu 10:27, where "heart" always takes precedence).
9. A Term for "Deepest":
A bare reference may be made to the employment of the term for that which is innermost, hidden, deepest in anything (Ex 15:8; Jon 2:3), the very center of things. This we find in all languages. Compare Eph 3:16,17, "in the inward man," as above.
Written by J. I. Marais
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