Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MIND

In the English Bible “mind” translates a number of different words with wide-ranging connotations. In the OT “mind” translates Heb. lēḇ, “heart,” the seat of one’s intellectual capacity (1 Kgs. 3:9; Isa. 65:17; cf. Num. 16:28); nepeš, “soul,” one’s internal intentions (1 Sam. 2:35; cf. Gen. 23:8); and rûaḥ, “spirit,” the designation for one’s life as a perceiving, thinking being (Ezek. 11:5).

The two principal Greek words translated as “mind” in the NT are noús and phrónēma and their cognates. Gk. noús signifies the capacity of mental perception, the mind as the source of thinking and understanding. It also refers to the results of such action, i.e., one’s attitude, thought, or opinion. Since many of these references come from Paul’s letters, and his Hebrew tradition held that all human faculties are bound up together in an indissoluble unit, this word connotes the higher, purposive, and hence moral aspect of humans (1 Cor. 2:16; though this capacity can be debased, Rom. 1:28). Paul also uses noús for the inner person (Rom. 7:23). Gk. phrónēma signifies one’s understanding or attitude, the setting of one’s mind (Rom. 8:5-7, 27).

In the NT “mind” also translates several other Greek words: diánoia, “understanding” or “intelligence,” the seat of reason or insight (Matt. 22:37 = Mark 12:30; Heb. 8:10; 1 John 5:20); boulḗ, “way of thinking,” “plan,” or “purpose,” i.e., one’s considered intention (Luke 23:51; Acts 5:38; cf. 27:12); and psychḗ, “soul,” one’s committed being (Phil. 1:27; cf. Heb. 12:3).

Bibliography. R. Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament 1 (New York, 1951), 211-20.

Richard A. Spencer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MIND

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)