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Q&A

Comments on Why does the Bible repeatedly tout that sin begins in the heart — rather than the brain, mind, or other bodily organs?

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Why does the Bible repeatedly tout that sin begins in the heart — rather than the brain, mind, or other bodily organs?

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  1. Undeniably, the heart can't physically cause the sins quoted below, as in the Matthew 15:18-20. Crimes against the person (manslaughter) are committed usually with the limbs and hands. False pretenses, fraud, perjury with the vocal tract. Sexual crimes with the penis or vagina.

Last but not least, in Anglo-American jurisdictions, crimes require mens rea. Thus if not the organs aforementioned above, it would be more sensible and realistic to attribute sin to the brain or mind. Why then does the Bible attribute sin to the heart?

  1. Is the Bible's attribution of sin to the heart related to why, in Chinese, 心 (heart) is the semantic component of which means evil, wickedness? Perhaps the Chinese gleaned this attribution from Christianity or Christian missionaries.

All Sin Originates in Our Heart

As authentic disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ we must understand all sin comes originates from the wickedness of our hearts. Jesus said in Matthew 15:18-20, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.”For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. “These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” We often forget about the motives of our hearts, our attitudes, and the words we speak reflect the attitude of our hearts.

7 Sins Of The Heart That Christians Overlook Daily

Mark 7:21-23 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come–sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Genesis 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil.

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2 comment threads

x-post https://www.reddit.com/r/ELINT/comments/rxyoc9/why_does_the_bible_repeatedly_tout_that_sin/ (1 comment)
Not just Christianity (2 comments)
Not just Christianity
gmcgath‭ wrote almost 3 years ago

The idea that the heart is the center of emotions and motivations is common to many cultures, not just Judaic ones. Before the development of modern physiology, it was common to believe that the heart was the literal locus of thoughts and emotions. Buddhism does this as much as Christianity, though there are important differences in the details.

Even in modern times we often use the heart as a metaphor for emotion or intent. We say "with all my heart" when committed to something. More relevant to sin, we say that a villain is "evil-hearted" or a coward is "chicken-hearted." We know that character doesn't literally come from the heart, but the metaphor remains powerful.

Perhaps it's because emotions affect the heart so strongly. A strong emotion makes your heart beat faster and more forcefully. Violent emotions can precipitate a heart attack. We know it's because of hormones, but it's hard to shake the appearance that these are causes rather than consequences.

qohelet‭ wrote over 2 years ago

Well put gmcgath‭ . I ended up writing an answer that hopefully elucidates this further for the OP.