B: 5th Sun in Lent (21 Mar 2021) - PLANTING THE LAW IN OUR MINDS AND HEARTS (Jer 31:31-34)

“I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts” (Jer 31:33b).

If you are reading this passage with almost similar wordings, the Bible you are holding now may have been based—at least as far as the Book of Jeremiah is concerned—on the Hebrew Bible of the Old Testament. This finds resonance in most English biblical versions today, e.g., ASV, CEB, KJV, NABR, NRSV, and WEB. However, there is an alternate rendition of this biblical verse that goes: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts”. This translation is based instead on the Greek Septuagint of the Old Testament, which incidentally is rendered with a different numbering in its citation, i.e., Jer 38:33 (LXX) instead of Jer 31:33. We find this true in some English Bibles such as CEV, NCV, NIRV, and NLV, among others.

The main difference between these two translations is that whereas the former banners the phrase “within them”—or “in their inward parts” (KJV)—that appropriately translates the Hebrew expression “beqirbam,” the latter has “in their minds” that stands as the literal translation of the Greek phrase “eis tēn dianoian.” The big question is: Should we understand these two ancient wordings synonymously, or nuance the Hebrew and the Greek formulae from each other? On my part, I see that both expressions communicate one and the same thing.

In the Masoretic Text of Jer 31:33, the Hebrew word “beqirbam” is paired with the phrase “we‘al-libam,” which features the noun “leb.” The term “leb” is popularly used in conveying the concept of the human “heart,” but may include, too, the holistic composition of the person and his/her activities, viz., “inner self,” “inclination,” “disposition,” “determination,” “intention,” “reason,” “mind,” “conscience,” “strength,” and even “God’s heart” (cf. HALOT). Having such a word that has a very broad and encompassing meaning, we can surmise that the statement in Jeremiah “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts” connotes both the mental and spiritual aspects of a person’s willful reception of the law of God.

Meanwhile, the Greek word “dianoia” is defined by lexicons as “the faculty of thinking, comprehending, and reasoning.” It refers to the human mind along with its functions of rational comprehension, mental disposition, resolve towards a goal, and/or fantasizing capacity (cf. BDAG). To be emphasized, here, is the idea that it is associated with decision-making and critical inquiry. Paired with it is the Greek noun “kardia” that denotes not only the human “heart” but also the human person’s “seat of physical, spiritual and mental life” (cf. BDAG). Analyzing the clause in Jeremiah “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” within this exposition, we can speculate that while God handed his law to humankind, its reception is still subject to one’s intellectual examination and his/her moral/spiritual readiness.

Despite differences in translating the biblical passage above, we can, nonetheless, claim that the implantation of God’s law in us is not restricted in our hearts (affectionate and emotional domain) but in our minds as well (intellectual comprehension and introspection). God asks us to accept his law by morally embracing it as evinced in our lives of spiritual holiness, and, at the same time, by understanding it well as manifested in our careful analysis of what we believe in as Christians. Credo and intelligo, hence, should always go side-by-side in our maturation.

- Rex Fortes, CM