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The Eye of Your Hearts - Printable Version

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The Eye of Your Hearts - Paul Younan - 09-10-2003

Shlama Akhay,

Many times we have spoken of the Semitic understanding of the heart, that it is the idiomatic organ of understanding and knowledge.

In Ephesians 1:18, Paul uses this Semiticism:

[font=Estrangelo (V1.1)]Jwktwbld 0ny9[/font] (Ayna d'Lebwatkon - "the eye of your hearts")

Some manuscripts of Zorba (the Byzantine manuscripts) retain this Semiticism, whearas others (Alexandrian and Western) had a hard time of it and changed the "eye of your hearts may be enlightened" to "your understanding may be enlightened."

This clearly demonstrates that Zorba sometimes understood that Paul was using an Aramaic idiom, and chose to liberally translate the meaning into a more acceptable solution in Greek thought.