Five  Greek words are translated “heart.”

  • Psuche (also translated spirit or soul) is translated “heart” once (Ephesians 6:6)
  • Apopsucho is translated “hearts failing” in Luke 21:26
  • Sklerokardia is translated “hardness of heart” in Matthew 19:8, Mark 10:5 and 16:14.
  • Kardiognostes is translated “which knows the heart” in Acts 1:24 and 15:8.
  • Kardia is always translated “heart” in 156 places.

Note: In the KJV, Acts 5:33 includes “cut to the heart.”  The original saying was, literally, “sawn in two,” which was a figure of speech of that time meaning the same as “cut to the quick” or “cut to the heart.”  This change probably was made to remove an unfamiliar saying and to make it parallel with Acts 2:37 and 7:54.

Kardia passages:

Matthew 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God

Matthew 5:28  Has already committed adultery with her in his heart

Matthew 6:21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 9:4  Why do you think evil in your hearts

Matthew 11:29  I am gentle and lowly in heart

Matthew 12:34  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks

Matthew 12:40  Three days and three nights in the heart of the earth

Matthew 13:15  For the hearts of this people have grown dull

Matthew 13:19  The wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart

Matthew 15:8  But their heart is far from Me

Matthew 15:18  Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart

Matthew 15:19  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, …

Matthew 18:35  If each of you, from his heart, does not forgive …

Matthew 22:37  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…

Matthew 24:48  If the evil servant says in his heart…

Mark 2:6  Some of the scribes were…reasoning in their hearts

Mark 2:8  Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?

Mark 3:5  Being grieved by the hardness of their hearts

Mark 4:15  Takes away the word that was sown in their heart

Mark 6:52  Not understood about the loaves because their heart was hardened

Mark 7:6  But their heart is far from Me

Mark 7:19  Because it does not enter his heart but his stomach

Mark 7:21  For from within, from the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts…

Mark 8:17  Is your heart hardened?

Mark 11:23  And does not doubt in his heart, but believes…

Mark 12:30  And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart…

Mark 12:33  And to love Him with all the heart…

Mark 16:14  He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart…

Luke 1:17  To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children…

Luke 1:51  He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart

Luke 1:66  And all who heard kept them it in their hearts

Luke 2:19  Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart

Luke 2:35  That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed

Luke 2:51  But His mother kept all these things in her heart

Luke 3:15  And all reasoned in their hearts about John

Luke 5:22  Why are you reasoning in your hearts?

Luke 6:45  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good…

Luke 8:12  Comes and takes away the word out of their hearts

Luke 8:15  Having heard the word with a noble and good heart…

Luke 9:47  Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart…

Luke 10:27  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

Luke 12:34  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

Luke 12:45  If that servant says in his heart…

Luke 16:15  God knows your hearts

Luke 21:14  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand

Luke 21:34  Lest your heart be weighed down with…cares of this life

Luke 24:25  O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe

Luke 24:32  Did not our heart burn within us while He talked?

Luke 24:38  Why are you troubled?  And why do doubts arise in your hearts?

John 12:40  He has … hardened their hearts…lest they … understand with their hearts

John 13:  The devil, having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot

John 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled

John 14:27  Let not your heart be troubled

John 16:6  Sorrow has filled your heart

John 16:22  Your heart will rejoice

Acts 2:26  Therefore my heart rejoiced

Acts 2:37  They were cut to the heart

Acts 2:46  They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart

Acts 4:32  Those who believed were of one heart and soul

Acts 5:3  Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?

Acts 5:4  Why have you conceived this thing in your heart?

Acts 7:23  It came into his heart to visit his brethren

Acts 7:39  In their hearts they turned back to Egypt

Acts 7:51  You stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart and ears

Acts 7:54  When they heard these things they were cut to the heart

Acts 8:21  For your heart is not right in the sight of God

Acts 8:22  Pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you

Acts 11:23  Encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue

Acts 13:22  A man after My own heart

Acts 14:17  Filling our hearts with food and gladness

Acts 15:9  Purifying their hearts through faith

Acts 16:14  The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul

Acts 21:13  What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart

Acts 28:27  For the hearts of this people has grown dull

Romans 1:21  Became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened

Romans 1:24   God gave them up to their uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts

Romans 2:5  In accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart

Romans 2:15  Who show the work of the law written in their heart

Romans 2:29  Circumcision is that of the heart

Romans 5:5  The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit

Romans 6:17  You obeyed from the heart

Romans 8:27  He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is

Romans 9:2  I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart

Romans 10:1  My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved

Romans 10:6  Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”

Romans 10:8  The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart

Romans 10:9  Believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead

Romans 10:10  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness

Romans 16:18  By smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple

1 Corinthians 2:9  Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man

1 Corinthians 4:5  Reveal the counsels of the hearts.

1 Corinthians 7:37  He who stands steadfast in his heart

1 Corinthians 14:25  The secrets of the heart are revealed

2 Corinthians 1:22  Who has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts

2 Corinthians 2:4  Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you

2 Corinthians 3:2  You are our epistle written in our hearts

2 Corinthians 3:3  Written not with ink…but on tablets of flesh, of the heart

2 Corinthians 3:15  When Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart

2 Corinthians 4:6  Who has shone in our hearts to give the light…

2 Corinthians 5:12  For those who boast in appearance and not in heart

2 Corinthians 6:11  We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open

2 Corinthians 7:3  You are in our hearts

2 Corinthians 8:16  Who put the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus

2 Corinthians 9:7  Let each one give as he purposes in his heart

Galatians 4:6  God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts

Ephesians 3:17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

Ephesians 4:18  Because of the blindness of their hearts

Ephesians 5:19  Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord

Ephesians 6:5  Be obedient to those who are your masters…in sincerity of heart

Ephesians 6:6  Doing the will of God from the heart

Ephesians 6:22  That he may comfort your hearts

Philippians 1:7   I have you in my heart

Philippians 4:7  The peace of God…will guard your hearts and minds

Colossians 2:2  That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love

Colossians 3:15  Let the peace of God rule in your hearts

Colossians 3:16  Singing with grace in your heart to the Lord

Colossians 3:22  Obey in all things your masters…in sincerity of heart

Colossians 4:8  That he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts

1 Thessalonians 2:4  Not pleasing men but God, who tests the hearts

1 Thessalonians 2:17  Having been taken away from you…in presence, not in heart

1 Thessalonians 3:13  So that He may establish your hearts blameless

2 Thessalonians 2:17  [May our Lord Jesus Christ…] comfort your hearts

2 Thessalonians 3:5  May the Lord direct our hearts in to the love of God

1 Timothy 1:5  The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart

2 Timothy 2:22  With those who call upon the Lord with a pure heart

Hebrews 3:8  Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion

Hebrews 3:10  They always go astray in their heart

Hebrews 3:12  Beware…lest there be in any of you an evil heart

Hebrews 3:15  Do not harden your heart as in the rebellion

Hebrews 4:7  Do not harden your hearts

Hebrews 4:12  The word of God…is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart

Hebrews 8:10  I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts

Hebrews 10:16  I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds I will write them

Hebrews 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith

Hebrews 13:9  It is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods

James 1:26  If anyone thinks he is religious…but deceives his own heart

James 3:14  If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts

James 4:8  Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts

James 5:5  You have fattened your hearts in the a day of slaughter

James 5:8  Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand

1 Peter 1:22  Since you have purified your souls… love one another…with a pure heart

1 Peter 3:4  Let it be the hidden person of the heart

1 Peter 3:15  Sanctify the Lord in your heart

2 Peter 1:19  Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts

2 Peter 2:14  They have a heart trained in covetous practices

1 John 3:19  We…shall assure our heart before Him

1 John 3:20  If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart

1 John 3:21  If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God

Revelation 2:23  I am He who searches the minds and hearts

Revelation 17:17  God has put it in their hearts to fulfill His purpose

Revelation 18:7  She says in her heart, “A sit as queen.”

Summary:

  1. Kardia means, literally, the human organ that pumps blood.
  2. The figurative heart includes thoughts, motives, loyalties, attitudes, and intentions.
  3. The heart is not the soul or spirit: Acts 4:32, 1 Peter 1:22, 2 Corinthians 1:22, Galatians 4:6
  4. The content of the heart is generally secret (except to God) but revealed in actions
  5. True understanding involves the heart
  6. The goal is a pure heart