Zadok Paper S100 Winter 1999
The Nature of Humans-Mind and Brain; Body, Soul and Spirit
by Alan Gijspers

Biblical approaches to anatomy, physiology and psychology

The Bible views basic anatomy and physiology very differently from current usage. Biblical terms were used very loosely. Thus the biblical word for bowels (Greek: splanchna, from which we get the words splanchnic) can be translated belly, body, breast, heart, womb, soul and stomach. Figuratively, it can express anguish and compassion. Similarly, the word for heart (Greek: kardia, from which we get cardiac, etc.) can mean the centre of things and did not necessarily refer to the actual organ. Further, the heart need not be the centre of the affections but could mean the whole personality, emotional state, intellectual activity or volitional centre. Loving God with all your heart thus meant loving him with all your being. The kidneys (Greek: nephros from which we get nephrology, etc.) were regarded as the choicest part of the sacrificial beast. It has been variously translated as heart which is troubled or tried, or soul which rejoices if the heart is right. A common expression is that God examines the kidneys and heart which is usually translated mind and heart, and probably best understood as the totality of our being. Likewise, the head is not so much the site of thinking as the centre of sense experience, sight, hearing.

Some of the problems faced by the differences between ancient and modern anatomy, physiology and psychology are solved by translators, others we have to grapple with ourselves. We do not reject what the Bible teaches but enter into the ancient understanding in order to lead to a richer understanding of the meaning of a phrase. Thus loving God with your kidneys is to love him with the richest part of yourself.

Bernard Ramm11 enunciates four principles of biblical interpretation with respect to science. These can be illustrated from the way the Bible describes the relationships between the sun, the moon and the earth. Thus Genesis describes the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night, the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. There are seasons of planting and seasons of harvest. Note that:

The Bible speaks popularly not scientifically. It describes how the ordinary people would see things, not what the scientific explanation would be.

The Bible speaks phenomenologically. That is it speaks as things appear to us rather than as they really are. Thus the Bible describes the sun rising and setting rather than the earth spinning on its axis.

The Bible does not theorise about things. It does not discuss how light comes from the sun to us or how the moon reflects light from the sun to us.

The Bible speaks in terms meaningful for the people of that time. If the Bible talked about the earth rotating about its axis it would have been meaningless to people before the time of Copernicus.
We today are not bound to the Bible's pre-scientific world view but we miss some profound insights if we do not enter into the metaphors the used in the Bible. On the other hand, when science shows us new insights we are forced to reinterpret traditional interpretations of the Bible. This does not negate the Bible but recognises truth in different ways of understanding. The essence of humanity according to the Bible, for example, does not seem to lie in anatomy and physiology but elsewhere as we shall see below.

To: Scientific views of humanity

Alan J. Gijsbers MBBS FRACP DTM&H PGDip Epi, is Specialist Physician at Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre and at the Department of Drug and Alcohol Studies St Vincent's Hospital. He is a Visiting Physician at the Epworth Hospital, a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at the Department of Psychological Medicine Monash University and Senior Fellow at St Vincent's Hospital Clinical School, University of Melbourne. He also contributes to a Dual Diagnosis Clinic at the St John of God and St Vincent's Collaborating Centre consulting on people with both Drug and Alcohol and Psychiatric Disorders. He is a fellow ISCAST and editor of their national bulletin. He also somehow manages to be a husband to his wife, Lois, and a father to three children.