Among antiquities at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is a Dead Sea scroll fragment displaying Hebrew words in black ink. The text comes from a two-millennium-old non-biblical commentary featuring religious and ethical poetry praising Torah study, humility, and condemning arrogance.

The Hebrew word לב (transliterated as “lev,” meaning heart) appears four times in this fragment. In the Hebrew Bible's narrative, this word carries numerous meanings. Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is the heart identified as the organ that pumps blood. Instead, the most frequent usage refers to the seat of the conscious, willful mind.

The autonomic nervous system plays crucial roles in the biblical narrative because automatic, unconscious, involuntary processes reveal truth, even when a person lies.

The Heart of the Bible: How Autonomic Medicine Enriches the Narrative is available through Amazon. For autographed copies, please contact Dr. Goldstein through the Contact ACHI page.