This word study centers on the term, “mind of Christ,” or “mindset of Christ.” Looking at its usage in Philippians 2:5, the King James version reads: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The same verse in the NIV reads: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” The Greek word in this verse translated to either “mind” or “mindset” is phroneite, based on the word phren (pronounced “frane”) which literally and anatomically refers to “the midriff, or parts around the heart”–that is, the diaphragm. The diaphragm, physiologically, is a dome-shaped muscle under the rib cage that controls the breathing function from inside us (i.e., inhaling/exhaling) so that what takes place inside regulates what is observed about us externally. We can’t see the diaphragm nor can we even feel it–yet it’s still there performing its internal function. The diaphragm operates, therefore, from the inside out. And so does the meaning of phren–that which is “inside” us–our “mind” or “mindset” regulates our outward behavior. In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, the word phren is used several times to translate the Hebrew word, lev, meaning “heart.” Lev is spelled with two Hebrew letters–a lamed (the Hebrew L) and a bet (the Hebrew B). Pictographically, the ancient form of the lamed resembles a shepherd’s staff. A staff, from an Hebraic perspective, associates with the concept of “control” as in the Hebrew word for image, tselem, the word used in Genesis 1:26 referring to man being made in God’s image. Pictographically, tselem would read “the desire to control chaos,” the letter signifying control being the lamed.[1] This same shepherd’s staff, represented by the lamed, is also part of several Hebrew words translated as God: El, Elo’ah and Elohiym. Therefore, the lamed is also considered to be a symbol signifying “authority”. The bet, the second letter of the word, lev, is also Hebrew for “house”. Pictographically, it is considered to resemble the inside of a house, its “floor plan”. Therefore, the pictographic meaning of “lev” is “authority within”.
The “mind of Christ” is likened, using the Greek words as a guide, to a phren, a diaphragm inside us regulating our external behavior. When looked at through the filter of 1st Century Hebraic thought, the mind of Christ would be likened to a heart, an authority within us. Though this authority is represented by Christ, it ultimately is the authority of God (1 Corinthians 11:3). This authority (samak/exousia) is not a du jour authority–a set of rules enforced by power, though on occasion, God has resorted to this (i.e., the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Tower of Babel). Primarily, it is a de facto authority–a relationship between God and man based on man’s voluntary submission to God’s rule/authority. As we exercise trusting obedience in God’s instructions, we willingly enter the “sphere” of God’s authority, the Kingdom of God; we’re not compelled at gunpoint to abide by God’s rules nor are we prodded like cattle into the sphere of His authority, His Kingdom.
There is another Hebrew word, translated on occasion as “mind”, that may supply an appropriate imagery of this matter of “voluntary submission.” Isaiah 26:1-18 is considered a “song of praise” that would one day be sung by the Jewish people upon their return to their own land, under the authority and governance of God’s rules and ordinances. Verse 3 reads that God “will keep in perfect peace (shalom shalom) those whose minds are steadfast” because they trust in God. What is it to have a “steadfast mind”? The Hebrew word translated as mind here is yetzer. This word has perhaps less to do with the mind, and much more to do with something formed. We first encounter the word in Genesis 2:7: “And Yehovah our God formed (yetzer) man from the dust of the ground.” The prophet Isaiah uses this word to describe the relationship of clay to its potter: “Shall what is formed (yetzer) say to the one who formed (yetzer) it, ‘You did not make me?'” (Is. 29:16) The Creator formed (yetzer) man, not vice versa. The potter forms the pottery. Aside from a reference to something formed, the word yetzer also means “intent”, “inclination” or “purpose”. For instance, in Genesis 8:21, God told Noah that the “intent (purpose: yetzer) of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We also find yetzer as purpose elsewhere in the Scripture including Genesis 6:5, Deuteronomy 31:21, 1 Chronicles 28:9 and 29:18.
Next, what is it to be steadfast? The word here is samak, the same Hebrew word signifying authority, and a word connoting the transfer of authority by the laying on of hands.[2] Moses did this to his successor, Joshua: “So the LORD said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay (samak) your hand on him. . .Give him some of your majesty so the whole Israelite community will obey him’. . . Moses did as the LORD commanded him. . .He laid (samak) his hands on him and commissioned him.” (Numbers 27:18-20, 22-23) This illustrates the transfer of authority via laying of hands (samak) from the standpoint of the giver, or in the Isaiah example, from the standpoint of the potter, the one who forms (yetzer) the clay. What is the meaning of samak from the standpoint of that which is formed, the clay, the receiver? First, it is useful to know that samak is also the root of the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, pronounced samech. Pictographically, the samech resembles a staff with a hand resting on it. It means to “support,” “lean on” or “rest in”. The clay, therefore, rests in the hands of its potter, and willingly submits to its formation by the work of those hands.
What is it then for us to have a steadfast mind? Borrowing the prophet Isaiah’s potter/clay example, when we “rest in” (samak) the hands of the Master Potter, when we “lean” on (samak) our Creator, when we cease attempting to control our lives and rely on God as our support (samak), we enter the sphere of His samak/authority, submitting ourselves willingly to the work of His hands so that He will form (yetzer) us according to His purpose (yetzer). Likewise, when we “take on” the mindset of Christ, we enter the sphere of Christ’s authority, submitting ourselves to the authority of Christ, who is in turn under the authority of God, internalizing, leaning on, resting in and being supported by (samak) the instructions of Christ (in trusting obedience such that we allow God to fashion or mold (yetzer) our outward behavior, governing it according to His purpose (yetzer).
When we adopt the “mindset of Christ,” according to the Apostle Paul, we, like Christ, “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” (Phil. 2:3) Rather, we “humble ourselves” (v.8) and in so doing, enable God to fashion us into the “pottery”, that is, the person, he intends/purposes us to be. And when we do this, we achieve, to again borrow the prophet Isaiah’s term, “perfect peace” (shalom shalom).
END NOTES
[1] For a more detailed explanation of tselem, see http://fojlv.org/?p=172.
[2] See https://odmlv.org/?p=231 for a more complete discussion of authority.
