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Something I love about studying the Bible is digging into the original Greek and Hebrew words that the books were written in. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. One word that shows up over and over again is the Greek word "nous." It's used in so many different ways that many definitions are required to explain this single word.
Essentially, it's the mind.
It's the mind, as distinguished from the will and affections. So it's not just what you like or want, but it's what produces the likes and the wants.
It's the faculties of perceiving, understanding, feeling, judging, determining.
It's the faculty of reason as the capacity for spiritual truth. Here's where it gets meaty. This is the part of us that is actually capable of understanding spiritual facts, those ideas that sometimes contradict what we're seeing with our eyes. It's the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognizing good and hating evil. I also like to say recognizing what's right and rejecting what's wrong.
Some modern spiritual thinkers have added their definitions to this list as well.
Thomas Merton says it most poetically, defining nous as "a point of pure truth which belongs entirely to God." Wait, it's a part of us but it's not ours? It's God's? Now we're getting somewhere. He continues, "the pure glory of God in us; a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven."
Mary Baker Eddy describes this faculty of understanding spiritual facts as "spiritual sense," and explains, "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God"
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 209:31–32).
This word is important because in the noise of our daily mental banter, the deep knowing of nous gets lost, covered, drowned out. To receive the healing touch of divine Truth, we must stay focused on that pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of real knowing, the knowing that comes from God, divine Mind. Let's remember to check in with nous today, to pay attention to the part of us that's God's.
