In 1 Samuel, we read that God changed or gave Saul a new heart when he was anointed as the first king of Israel. It's a strange phrase that brings to mind the kind of thing we would expect in the new Kingdom age--empowered by the spirit of Jesus. The phrase has stuck in my mind, and I wanted to see if there were any other references to God changing or giving someone a new heart in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament.
My grandmother called this afternoon to discuss the apparent synonymity of "law," "testimony," "precepts," "commandments," and "ordinances" in Psalm 19:7-11. She was curious if there were any distinctions between these terms, as they all seem to refer to God's instructions in some way. She had dug into the definitions and pulled out some interesting nuances, but I wanted to explore the original Hebrew to see if there were any differences in meaning or emphasis that might not be immediately apparent in English translations.
I chose to dissect Ruth as a test subject for my biblical connections project because it is a short book that is fairly self contained. I didn't expect to find anything surprising or insightful as I worked out how to standardize or automate my process for importing and tagging the text. Never underestimate the Bible.