Bible word study

Kardia (Strong’s G2588): Meaning in the Bible

Kardia (καρδία) is the Greek word numbered G2588 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as the heart, i.e. (figuratively) the thoughts or feelings (mind); also (by analogy) the middle. In the King James Bible it is translated (+ broken-)heart(-ed)..

• Original wordκαρδία
• Transliterationkardía
• Pronunciationkar-dee'-ah
• Strong’s numberG2588
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. prolonged from a primary (Latin cor, "heart");

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Kardia appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Kardia (G2588) stands behind 171 English renderings in 151 verses across 22 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Luke (25), Acts (24), Matthew (18).

How the King James Bible renders Kardia, by count

• heart91 of 171 (53 percent)
• hearts58 of 171 (34 percent)
• of the heart5 of 171 (3 percent)
• of4 of 171 (2 percent)
• in3 of 171 (2 percent)
• with3 of 171 (2 percent)

Three places to read Kardia

• Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
• John 13:2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him;
• 2 Corinthians 5:12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Kardia in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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