Imagination

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notmartha
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Imagination

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BIBLE

The words ”imagine(s)” and/or “imagination(s)” are found in the KJV 35 times, almost always having negative connotations and associated with the condition of an evil heart.

Hāgâ, Hebrew Strong's #1897, is a verb found 25 times in the OT of the KJV, translated as “imagine” in the following verses:
Psalm 2:1 - Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psalm 38:12 - They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
Hātat, Hebrew Strong's #2050, is a verb found 1 time in the OT of the KJV, translated as “imagine mischief” in the following verse:
Psalm 62:3 - How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
Zāmam, Hebrew Strong's #2161, is a verb found 13 times in the OT of the KJV, translated as “imagine” in the following verse:
Genesis 11:6 - And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Ḥāmas, Hebrew Strong's #2554, is a verb found 8 times in the OT of the KJV, translated as “wrongfully imagine” in the following verse:
Job 21:27 - Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.


Ḥārēsh, Hebrew Strong's #2790, is a verb found 73 times in the OT of the KJV, translated as “imagine” in the following verse:
Proverbs 12:20 - Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy.
Ḥāshab, Hebrew Strong's #2803, is a verb found 124 times in the OT of the KJV, translated as “imagine” in the following verses:
Job 6:26 - Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?
Psalm 10:2 - The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Psalm 21:11 - For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
Psalm 140:2 - Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.
Hosea 7:15 - Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.
Nahum 1:9 - What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
Zechariah 7:10 - And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
Zechariah 8:17 - And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.
Yēṣer, Hebrew Strong's #3336, meaning a form or thing framed, is translated as “imagination” 5 times in the OT of KJV:
Genesis 6:5 - And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 8:21 - And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Deuteronomy 31:21 - And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.
1 Chronicles 28:9 - And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
1 Chronicles 29:18 - O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:
Machǎshebeth, Hebrew Strong's #4284, is a noun found 56 times in the OT of the KJV, translated as “imaginations” in the following verses:
Proverbs 6:18 - An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Lamentations 3:60 - Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
Lamentations 3:61 - Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
Sherirût, Hebrew Strong's #8307, meaning twisted, is translated as “imagination” 9 times in the OT of the KJV:
Deuteronomy 29:19 - And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
Jeremiah 3:17 - At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.
Jeremiah 7:24 - But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
Jeremiah 9:14 - But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
Jeremiah 11:8 - Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.
Jeremiah 13:10 - This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
Jeremiah 16:12 - And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
Jeremiah 18:12 - And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
Jeremiah 23:17 - They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
Dialogismos, Greek Strong's #1261, is a noun found 14 times in the NT of the KJV. It is translated as “imagination” in the following verse:
Romans 1:21 - Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Dianoia, Greek Strong's #1271, is a noun found 13 times in the NT of the KJV. It is translated as “imagination” in the following verse:
Luke 1:51 - He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
Logismos, Greek Strong's #3053, is a noun found 2 times in the NT of the KJV. It is translated as “imagination” in the following verse:
2 Corinthians 10:5 - Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Meletaō, Greek Strong's #3191, is a verb found 3 times in the NT of the KJV, translated as “imagine” in the following verse:
Acts 4:25 - Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
DEFINITIONS

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
IMAGINA'TION, noun [Latin imaginatio.]
The power or faculty of the mind by which it conceives and forms ideas of things communicated to it by the organs of sense.

Imagination I understand to be the representation of an individual thought.

Our simple apprehension of corporeal objects, if present, is sense; if absent, is imagination [conception.]
Imagination, in its proper sense, signifies a lively conception of objects of sight. It is distinguished from conception, as a part from a whole.

The business of conception is to present us with an exact transcript of what we have felt or perceived. But we have also a power of modifying our conceptions, by combining the parts of different ones so as to form new wholes of our own creation. I shall employ the word imagination to express this power. I apprehend this to be the proper sense of the word, if imagination be the power which gives birth to the productions of the poet and the painter.

We would define imagination to be the will working on the materials of memory; not satisfied with following the order prescribed by nature, or suggested by accident, it selects the parts of different conceptions, or objects of memory, to form a whole more pleasing, more terrible, or more awful, than has ever been presented in the ordinary course of nature.

The two latter definitions give the true sense of the word, as now understood.
1. Conception; image in the mind; idea.
Sometimes despair darkens all her imaginations.
His imaginations were often as just as they were bold and strong.
2. Contrivance; scheme formed in the mind; device.
Thou hast seen all their vengeance, and all their imaginations against me. Lamentations 3:60.
3. Conceit; an unsolid or fanciful opinion.
We are apt to think that space, in itself, is actually boundless; to which imagination the idea of space of itself leads us.
4. First motion or purpose of the mind. Genesis 6:5.
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
TO IMAGINE, Eng. law.

In cases of treason the law makes it a crime to imagine the death of the king. In order to complete the offence there must, however, be an overt act the terms compassing and imagining being synonymous. It has been justly remarked that the words to compass and imagine are too vague for a statute whose penalty affects the life of a subject. Barr. on the Stat. 243, 4. Vide Fiction.

Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st – 5th Editions, 1891 - 1979
IMAGINE.

In English law. In cases of treason the law makes it a crime to imagine the death of the king. But, in order to complete the crime, this act of the mind must be demonstrated by some overt act. The terms “imagining” and “compassing” are in this connection synonymous. 4 Bl. Comm. 78.
The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
imagination (i-maj-i-na'shon),

1. The act or faculty of forming a mental image of an object; the act or power of presenting to consciousness objects other than those directly and at that time produced by the action of the senses; the act or power of reproducing or recombining remembered images of sense objects; especially, the higher form of this power exercised in poetry and art.

2. An image in the mind; a formulated conception or idea.

3. The act of devising, planning, or scheming; a contrivance; scheme; device; plot.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 1919
imagination, n.

Imagining ; mental faculty forming images of external objects not present to the senses ; fancy ; creative faculty of the mind.
Ballentine’s Law Dictionary, James A. Ballentine, Third Edition, 1969
imagine.

To conceive in the mind.
QUOTES

One of the most interesting things I’ve read about Paracelsus is how he stresses the importance of “imagination” in disease and healing:
“The power of imagination is a great factor in medicine. It may produce diseases in man and in animals and it may cure them. But this is not done by the powers of symbols or characters made in wax or being written on paper, but by an imagination, which perfects the will. All the imagination of man comes from the heart. The heart is the seed of the microcosm, and from that seed the imagination proceeds into the macrocosm. Thus the imagination of man is a seed that becomes materialized or corporeal.”
"It is possible that my spirit, without the help of my body, and through an ardent will alone, and without a sword, can stab and wound others. It is also possible that I can bring the spirit of my adversary into an image and then fold him up or lame him at my pleasure. Resolute imagination is the beginning of all magical operations.”
"Because men do not perfectly believe and imagine, the result is, that arts are uncertain when they might be wholly certain."
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