Deut 30:6 in the MT reads:
וּמָ֙ל יְהוָ֧ה
אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֖ וְאֶת־לְבַ֣ב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ
בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ לְמַ֥עַן חַיֶּֽיךָ׃
And the Lord thy God will circumcise (מול)
thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. (KJV)
Unfortunately,
the DSS manuscripts for Deuteronomy do not include Deut 30:6. However, the
Vulgate follows the Hebrew:
circumcidet Dominus Deus tuus cor tuum et cor seminis tui ut
diligas Dominum Deum tuum in toto corde tuo et in tota anima tua et possis
vivere
One can transliterate the Syriac in the Peshitta as follows:
w-nġaẓūr Maryā ’ĕlāḥḵā leḇōḵ w-ləḇā
d-zeraʿḵ lāʿālm w-təḥmēm l-Maryā ’ĕlāḥḵā men kullāh leḇōḵ w-men kullāh nefsheḵ
meṭṭal d-neḥyāḵ
And the Lord your God will
circumcise your heart—and the heart of your descendants-so that you may love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and so that you
may live.
However,
the LXX reads differently. The text of Deut 30:6 as found in Göttingen reads:
καὶ περικαθαριεῖ κύριος τὴν καρδίαν σου
καὶ τὴν καρδίαν τοῦ σπέρματός σου ἀγαπᾶν κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς
καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου, ἵνα ζῇς σύ
The Lord your God will also
cleanse (περικαθαριζω) your heart, and the hearts of your descendants so that you
may love him with all your mind and being and so that you may live. (NETS 2d
ed.)
According to the Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon, περικαθαριζω
means “to clean away.”
The LXX of Deut 30:6 may inform some of Peter’s words at the
Council of Jerusalem at Acts 15:9:
And put no difference between us
and them, purifying (καθαριζω)
their hearts by faith.
Commenting on Deut 10:16, we read the following in the NET
Bible concerning the act of circumcision and what it signifies:
Just as that act signified total
covenant obedience, so spiritual circumcision (cleansing of the heart)
signifies more internally a commitment to be pliable and obedient to the will
of God (cf. Deut 30:6; Jer 4:4; 9:26). (The NET Bible First
Edition Notes [Biblical Studies Press, 2006], Logos Bible Software edition)
Roman Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis offered the
following comment on Acts 15:9:
463 "purifying their
hearts by faith": τη πίστει καθαρίσας τας καρδίας αυτων, the Greek putting "by
faith" (lit., "the faith") first in the clause for emphasis
since "faith" is the opposite of what the Judaizers were demanding
from Cornelius and all other believers-to be circumcised and obey the whole
Mosaic law, in addition to having faith (cf. Rm 3:28; Gl 2:16). Paul's other
point regarding the purifying of their hearts is introduced by the assonance
between καθαρισας (kathar-isas) and καρδίας (kard-ias), which
refers to the baptism they received after their show of faith. In Catholic
theology, water baptism infuses God's cleansing grace into the individual's
soul, thus regenerating the soul from a state of uncleanness to a state of
cleanness (cf. Ac 2:38; 1Pt 3:20; Rm 6:1-4; Ti 3:5). Robert A. Sungenis, Commentary on the
Catholic Douay-Rheims New Testament from the Original Greek and Latin, 4
vols. [State Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing,
Inc., 2024], 2:586 n. 463])
