KNOWER OF HEARTS — kardia ('heart') + ginōskō ('to know'). A compound so rare that its only two appearances in early literature are both in Acts: here, where eleven men who cannot see inside either candidate hand the choice to the one who can, and at Acts 15:8, where God 'who knows the heart' is the argument for admitting Gentiles. It may well be a coinage of the first Christians, standing on 1 Samuel 16:7 — 'man looks at the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks at the heart'. → first discussed at Acts 1:24