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  • From: "Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Translating Ezekiel 16:26
  • Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 13:10:21 -0700

I am working through Ezekiel and I am not sure how to take the phrase גדלי בשר [GDLY B&R] "those being great of flesh" in Ezekiel 16:26. It's clear enough from the context that the speaker is referring to male genitalia, and the use of בשר [B&R] in Ezekiel 23:20 confirms this. However, I am not sure whether to understand גדלי בשר [GDLY B&R] as a reference simply to large genitalia per se, or to _enlarged_ genitalia, that is, erections. NIV, NRSV, and JPS all take it in the latter sense, and translate it as "lustful." The LXX has a fairly literalistic translation, µεγαλοσάρκος [MEGALOSARKOS], "big-fleshed." Neither the Hebrew word-pair nor the Greek word appear elsewhere in the Tanakh or LXX, so I don't have any comparative data there to work with. Does anyone know of any good evidence, e.g. uses of the Hebrew phrase or Greek word in extra-biblical sources, or similar phrases in cognate languages, that would help me solidify this translation, or is it an irreducible ambiguity? Anybody know why NIV, NRSV, JPS read this as they do?
--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California 90263-4352
http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
http://www.iTanakh.org
http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info




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