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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Mowledeth
  • Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:12:45 EDT


Pere Porta:
You wrote: "MWLDT is the Hiph'il Participle, singular feminine of verb YLD,
to bring forth. Thus its literal meaning is "(female) who causes to bring
forth", the same
as "MWRDT" means "(female) who causes to go down" (of YRD). …
>From my answer above it is clear that MWLDT must rather point out to
ancestors than to descendants."
The three answers I have gotten as to what the meaning of MWLDT is are
confusing. Let's look at a specific verse of text, which may shed light on
this
matter. Jacob's older sons, whose mother is Leah, have returned from Egypt,
where they bought food from a high Egyptian official who is their younger
half-brother, Joseph, in disguise. (Joseph's mother is Rachel.) Jacob's
older
sons are reporting to their father Jacob the strange series of questions
that
this Egyptian official had asked them:
"And they said: 'The man asked straitly concerning ourselves, and
concerning our MWLDT, saying: Is your father yet alive? have ye another
brother? and
we told him according to the tenor of these words; could we in any wise
know that he would say: Bring your brother down?'" Genesis 43: 7
(JPS1917)
(It is clear in context here that "brother" includes both a full-brother and
a half-brother.)
1. On your view, if I am understanding you correctly, in asking about his
older half-brothers' MWLDT, Joseph had asked about the mother of Jacob's
older
sons. That is impossible. Joseph has no interest in Leah, the mother of
his older half-brothers. Leah is not Joseph's mother, and Leah is not the
mother of the one person Jacob is most concerned about at this point:
Joseph's
only full-brother, Benjamin.
2. If I understand Karl W. Randolph correctly (which perhaps is doubtful),
Joseph is asking about the place of Jacob's older sons' birth. That also
makes no sense. Joseph knows they were born in Harran. Joseph has no
interest
in Harran whatsoever. No, Joseph is only interested in whether he has one
full-brother, Benjamin, who is alive and well. Joseph knows that Benjamin
was born in Canaan, whereas Joseph's older half-brothers were born in
Harran.
Joseph is not asking about conditions in Harran or in Canaan, or where is
older half-brothers are from. Joseph has no interest in any such matters.
Rather, Joseph is only interested in finding out if the father of his older
half-brothers has a son by another wife, who would be Joseph's only
full-brother,
Benjamin.
3. On my view, everything makes perfect sense. MWLDT means "father's
descendants". Joseph is asking his older half-brothers about their "father's

descendants". Thus Joseph is indirectly, but pointedly, asking his older
half-brothers if they have a younger half-brother (Benjamin) by the same
father who
is alive and well, and who would be Joseph's only full-brother.
It is perhaps relevant that JPS1917 translates MWLDT here as "kindred",
which is very close to my meaning of "father's descendants". "Kindred" has
nothing to do with either female ancestors or the geographical place of
one's
birth.
I recognize now that I erred in viewing the mem at the beginning of MWLDT as
meaning "from". Based on what I have now learned, here is my new way of
understanding MWLDT.
MWLDT/"mowledeth" literally means "the place from where one was brought
forth". As such, it can have the following two meanings. It can mean
"one's
father's descendants", with all such persons having been "brought forth" by
the
father (either directly, as the father's sons, or indirectly, as the
descendants of the father's sons), from one or more females. The female
aspect of
the word has to do with the fact that each child is born of a woman, yet the
word is referring to all persons brought forth by the father by all women.
(That includes all of the father's wives, and all of the father's
daughters-in-law.) In that meaning, the focus is on the person's siblings,
and has nothing
whatsoever to do with geography.
Alternatively, MWLDT/"mowledeth" could mean "the geographical place where
one was born", since that geographical locale is where one was "brought
forth"
(by a female).
Several times in the Bible, only the meaning of "father's descendants" would
seem to make sense, not any reference to a geographical locale of a person's
birth. Leviticus 18: 9, 11 is referring to being born of one's father.
Genesis 43: 7 and Genesis 48: 6 also seem to be referring to people, one's
father's descendants, and not a geographical locale.
MWLDT/"mowledeth" never means ancestors. The root YLD is referring to what
comes forth from an ancestor, namely "descendants", not to one's ancestors
themselves.
I myself see the primary meaning of MWLDT/"mowledeth", especially in the
Patriarchal narratives, as being "the persons who have been brought forth, by

various women, from one's father", i.e. one's "father's descendants". The
accent is on one's living brothers (including half-brothers, if they have
the same
father), but MWLDT also includes all the descendants of one's father. The
closest single word equivalent to that in English is "kindred", in its
narrowest meaning.
At Genesis 43: 7, Joseph desperately wanted to know about Judah's MWLDT,
that is, Judah's father's descendants, with the accent being on Judah's
brothers, including both full-brothers and half-brothers (by the same
father). By
pressing Judah to give a full account of Judah's full-brothers and
half-brothers (all sons of the same father), Joseph quickly found out the
one and only
thing that Joseph really wanted to know: Joseph has a full-brother,
Benjamin,
who is alive and well.
Rather than being an "aberration", Genesis 43: 7 in my view reflects the
core original meaning of MWLDT/"mowledeth", namely "father's descendants".
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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