Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Hi Marianne, Hag Sameah!

The basic meaning of GDD seems to be "to cut". As a noun, it's most common
in the word "Gedud", which is a group of people, as in a military unit
(compare a "division"). As a verb, it appears in quite a few forms, and the
exact meaning has to be determined by context. In 1 Kings 18:28
"vayyitgodedu" in hithpael means "they cut themselves" - with the swords and
lances mentioned next.
So the root GDD does not mean "self-mutilation" per se, but can be
understood as meaning "they cut themselves" in this context and in this
form.

Yigal

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MarianneLuban AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 4:31 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Self-mutilation


> I am interested in the term "gdd" as it might be found in self-mutilation.
> As I have no books at hand, can anyone tell me in transliteration (sorry,
no
> fonts) what the line is in I Kings 18:28 where the prophets of Baal gashed
> themselves?  Also, if one were to use the term "gdd", what would be the
best way to
> convey "to gash oneself" or "by ones own hand" or perhaps "on ones own
hand"?
>  To the best of my knowledge, "gdd" is Dt-stem "to gash oneself (for
> religious practices)".
>
> Marianne Luban
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>
>