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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 3:15 and order of ideas

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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 3:15 and order of ideas
  • Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:38:16 -0600

Dear list,

In a message dated 12/21/2004 7:15:54 PM Central Standard Time,
mshulman AT ix.netcom.com writes:


If one interprets when translating one can make a verse mean anything. The
word 'conceive' is not there. The problem of the language implying the
female having 'seed' led to a number of interesting comments by the Rabbis

I wont to point out another prophesy, in addition to the promise of a virgin
birth, there is also a promise to Satan that he shall have a "seed." Now
that's scarry, Satan with an offspring.

HH: The Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew does give "conceive" as a meaning for the Hiphil of ZR(. [By the way, they note without comment that the Samaritan text of Lev 12:2 uses the Niphil instead of the Hiphil for ZR(.] Although the Hiphil of ZR( might suggest "produce seed," since that is a legitimate meaning for the word in regard to plants, it may also be a decorous term for what happens in a woman. Surely you would not want to say that she "sprouted." What makes me sympathetic with Doug's idea is that a man obviously deposits seed. Since ancients could see that, whether they understood anything about an egg would not be so important. They would have seen that the man planted seed in the woman. So the Hiphil of ZR( may have been a term to indicate that this seed germinated.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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