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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 09:08:56 -0600

Dear Chris,

I cannot find any demonstrable instance in the Tanakh of zara( taking a
masculine noun or pronoun as its subject and meaning "to impregnate." Can
someone point me to attestations that I have overlooked?

HH: What follows is not the Tanakh, and the grammar of the passage is debated (the KJV thought that Sarah conceived seed), but the best interpretation of Heb 11:11 follows the path of the NIV:

Heb. 11:11 ΒΆ By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.

HH: A literal translation of "become a father" is "for a laying down of seed." That is what seems to reduce the credibility of the KJV interpretation:

Heb. 11:11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

HH: It is BAGD that notes the meaning of KATABOLH can be a technical term for the sowing of the seed, for begetting (TOU SPERMATOS [EIS GHN H MAHTPAN] "of the seed [in earth or womb]." BAGD says that if this understanding is correct, the term could not apply to Sarah in Heb 11:11, but only of Abraham. Of course the verb KATABALLW can mean "throw down."

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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