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

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  • From: Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 3:15 and order of ideas
  • Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 10:29:05 -0500

At 08:38 AM 12/22/2004 -0600, you wrote:
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(.

I would probably translate it as conceive also, but that does not really give the true nuance of the word. As I pointed out, another word is used in Hebrew when we want to say a women conceived, or became pregnant. I cannot think of a counter example to this. Remember the assertion made there was about the use of the word ZR(. This is one of the examples where ZR( is applied associated with a female and not implying a virgin birth. (Try Gen. 16:10) for as similar example.


[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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