Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>]

At 08:51 AM 12/22/2004 -0600, you wrote:
> Dear Moshe,
> > > Even if one does not take the use of mazriya( in Gen 1:11, 12 to imply that,
> > > always, the one who does the hiphil zara(-ing supplies the zera(, Lev 12:2
> > > still has the woman as the active agent of the zara(-ing, the "sowing," not
> > > as a passive recipient of zera(.
> > It is definitely a strange usage here, which is what the Rabbis seem to 
> > have picked up on. I recall seeing an article (I think in BR) about women 
> > having seed.
> HH: Even if the ancient Jews did understand about women producing eggs, 
> that is not chiefly what Lev 12:2 concerns, I think. It refers to a woman 
> conceiving and bearing a child. Obviously a woman could produce eggs but 
> not conceive; producing eggs does not automatically lead to giving birth. 
> So the relevant point probably was, in in many other texts, that she 
> conceived and bore. The Hiphil of ZR( here would seem to include the 
> implanting of the male seed in the wall of the uterus.


You can't have it both ways. In one verse argue it means normal offspring 
and in another an offspring from a virgin birth.