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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 10:07:21 -0600

Dear Moshe,

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.

HH: I was not arguing that in Genesis 3:15 there is a virgin birth. I said I was sympathetic to Doug's idea that in Lev 12:2 the verb could mean "conceive." I did not mean to take my sympathy all the way back to his argument about Gen 3:15. Sorry about the misunderstanding. I was convinced by other arguments, perhaps from you, that a woman in the OT could have "seed" in the sense of "descendants." I thought that was helpful information, because often the Gen 3:15 passage seems to be taken in isolation and viewed as strange because of the mention the woman only. The other data was a worthwhile corrective to that tendency.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






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