Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

Not that I can see. Surveying the 80 uses of zakar "male" in the 
Tanakh, it seems to me that "zakar" is used to denote biological 
maleness, as contrasted with biological femaleness. I can't see any 
indication of any age-specific usage. In fact, quite the opposite. In 
the circumcision passage in Genesis 17, zakar clearly includes all 
males in Abraham's household, of any age, including the 99-year-old 
Abraham himself.

I realize that it is fashionable to interpret Paul's New Testament 
condemnations of male homosexuality as references to pederasty, but the 
semantics of biblical Hebrew zakar do not seem to me open to such an 
interpretation for Leviticus 18:22 (Heb).

On Mar 1, 2005, at 10:01 AM, Dora Smith wrote:

> Is there any reason to think that in some contexts zakar meant 
> particular
> subtypes of male human being, like young man, boy, male prostitute?
>
> Yours,
> Dora Smith
> Austin, Texas
> villandra AT austin.rr.com
>
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--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Armstrong Fellow in Religion
Pepperdine University
24255 Pacific Coast Hwy
Malibu, CA 90263-4352

http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
http://www.iTankah.org