From: "Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Translating Ezekiel 16:26
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 13:10:21 -0700
I am working through Ezekiel and I am not sure how to take the phrase
גדלי בשר [GDLY B&R] "those being great of flesh" in Ezekiel
16:26. It's clear enough from the context that the speaker is
referring to male genitalia, and the use of בשר [B&R] in Ezekiel
23:20 confirms this. However, I am not sure whether to understand
גדלי בשר [GDLY B&R] as a reference simply to large genitalia
per se, or to _enlarged_ genitalia, that is, erections. NIV, NRSV,
and JPS all take it in the latter sense, and translate it as
"lustful." The LXX has a fairly literalistic translation,
µεγαλοσάρκος [MEGALOSARKOS], "big-fleshed." Neither the
Hebrew word-pair nor the Greek word appear elsewhere in the Tanakh or
LXX, so I don't have any comparative data there to work with. Does
anyone know of any good evidence, e.g. uses of the Hebrew phrase or
Greek word in extra-biblical sources, or similar phrases in cognate
languages, that would help me solidify this translation, or is it an
irreducible ambiguity? Anybody know why NIV, NRSV, JPS read this as
they do?
--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California 90263-4352 http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard http://www.iTanakh.org http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info