EX hAIMATWN (John 1:13)

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jan 21 20:25:55 EST 2000


At 5:28 PM -0700 1/21/00, John Barach wrote:
>B-Greekers:
>
>The plural hAIMATWN in John 1:13 has been the subject of some discussion
>in the commentaries.  Recently, I was reading P. H. R. van Houwelingen's
>recent commentary, _Johannes: Het evangelie van het Woord_ (Kampen: Kok,
>1997).
>
>He thinks John 1:13 is listing "three phases of the process of human
>propagation" in reverse order:
>
>     -- the intercourse between man and woman (literally:
>        "bloods" [Dutch: bloedstromen], used to
>        designate sexual intercourse as blood-contact.
>     -- the sexual urge of two people (literally: "the will
>        of the flesh," used to designate human libido.
>     -- the masculine initiative for sexual intercourse
>        (literally, "the will of the man," used to
>        designate the man as the one who takes the
>        initiative within the marriage  (p. 50).
>
>Van Houwelingen says that "detailed documentation" can be found in S.
>van Tilborg's _Imaginative Love in John_ (Leiden, 1993) -- a book I
>don't have (of course).
>
>I'd appreciate your evaluation of this position (and/or substantiation,
>especially if you've read the relevant section in Van Tilborg).

My Hebrew is fetal or futile or dimly-rememberd from a distant past, but
isn't there a plural form, DAMMIM for "blood"? Also, I remember reading
somewhere (was it Raymond Brown on this passage? That's possible) that one
theory of biological conception was that male semen mingled with female
menstrual blood to form the embryo. If there's anything real to this, I'm
sure somebody else will know.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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