[B-Greek] Matt 1:20 to gennethen: Beget or conceive?

Webb webb at selftest.net
Fri Dec 15 18:04:43 EST 2006


KUW, it seems to me, has the same ability as GENNAW to refer either to the
male or the female role in procreating a child in the womb, depending on
whether it says that a man or a woman does it. It does not mean "conception"
as we moderns think of it. SULLHMMA, of course, is a noun, and means
"fetus".

 

Webb Mealy

 

  _____  

From: George F Somsel [mailto:gfsomsel at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 2:03 PM
To: Webb; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Matt 1:20 to gennethen: Beget or conceive?

 

One word which BDAG has is KUOFOREW.  That is found in Ignatius' Epistle to
the Ephesians 18.2

 

hO GAR QEOS hHMWN IHSOUS hO XRISTOS EKUOFORHQH hUPO MARIAS KAT' OIKONOMIAN
QEOU EK SPERMATOS MEN DAUEID, PNEUMATOS DE hAGIOU hOS EGENNHQH KAI
EBAPTISQH, hINA TWi PAQEI TO hUDWR KAQARISHi.

 

Another is SULLHMMA which appears in the Gospel of James (Protevangeium
Jacobi)

 

SULLHMMA EXEI EK PNEUMATOS hAGIOU

 

Then there is a metaphorical usage of KUW in Is 59.4 (LXX)

 

hOTI KUOUSIN PONON KAI TIKTOUSIN ANOMIAN

 

george
gfsomsel
_________

 

----- Original Message ----
From: Webb <webb at selftest.net>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 4:31:47 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Matt 1:20 to gennethen: Beget or conceive?

Dear Anthony,

I'd be interested to know what Greek words you have in mind that refer to
conception as distinct from begetting. I thought the ancient concept of how
babies are made didn't include the exact analogue for the modern idea of
"conception", i.e. the creation of a zygote by the fertilization of an egg
by a sperm. So most contemporary English speakers would see conception not
as something that the woman does, but something that a couple does (put
"conceived a child" into Google, and 9 out of 10 results will refer to a
couple). I think the idea in Judaism when Matthew was written was that the
man planted a seed in the woman, and she nurtured it. So GENNAW probably
connoted something like "to spawn" or "to plant a seed" when it was used of
a man. The angel was saying to Joseph, the seed that has been planted in
your betrothed is from the Holy Spirit (not from another man).

But notice what happens when we go back, from this perspective, and express
it as "what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit" (not from
another man). It's very close, the difference being that it assumes the
modern conception of conception, so to speak. 99% of modern people would not
be able to tell you the difference between "begetting" (an obsolete word)
and "conceiving" a child. So you don't achieve anything positive for the
vast majority of readers by preserving the verbal distinction. And I think
you risk getting into a conceptual and theological thicket by trying to
insist that there is significance to the fact that the text refers to
begetting and not conceiving. Email me off list if you want to hear my
theological remarks. But I don't think Matthew had the choice to use the
word for "conceive", because there was no Greek word equivalent to our
modern English word "conceive" at the time the text was written. Or was
there?

Webb Mealy


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