Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:26:24.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Bawdy Bible*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Edward Ullendorff
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Although the Hebrew Bible is a literary document of relatively limited size, containing only a certain segment of what must have been a considerable body of literature, there is little doubt that even those remnants which have come down to us include some areas of the vocabulary of lewdness which have not always been recognized, either intentionally or unintentionally. While I do not hold the view that the Old Testament is either exclusively or even primarily a ‘religious’ text, it is unquestionably true that the criteria of admission into the canon were governed by considerations not entirely divorced from the element of likely divine approval. Yet even within those books of the Hebrew Bible whose orthodox propriety was never in any doubt there are embedded thoughts as well as expressions that fall within the field and broad range of the present paper. And this is, a fortiori, the case with regard to those compositions which had to struggle hard to gain admission into the canon of the Old Testament.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , October 1979 , pp. 425 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliographical References and Abbreviations

Ackroyd, P. R., ‘Hosea’ in Peake's Commentary on the Bible (ed. Black, M. and Rowley, H. H.), (Thomas Nelson), Edinburgh, 1962.Google Scholar
Barr, James, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, (Clarendon Press), Oxford, 1968.Google Scholar
Barr, James ‘A Retrospect on two major translations of the Bible’ in Heythrop Journal, xv, 4, 10 1974.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, , Walter-Kutscher, E. Y. (and others), Hebräisches und aramäisches Lexikon zum Alten Testament, (E. J. Brill), Leiden, I 1967; II 1974.Google Scholar
Ben-Amotz, D. and Ben-Yehuda, N., World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang, (E. Lewin-Epstein Ltd.), Jerusalem, 1973.Google Scholar
Ben-Yehuda, , Eliezer, , Thesaurus totius Hebraitatis et veteris et recentioris (8 vols.), (Thomas Yoscloff), New York and London, 1960.Google Scholar
Benzinger, I., Die Bücher der Könige (Marti's Kurzer Hand-Kommentar zum Allen Testament), (J. C. B. Mohr), Freiburg, Leipzig and Tübingen, 1899.Google Scholar
Benzinger, I.Hebräische Archäologie3, (Eduard Pfeiffer), Leipzig, 1927.Google Scholar
Brockington, L. H., The Hebrew text of the O.T.—The readings adopted by the translators of the NEB, (OUP/CUP), 1973.Google Scholar
Cooke, G. A., The Book of Ezekiel, ICC, (T. & T. Clark), Edinburgh, 1936.Google Scholar
Daube, David, Studies in Biblical Law, (CUP), 1947.Google Scholar
Daube, David ‘Counting’ in Mnemosyne, XXX, 2, 176–8.Google Scholar
Daube, DavidThe Duty of Procreation, (Edinburgh University Press), 1977.Google Scholar
Driver, G. R., Canaanite Myths and Legends, (T. & T. Clark), Edinburgh, 1956.Google Scholar
Driver, G. R. ‘Problems of Interpretation in the Heptateuch’ in Mélanges bibliques en l'honneur de A. Robert, 1957, 66–76.Google Scholar
Driver, S. R., Deuteronomy3, ICC, (T. & T. Clark), Edinburgh, 1902.Google Scholar
Emerton, J. A., ‘A consideration of some alleged meanings of in Hebrew’ in JSS, xv, 2, Autumn 1970.Google Scholar
Emerton, J. A. ‘Some Problems in Genesis XXXVIII’ in Vetus Testamentum, xxv, 3, 1975.Google Scholar
Gaster, Theodor H., Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament, (Harper & Row), NewYork, 1969.Google Scholar
Gesenius, W., Thesaurus, (F. C. W. Vogel), Leipzig, 1829.Google Scholar
Gesenius, , -Buhl, W., , F., Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament15, (F. C. W. Vogel), Leipzig, 1910.Google Scholar
Gordis, Robert, The Song of Songs, (Jewish Theological Seminary of America), New York, 1954.Google Scholar
Gordon, Cyrus H., Ugarilic Textbook, (Pontificio Istituto Biblico), Rome, 1965.Google Scholar
Herbert, A. S., ‘The Song of Solomon’ in Peake's Commentary on the Bible (ed. Black, M. and Rowley, H. H.), (Thomas Nelson), Edinburgh, 1962.Google Scholar
Jastrow, Marcus, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (2 vols.), (Pardes Publishing House), New York, 1950.Google Scholar
Josephus, Flavius: Works, transl. by Whiston, W., (George Virtue), London, 1841.Google Scholar
König, E., ‘Style of Scripture’ in Hastings', Dictionary of the Bible, Extra Volume, (T. & T. Clark), Edinburgh, 1906.Google Scholar
Leach, Edmund, Genesis as Myth, (Jonathan Cape), London, 1969.Google Scholar
Lys, Daniel, ‘Notes sur le Cantique’ in Suppl. to Vetus Testamentum, XVII, 1968.Google Scholar
McKane, William, Proverbs, (SCM Press), London, 1970.Google Scholar
McKane, William ‘Observations on the tiḳḳûnê sôperîm’ in On language, culture, and religion: in honor of Eugene A. Nida (ed. Black, Matthew and Smalley, William A.), (Mouton), The Hague-Paris, 1974.Google Scholar
Marti, Karl, Das Buch Jesaja (Kurzer Hand-Kommentar zum Alten Testament), (J. C. B. Mohr), Tübingen, 1900.Google Scholar
Nicholson, E. W., ‘The Problem of ṣnḥ’ in ZAW, 89: 2, 1977, 259–66.Google Scholar
Nöldeke, Theodor, Beiträge zur Semitischen Sprachwisscnschaft, (Karl Trübner), Strassburg, 1904 (abbreviated as Beitrāge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitt-Rivers, Julian, The Fate of Shechem, (CUP), 1977.Google Scholar
Robertson Smith, W., The Religion of the, Semites2, (A. & C. Black), London, 1907.Google Scholar
Scholem, Gershom G., Zohar, the book of splendour (basic readings from the Kabbalah), (Rider & Company), London, 1977.Google Scholar
Scholem, Gershom G. ‘Lilith and the Queen of Sheba’ [in Hebrew, ], in TARBIZ, 19, 1948, pp. 165–72.Google Scholar
Segal, M. H., (Bialik Institute), Jerusalem, 1953.Google Scholar
Silberman, L. H., ‘The Queen of Sheba in Judaic Tradition’ in Solomon & Sheba (ed. Pritchard, James B.), (Phaidon Press), London, 1974.Google Scholar
Skinner, John, Genesis2, ICC, (T. & T. Clark), Edinburgh, 1930–1951.Google Scholar
von, Soden W., Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, (Harrassowitz), Wiesbaden, 1959–.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. Winton, ‘Some remarks on the Hebrew root ’ in Journal of Jewish Studies, VI, 1, 1955.Google Scholar
Tur-Sinai, N. H. (Torczyner, H.), ‘Nachträge und Berichtigungen zu meinen Proverbia-studien in ZDMO 71 (1917)’ in ZDMG 72, 1918.Google Scholar
Tur-Sinai, N. H., in Hattashon wәhassefer (3 vols.), (Bialik Institute), Jerusalem, 1950–1955.Google Scholar
Tur-Sinai, N. H.The Book of Job, (Kiryath Sepher), Jerusalem, 1957.Google Scholar
Ullendorff, Edward, Ethiopia and the Bible (The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy, 1967), (OUP), 1968.Google Scholar
Ullendorff, Edward ‘Is Biblical Hebrew a Language ?’ in BSOAS, XXXIV, 2, 1971.Google Scholar
Ullendorff, Edward ‘The Queen of Sheba in Ethiopian Tradition‘ in Solomon & Sheba (ed. Pritchard, James B.), (Phaidon Press), London, 1974.Google Scholar
Ullendorff, Edward Review of Kurylowicz, J., Studies in Semitic grammar and metrics in BSOAS, XXXVII, 2, 1974.Google Scholar
Ullendorff, EdwardStudies in Semitic Languages and Civilizations, (Harrassowitz), Wiesbaden, 1977 (abbreviated SSL&C).Google Scholar