<idle musing>
We've lost that concept, haven't we? For us, sex is all about enjoyment, not about conception. It has become totally secular; we've abandoned it to the pornographers and exploiters. We need to recover a sense of the holy—in every area of our life!
</idle musing>
Idle musings by a once again bookseller, always bibliophile, current copyeditor and proofreader. Complete with ramblings about biblical studies, the ancient Near East, bicycling, gardening, or anything else I am reading (or experiencing). All more or less live from Red Wing, MN
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The night of conception
Equal in importance to the day of birth for the emergence of new human life was the time of conception (Job 3:1). For Job, the two dates played equal roles in forming his existence (3:1–10). In the Hebrew Bible, every conception and pregnancy is viewed as the work of god, especially following a period of infertility (Gen 20:17–18; 21:1–2; 29:31–32; 30:17, 22; 1 Sam 1:19–20) but also in more typical cases (Ruth 4:13). Thus, during the night of conception, god draws very near the couple and is especially engaged with the female partner by healing her infertility (אפר; Gen 20:17) and opening her womb (חתפ םחר; Gen 29:31; 30:22).—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 275
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