On 15 August, Peter Clark wrote:
> On Thursday 15 August 2002 11:05, Andy Canivet wrote:
> > I was told not so long ago that the word that appears typically as
"Mercy"
> > in modern English versions of the Bible are translated from an old
Hebrew
> > word that orignally meant "womb-like" (which could somewhat
fundamentally
> > change how the text is interpreted). Can anyone confirm or deny this?
I
> > don't know what the actual Hebrew word was supposed to be; only the
> > meaning.
>
> Sure; one word for mercy (although relatively rare, compared with
"hesed"
> "grace, loving-kindness") is racham, although in general it has
connotations
> of "to have compassion" or "cherishing." The specific word for "womb" (as
> opposed to "belly") is rechem. It's not quite clear whether which word
> derives from which; scholars?
I suppose that leaves me out (not being a scholar of Semitic langs),
but FWIW, my dictionary has the emotions and the bodily organ
as being related to different sets of cognates in ancient semitic langs.
But in each case, the cognate from one set is very similar to the one
from the other set across all the langs mentioned. Thus, it's quite
possible that the connection between the emotions and the organ
dates from proto-Semitic times. _Real_ scholars, please? ;-)
Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a
A word is an awesome thing.