CHAT: (short) Re: Biblical Hebrew

>From: John Cowan <jcowan@...>
>The concepts "womb", "bowels", and "compassion" seem to be clearly
>connected.
>From: Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
>         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."
Actually, the whole thing came up in a discussion of lovingkindness in
Buddhist practice, and the best English word to use when talking about it
(besides lovingkindness).

>         As for interpretation problems, not likely. For instance, take
>Genesis 43:14 "And God Almighty give you mercy before the
>man..." You plainly cannot insert "womb" in place of "mercy," especially
>since Jacob is talking to his sons, who are about to go off to see the
>Egyptian prime minister (Joseph). :) As usualy, context disambiguates.
>         :Peter
The gist of the conversation was that the notion of the womb, or womb-like
implied much more compassion than mercy, and that (theoretically) the use of
the word mercy is a somewhat unfortunate mistranslation that crept in
somewhere along the line - i.e. "God is compassionate" (wants to share life
the way mother & child do) vs. "God is merciful" (is within his rights to
punish us but doesn't).  Mothers are naturally compassionate, judges extend
mercy to guilty criminals...  then again, I wonder if a lot of people would
find the distinction that profound or not...

Anyway, its interesting to consider - thanks guys :)

Andy







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