From: Will Wagers (hyle@airmail.net)
Date: Fri Jan 21 2000 - 14:46:16 EST
<x-flowed>><< So, would you translate Ps. 2:7, "You are my son, today I have
>produced you" ? >>
>
>(That almost sounds like show-biz terminology. "What production was he in?")
There were many proposed solutions here from adoption to metaphor; but,
perhaps a little biology can help. The prevailing biological theory of
generation was that the male provided the entire seed to be sown in
the fertile field of woman, i.e. all the genetic material came from the male.
This made biological creation unilateral and male. Creation was, of course,
ultimately *divine*. Thus, God is Male.
Further, the male creative factor was thought to be not so much material
as an activity, a sort of English imparted to matter which gave it Form.
Even after people noticed that kids often looked more like the mom than
the dad, the theory remained popular with *biologists*, philosophers,
and theologians. (There was a competing theory with contributions from
both the male and the female, but the female part was usually thought of
as *cooking* the seed in a relatively hot or cold womb.)
Thus, *fathering* was a complete act of creation, with further evolution
occurring in the passive oven or soil of the mother.
This understanding does not rule out adoption, but it would change the
sense of any intended metaphor, and it would make translations
such as "sire" anachronistic.
Will Wagers hyle@airmail.net "Reality is the best metaphor."
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