Verbs of sexual intercourse in the Greek Pentateuch: a lexical analysis

Abstract This article examines the neglected evidence of the Greek Pentateuch for verbs of sexual intercourse. I aim to demonstrate the translators’ skilful application of their mimetic translation method and the native-speaker competence suggested by their vocabulary choices in the relevant sphere. With one exception manifesting Hebrew interference through semantic extension, all the verbs deployed to describe sexual intercourse represent natural Greek usage and are found in classical literature going back in some cases to early epic. This provides yet another indication that the evidence of the Septuagint should no longer be dismissed when considering the post-classical development of the Greek language.


I. Introduction
There is a massive corpus of early Koine Greek that has long been neglected by the majority of scholars as a witness to the history of the language.This is the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.The key reason for neglect lies in its very obvious peculiarities.Most books of the Septuagint were translated from the original Hebrew (and in some cases Aramaic) texts.These translations were produced gradually over a period of up to four hundred years (from the early third century BCE to as late as the second century CE), in various styles, and probably in a variety of speech communities. 1The resulting Greek seems on first encounter to manifest a high level of bilingual interference.Isolating that interference has seemed to many authorities an intractable problem. 2 Impetus is now building, however, towards a revolution in the study of Septuagint language.Research that draws on all available evidence, especially that of contemporary documents, and closely analyses the mimetic style of the translations is allowing us to establish the nature and degree of the bilingual interference.Recent studies have demonstrated that this is mostly a matter of lexical and syntactic extension arising from translation techniques. 3As a result it is becoming possible to discern the essentially natural character of the Greek. 4This in turn unlocks its rich potential to address the larger challenge of developing our general knowledge of the post-classical language. 5he present study aims to contribute to this process and to communicate a sense of the exciting developments to Hellenists in general.I take as my subject the inherently fascinating sphere of sexual vocabulary. 6Sexual terms tend to bear a heavy weight of cultural significance.They are strongly affected by social taboos and sensitivities and display a marked tendency towards multiplication and replacement, often through the proliferation of euphemistic expressions. 7To give an English example, Shakespeare uses 45 different expressions for 'penis', 68 for 'vagina' and 275 for 'copulation'. 8Ancient Greek is also rich in such terminology.Pollux assembles a list of over 40 expressions for sexual intercourse in his Onomasticon of the second century CE (at 5.92-93), but as David Bain observes, he 'only skims the surface'. 9From Jeffrey Henderson's The Maculate Muse I have counted over 170 expressions for the same idea that occur in Attic Comedy. 10Old Comedy is exactly the genre where one would expect to find a profusion of this material, including 'coarse' terms normally avoided in both literary and documentary sources, but much of the euphemistic terminology used by Aristophanes and the other comedians is freely employed in other genres as well, 11 and some of it occurs in the Greek translation of the Septuagint.
My specific purpose here is to show how the Septuagint material relates to general Greek usage.Since this is a large and complex topic, far too large for a single paper if we want to get to grips with details, I will focus on the usage of the Greek Pentateuch (the translations of the five books of the Hebrew Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), which most scholars consider the earliest part of the Septuagint corpus and date to the third century BCE. 12 I will also focus specifically on verbs conveying the general sense 'have sexual intercourse (with)'.I aim to demonstrate that, with one Hebraistic exception, the terms deployed by the translators of the Pentateuch belong to the well-established sexual vocabulary found already in classical Greek.Their use is consistent with a growing body of evidence revealing the impressive educational background and formidable linguistic and stylistic capacities of these translators.13I will inevitably also be addressing, from a broadly lexicographical perspective, some modern responses to the group of words in question.

II. Key terms
The key verbal expressions for 'have sexual intercourse (with)' in the Greek Pentateuch are: γινώσκω accusative εἰσέρχομαι/εἰσπορεύομαι πρός accusative κοιμῶμαι μετά genitive συγγίνομαι dative14 Taking them together, I count 68 instances in the five books.The distribution is shown in Table 1.More than half the examples occur in the largely narrative content of Genesis, the only one of the five books in which all four verbs occur.There are also clusters in legal contexts in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.This distribution is inevitably conditioned by the source text.The fact that the translators employed a largely literal method in rendering the text components of the Hebrew means that almost every instance of each verb in the group translates a Hebrew verb of sexual intercourse.I work here with the usual assumption that our received Hebrew text, the Masoretic text (MT), is very close to the one on which the Greek translation was actually based. 15or the present purpose I set aside certain expressions that convey related ideas (and that would need to be addressed in any comprehensive study of sexual vocabulary in the Pentateuch), but do not function as practical synonyms for my key terms.Examples are μοιχεύω 'commit adultery', βιβάζω 'climb onto (a person or animal) for the purpose of sexual intercourse' and the deliberately oblique language of most of the sexual prohibitions in Leviticus 18 (notably ἀποκαλύπτω ἀσχημοσύνην 'uncover that which is shameful').16I will, however, discuss (in section VII below) another group of verbs that may seem to approach the meaning in question more closely.
By comparing the figures for each of my four key verbs in tables 1 and 2, we can observe that three of them, γινώσκω, εἰσέρχομαι/εἰσπορεύομαι and κοιμῶμαι, are also used in the Pentateuch in non-sexual senses, two of these much more often than in their sexual senses.
And, if we look beyond the limits of the Septuagint we will find that the apparent anomaly, συγγίνομαι, is also well attested in non-sexual senses.This situation is typical for verbs of sexual intercourse considered 'respectable' in many societies.Their sexual meanings are euphemisms developed by metonymy from other senses.For verbs meaning 'know', 'be with', 'sleep with' and 'come' and 'go', the development is common to a range of languages.This will become clear in the following discussion, but as a preliminary observation note that our key Greek verbs all map onto similarly euphemistic expressions in the source language.
The issue of multiple meanings creates a trap for the unwary, and it is a trap, as we will see, into which experts can plunge headlong.Since γινώσκω, εἰσέρχομαι/εἰσπορεύομαι and κοιμῶμαι turn up often in non-sexual senses in the Pentateuch, we will need to be careful in identifying examples relevant to the present enquiry.When scholars go looking for verbal expressions with a sexual reference, there is a danger that they will start to see them everywhere. 18On the other hand, if they are not looking for them, they tend not to see them anywhere.Meanwhile, the question of Hebraisms will arise as we proceed.When Septuagint scholars go looking for Hebrew interference in translation Greek, there is always the danger that they will start seeing that everywhere, too.Caution will be necessary on both fronts.

III. Γινώσκω
Let us now survey the four key expressions, starting with γινώσκω 'know'.As we saw in  3 presents the Hebrew matches for γινώσκω in the MT.We can see here that in 75 of the 85 instances, and always in the sexual sense, γινώσκω is matched by ‫י‬ ‫ד‬ ‫ע‬ .This Hebrew verb has a semantic range covering various kinds of 'knowing', including 'know sexually', the ultimate source of expressions like English 'know in the biblical sense'. 21ne might well wonder whether the Genesis and Numbers translators' choice of γινώσκω to render the sexual sense is a case of semantic extension, influenced by their frequent employment of this verb to translate the non-sexual sense of ‫י‬ ‫ד‬ ‫ע‬ .It seems, however, to be natural Greek.LSJ cites evidence for the sense from a fragment of Menander and from the second-century BCE Ptolemaic statesman and historian Heraclides Lembus: 22 Menander fr.382.3-5 ὁ δέ μ' ἠκολούθησεν μέχρι τοῦ πρὸς τὴν θύραν | ἔπειτα φοιτῶν καὶ κολακεύων <ἐμέ τε καὶ> | τὴν μητέρ' ἔγνω μ'.He followed me right up to the door, then through repeated visits and flattery of [me and] my mother, he got to know me sexually(?).In Kephallenia a son of Promnesos ruled, and was harsh, ... and he used to know the young women sexually before they were given in marriage.Antenor took a sword and women's clothing, and entered into his bed and killed (him).
The Menander instance is hardly an incontrovertible example and may mean no more than 'got to know me'.William Arnott's interpretation is speculative. 23On the other hand, the instance from Heraclides is clear.Influence from the Septuagint seems unlikely, despite the shared Egyptian milieu.The deployment does not seem to be innovative in either case (if we accept the Menander example) and it may have been well established before these first appearances in the literature.So the use of γινώσκω as a translation equivalent by the authors of the Greek Genesis and Numbers appears to be a deft choice.This is an example of the phenomenon of using a natural Greek equivalent that happens to fit the Hebrew exactly.It works effectively as a rendering for both non-sexual and sexual senses of the Hebrew word.Such choices can lead to stylistic interference, where a word or a specific sense of a word is used much more often than in original Greek compositions, and to a limited extent one might see that here.The fact that we are dealing with such small scraps of evidence, however, means it is impossible to be sure.
As it happens, we find a parallel development in Latin.In the Vulgate translation of Gen. 4:1 (and also at 4:17 and 25) the verbal form rendering the sexual sense of ‫י‬ ‫ד‬ ‫ע‬ is cognouit.But the sexual sense of 'know' verbs and related expressions is an established development in Latin long before it appeared in Bible translations. 24James Adams presents the examples below from Catullus and Caesar, among others: Vulgate Gen. 4.1 Adam uero cognouit Hauam uxorem suam quae concepit et peperit Cain.
Notes: a) s = sexual, n-s = non-sexual.b) For the terms qal and niph(al), see n.5 above.
Caesar, BGall.6.21.5 Intra annum uero uicesimum feminae notitiam habuisse in turpissimis habent rebus.And to have had carnal knowledge of a woman before the twentieth year they consider among the most disgraceful acts.

IV. Συγγίνομαι
Γινώσκω is not the only verb used to render the sexual sense of ‫י‬ ‫ד‬ ‫ע‬ in the Greek Pentateuch.In Gen. 19:5 we see συγγίνομαι deployed as equivalent.John Lee argues that, used instead of γινώσκω, this is a deliberately equivocal rendering,25 which would explain the motivation for the departure from the Genesis translator's usual practice.The normal non-sexual semantic range of the word συγγίνομαι involves such meanings (plus dative) as 'associate with', 'meet' and 'converse with'. 26The euphemistic sexual sense is also quite common in literature, as illustrated by the example from Xenophon below. 27Lee suggests a sense of delicacy may account for the use of a translation which can obscure the meaning of the Hebrew, though the sexual sense is there 'for anyone who can recognize it'. 28n. 19:5 καὶ ἐξεκαλοῦντο τὸν Λώτ, καὶ ἔλεγον πρὸς αὐτόν Ποῦ εἰσιν οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ εἰσελθόντες πρὸς σὲ τὴν νύκτα; ἐξάγαγε αὐτοὺς πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ἵνα συγγενώμεθα αὐτοῖς.And they called Lot out and said to him, 'Where are the men who came in to you tonight?Bring them out to us in order that we may have intercourse with them'.At that point Epyaxa, the wife of Syennesis, king of the Cilicians, came to visit Cyrus; and she was said to have given Cyrus a large sum of money ... and it was also said that Cyrus had intimate relations with the Cilician queen.
As we saw in tables 1 and 2, there is one other instance of συγγίνομαι in the Greek Pentateuch, also in Genesis, and it too is used euphemistically of sexual intercourse: Gen. 39.10 ἡνίκα δὲ ἐλάλει τῷ Ἰωσὴφ ἡμέραν ἐξ ἡμέρας, καὶ οὐχ ὑπήκουεν αὐτῇ καθεύδειν μετ' αὐτῆς τοῦ συγγενέσθαι αὐτῇ.And when she spoke to Ioseph day by day, and [sic] he would not listen to her to lie down with her in order to have intercourse with her.
Here the Hebrew offers a more suggestive structural environment for the choice.It employs the verb ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ ‫ה‬ 'be' plus the preposition ‫ע‬ ‫ם‬ 'with', though εἰμί rather than συγγίνομαι would offer the most literal rendering. 29Here, too, Lee suggests equivocation may be a factor in the choice of rendering.In this case the apparent ambiguity resides in the Hebrew expression, which the translator is perhaps attempting to replicate.But, as Lee acknowledges, the use as sexual euphemism is unmistakable in the Greek. 30akamitsu Muraoka asserts that this verb always refers to illicit sexual intercourse in the Septuagint. 31The implications of that remark may seem noteworthy, since they might imply a new restriction on the sense of the verb that is certainly not found in earlier literature.His 'Alw[ays]', however, applies to five examples in the entire Septuagint and is not really a comment on the meaning of the verb, but on the contexts in which it is used. 32hen dealing with the Old Testament we need to remember that most sexual contexts described are likely to involve illicit activity and that the Greek use is conditioned by that of the underlying Hebrew.This is true of all the material under consideration in the present study.There is nothing marked about the use of the verb συγγίνομαι itself in the two Pentateuchal examples.It refers by a euphemism simply to sexual intercourse.

V. Kοιμῶμαι (-άομαι)
Let us now consider the contract verb κοιμῶμαι.The development of sexual senses from expressions meaning 'sleep with' or 'lie with' is well known in many languages.Adams speculates that this euphemism may be universal. 33In Greek the verb κοιμῶ, which has the primary sense 'make' (someone or something) 'go to sleep' in the active and 'lie down (to sleep)', 'go to sleep' or by extension simply 'sleep' in the middle and passive, exhibits this transfer in its middle and passive forms already in early epic and both the non-sexual and sexual senses are well represented in classical Greek as well. 34his is the most common euphemism for sexual intercourse in the Greek Pentateuch.The person (or animal) with whom the sleeping is done is represented consistently by μετά plus genitive.Tables 1 and 2 show that of its 64 instances in these books 38 convey the sexual sense.Examples of both senses are presented below, including one (Gen.19:33) exhibiting both sexual and non-sexual senses in a single verse.In this last case it would be wrong to interpret the second instance, where κοιμηθῆναι balances ἀναστῆναι within an articular infinitive construction, as sexual.The contrast, as Robert Hiebert also interprets it in Albert Pietersma and Benjamin Wright's New English Translation,35 is simply between the female participant's lying down in the bed and getting up from it.One has to be particularly careful to distinguish such examples of non-sexual senses in sexual contexts, a point to which we will return in relation to εἰσέρχομαι/ εἰσπορεύομαι.

Gen
Table 4 shows the regularity of the matches with the Hebrew verb ‫ש‬ ׁ ‫כ‬ ‫ב‬ , which undergoes a similar semantic development.Thus, it matches 37 of the 38 examples of κοιμῶμαι in the sexual sense (in the other instance there is no match at all) and 15 of the non-sexual instances.The 'with' idea rendered by μετά plus genitive is expressed in the Hebrew by two different prepositions, 20 times by ‫ע‬ ‫ם‬ and 17 times by ‫א‬ ‫ת‬ .This is not especially noteworthy as the Hebrew words are practical synonyms in these constructions. 36So in this Greek expression we have another effective choice of translation equivalent, closely imitating the Hebrew, but eminently suitable from a Greek perspective.

VI. Eἰσέρχομαι / εἰσπορεύομαι
Of the four key verbs of sexual intercourse identified in section II above, the 'go into' compound which in classical Greek we know as εἰσέρχομαι is in several respects the most interesting.In the early Koine this form is in the process of replacement by εἰσπορεύομαι, in a way similar to other ἔρχομαι compounds. 37There are 223 examples of the verb in the Pentateuch and most are used in the familiar general senses, as we see below in Gen. 6:18 Notes: a) s = sexual, n-s = non-sexual.b) For the term qal see n.5 above.
38 See, for example, LSJ s.v.; Harl (1986) 70.That the simplex ἔρχομαι develops the sense 'go (with)' referring to 'have sexual intercourse (with)' ( παρά acc.) in the Classical period (LSJ s.v.B.7) does not necessarily have any bearing on the semantic development of the compound.Note, incidentally, the confusion of Henderson (1991) 155, who compares the sexual sense of the simplex ἔρχομαι with English 'go with' or 'go (in) unto'.As we will see, the latter expression is derived from Old Testament language (cf.OED s.v.'go' III.31.c) translated in the Greek Pentateuch by εἰσέρχομαι and described below; it is not related to the simplex ἔρχομαι.
by those interested in developing our understanding of post-classical Greek.This is a huge slab of highly relevant data with which classicists and linguists need to engage.It is hard to overstate the potential rewards for those willing to undertake the task.

Table 1 ,
this is used in a sexual sense six times in Genesis and twice in Numbers.Ἀδὰμ δὲ ἔγνω Eὕαν τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, καὶ συλλαβοῦσα ἔτεκεν τὸν Kάιν.And Adam knew his wife Heua, and she conceived and bore Kain.19εἰσὶν δέ μοι δύο θυγατέρες, αἳ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν ἄνδρα· ἐξάξω αὐτὰς πρὸς ὑμᾶς, καὶ χρήσασθε αὐταῖς, καθὰ ἂν ἀρέσκῃ ὑμῖν.And I have two daughters, who have not known a man.I will bring them out to you, and use them however you like.

Table 1 .
Frequencies of verbal expressions for sexual intercourse in the Greek Pentateuch 17