Biblical Knowledge

[Geoff Nathan]

Charlie Doyle wrote:

<i>The idea that sexual experience (like all other human endeavors) could and should be an avenue to knowledge was a well established Christian/Platonic (even "Puritan") concept in the 16th and 17th centuries. That's one of the implications of the term "carnal knowledge"--what's often referred to nowadays as "knowing in the biblical sense" (which means "in the KJV sense"!). Of course, the phrase was also simply a euphemism.

Knowledge comes from learning; so it seems that we OUGHT to encounter sexual learning (and sexual teaching) alongside (or prior to) sexual knowledge! Searching the phrase "carnal learning" does turn up some Google hits: 900+ of them, together with 500 in Google Books--some of which seem to quote the phrase from the early Quaker George Fox, and many are from the 19th century. </i>

In this case, however, it wasn't a Christian/Platonic concept alone--Biblical Hebrew uses the word (yd9) in that sense also (while I'm not a Biblical scholar either, I do know Biblical Hebrew). Relevant citations include Gen 4.17, I Sam. 1.19.  Gesenius' _Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament_, a wonderful old early 19th century work, cites similar senses in Greek, Arabic and Coptic.  FWIW.

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

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