La semántica de la maternidad. Fecundidad, esterilidad y esclavas en el Antiguo Israel

Abstract

This article analyses the discourse on female procreating nature as reflected in Biblical Hebrew. Adopting a gender perspective and using a philological method, I study an array of roots ( עק''ר ,שכ''ל ,יל''ד ) and one idiomatic expression (- (יל''ד על ברכ which are objects of scholarly debate and which were employed to describe – and prescribe– the reproductive role of Israelite women. The naming of motherhood, its absence and the resort to slave exploitation as a way to end childlessness are the topics which this piece of research aims to address. Special attention is drawn to the semantics of the lexeme עקרה , where I discuss its conventional rendering as “barren” and make a proposal which, albeit not completely new, has never been thoroughly justified.