I dunno if this is the right sub since it's more a linguistic question, but why don't they just say X had sex with Y in the bible? Is the Hebrew different and it's a translational issue or is it supposed to be a euphemism or is there some sort of deeper meaning that's lost on the reader?
Some videos I've been watching make the claim that there's a connection between gnosticism and the fact that the word know is used to mean sex. Since gnostic means knowledge, it kind of makes sense to me, but I want to know if there's any validity to the connection or if it's just happenstance. Thanks!
The Hebrew word yadah (‘know’) used in the Bible has several meanings. This article makes the case for knowledge as a reference to the covenant between man and God and to intimate relations between husband and wife, as in the case of Adam and Eve (Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain, Genesis 4:1), Cain and his wife (And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, Genesis 4:17), and Elkanah and Hannah (And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her, Samuel 1:19).
By contrast, the Bible refers to non-intimate relations using the alternative sakav meaning ‘lay’. For example, Abraham lay with his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar, to conceive a child (he lay with Hagar and she conceived, Genesis 16:4), Lot was deceived into laying with his eldest daughter (So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, Genesis 19:33), and the Bible commands that If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman (Deuteronomy 22:22).
Privately, I have always wondered whether use of the word ‘know’ (yadah) was in any way connected with the ‘tree of knowledge’ (etz ha’dahat) from which Adam and Eve ate.