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The Bawdy Bible*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Edward Ullendorff
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Extract

Although the Hebrew Bible is a literary document of relatively limited size, containing only a certain segment of what must have been a considerable body of literature, there is little doubt that even those remnants which have come down to us include some areas of the vocabulary of lewdness which have not always been recognized, either intentionally or unintentionally. While I do not hold the view that the Old Testament is either exclusively or even primarily a ‘religious’ text, it is unquestionably true that the criteria of admission into the canon were governed by considerations not entirely divorced from the element of likely divine approval. Yet even within those books of the Hebrew Bible whose orthodox propriety was never in any doubt there are embedded thoughts as well as expressions that fall within the field and broad range of the present paper. And this is, a fortiori, the case with regard to those compositions which had to struggle hard to gain admission into the canon of the Old Testament.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , October 1979 , pp. 425 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1979

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References

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