In the Genesis Apocryphon, Lamech worries that his son is illegitimate and accordingly confronts his wife about her fidelity. Bitenosh answers these accusations with a surprising response: she asks her husband to recall the sexual pleasure that she experienced during their intercourse. Scholars have clarified this rhetorical strategy by connecting the episode to Greco-Roman theories of embryogenesis, in which a woman’s pleasure during intercourse was taken to indicate conception. While this provides a convincing explanation for Bitenosh’s argumentation, in this essay I argue that rather than deriving these ideas from the Greco-Roman world, the conception theory which informed the Genesis Apocryphon is in fact consistent with notions that can already be found in the Hebrew Bible and the wider ancient Near East. By exploring the concept of conception in biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts, I uncover a belief in the necessity for female pleasure during intercourse as well as the existence of female “seed.” These ancient authors were able to develop and promote significant reflections upon medical issues such as conception, and this is recalled in Bitenosh’s speech. This essay therefore has significant implications for understanding concepts of sex and conception in the Genesis Apocryphon, as well as in the Hebrew Bible and the wider ancient Near East more generally.

在《创世记》中，拉梅奇担心自己的儿子是私生子，因此正视妻子的忠贞。Bitenosh用令人惊讶的回答回答了这些指控：她​​要求丈夫回忆她在性交中所经历的性快感。学者们通过将该情节与希腊罗马人的胚胎发生理论联系起来，阐明了这种修辞策略，在该理论中，女性在性交时的快感被用来表示受孕。尽管这为Bitenosh的论点提供了令人信服的解释，但在本文中，我认为，不是从希腊罗马世界衍生出这些想法，而是为创世纪先世论提供了依据的概念理论实际上与希伯来语中已经可以找到的观念相一致。圣经和更广泛的古代近东。通过探索圣经和古代近东文本中的概念概念，我发现了人们对性交中女性愉悦的必要性以及女性“种子”的存在的信念。这些古老的作者能够对诸如概念之类的医学问题进行发展和促进重要的反思，这在比特诺什的演讲中得到了回忆。因此，本文对于理解创世纪先兆，希伯来圣经和更广泛的古代近东中的性和观念具有重要的意义。这在Bitenosh的演讲中回想起。因此，本文对于理解创世纪先兆，希伯来圣经和更广泛的古代近东中的性和观念具有重要的意义。这在Bitenosh的演讲中回想起。因此，本文对于理解创世纪先兆，希伯来圣经和更广泛的古代近东中的性和观念具有重要的意义。