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In Luke, a woman calls the mother of Jesus blessed for giving birth and nursing him. A similar blessing is found in Rabbinic tradition, suggesting it reflects a common saying, likely based on an Aramaic tradition that is also found in the Targums.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Luke 11:27
New Testament
25 When it returns, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that person is worse than the first.” 27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd spoke out to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” 29 As the crowds were increasing, Jesus began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it looks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
Genesis Rabbah 98:20
Aggadah
Rabbinic
“His bow [kashto] sat firm [be’eitan], and the arms of his hands were golden, by the hands of the mighty One of Jacob, from there, from the Shepherd of the stone of Israel” (Genesis 49:24). “His bow sat firm” – this is Aksilo, which produces during the sign of Sagittarius. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Who caused you to be rejected from the mighty ones [ha’eitanim]? It is the passion [kashyut] that you experienced with your master’s wife. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: The bow was drawn until taut and was then loosened. That is what is written: “His bow [kashto] sat firm” – his passion [kashyuto]. “And the arms [zero’ei] of his hands were golden [vayafozu]” –Yitzḥak said: His seed [zaro] scattered [nitpazeru[ and emerged through his fingernails. “From the God of your father, and He shall help you, and the Almighty, and He shall bless you; blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the depths lying beneath, blessings of breasts and of womb” (Genesis 49:25). “By the hands of the mighty One of Jacob” (Genesis 49:24) – Rav Huna in the name of Rav Matana: He saw the image of his father’s face, and it cooled his blood. Rabbi Menaḥama said in the name of Rabbi Ami: He saw the image of his mother’s face, and it cooled his blood. “From there, from the Shepherd of the stone of Israel” (Genesis 49:24) – he saw the stone of Israel, and it cooled his blood. Who caused this? “From the God of your father.” “Above [me’al]” – this is Azkarot that is in Baal. “Lying beneath” – this is Beit She’an, in Beit HaSherai. “Blessings of breasts and of womb” – Rabbi Luleyani ben Turin in the name of Rabbi Yitzḥak: He blessed him with the offspring of animals. You [must] say [so]: Go out and see, whose udder is in the place of its womb? You find it only in an animal. Rabbi Abba bar Zutera said: Come and see to what extent our patriarch Jacob was fond of Rachel. Even when he came to bless her son, he made him secondary to her: “Blessings of breasts and of womb” – may the breasts that nursed this one and the womb that produced this one be blessed. “The blessings of your father surpass the blessings of my parents until the edge of the eternal hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, on the head of the elect among his brothers” (Genesis 49:26). “The blessings of your father” – those who taught me and those who conceived me. “Until the edge [taavat] of the eternal hills [givot olam]” – what the hills of the world [givot olam] desired [nitavu]. “They shall be on the head of Joseph” – here it says “they shall be,” but elsewhere it says: “It shall come [tavota] [upon the head of Joseph]” (Deuteronomy 33:16). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: You will eat its produce [tevuata] in this world, and the principal is intact for the World to Come. “On the head of the elect [nezir] among his brothers” – as his brothers distanced him and caused him to be isolated [nazir]. Rabbi Yitzḥak of Migdal said: You are the crown of your brothers. Rabbi Levi said: He was an actual nazirite, as Rabbi Levi said: All twenty-two years that he did not see his brothers, he did not taste the taste of wine. They, too, did not taste wine until they saw him. That is what is written: “They drank and became intoxicated with him” (Genesis 43:34) – with him they drank; without him they did not drink.
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... We find in Neofiti and Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 49:25: ‘Blessed are the breasts that you sucked and the womb that bore you.’ A nearly identical form of this saying appears in Genesis Rabbah 98.20 (on Genesis 49:25), but this later midrash may in fact be dependent upon the Targum. The woman’s utterance may well reflect targumic tradition ..."
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