Texts in Conversation
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.
Date: 75–85 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis Rabbah 98:20
Aggadah
Rabbinic
“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].
Date: 500 CE (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 ..."
Craig A. Evans, ed., Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus (New York: Routledge, 2008), 619.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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