Texts in Conversation
In 2 Maccabees, a mother tells her sons that she did not give them life, but that the creator formed their bodies, language that draws on Psalm 139, which depicts people as woven together in the womb and known in hidden places.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalm 139:13
Hebrew Bible
11 If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me, and the light will turn to night all around me,” 12 even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, and the night is as bright as day; darkness and light are the same to you. 13 Certainly you made my kidneys21; you wove me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing. You knew me thoroughly; 15 my frame* was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret and sewed together in the depths of the earth.
2 Maccabees 7:22
Deuterocanon
20 But above all, the mother was marvelous and worthy of honorable memory; for when she watched seven sons perishing within the space of one day, she bore the sight with a good courage because of her hope in the Lord. 21 She exhorted each one of them in the language of their fathers, filled with a noble spirit and stirring up her woman’s thoughts with manly courage, saying to them, 22 “I don’t know how you came into my womb. It wasn’t I who gave you your spirit and your life. It wasn’t I who brought into order the first elements of each one of you. 23 Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the first origin of man and devised the first origin of all things, in mercy gives back to you again both your spirit and your life, as you now treat yourselves with contempt for his laws’ sake.” 24 But Antiochus, thinking himself to be despised, and suspecting the reproachful voice, while the youngest was yet alive didn’t only make his appeal to him by words, but also at the same time promised with oaths that he would enrich him and raise him to high honor if he would turn from the ways of his ancestors, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs.
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Notes and References
"... The involvement of Yahweh with the formation of the fetus seems to be well established in such passages as Psalm 139:13–18; Job 10:10–12; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Psalm 22:9–10; 2 Maccabees 7:22–23; Wisdom of Solomon 7:1–3; see also the Egyptian Hymn of Aton. If this interpretation is correct, the verse means that the suppliant does not claim to be simply a victim of circumstance (verse 7) but confesses that no time in his or her existence as a human being has been without the gifting of divine truth and wisdom. Thus the verse serves to strengthen the rightness of God’s judgment of the speaker’s sin in verse 6b. The verse is far too uncertain, however, for much confidence in any interpretation ..."
* 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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