Human Conception in Antiquity: The Hebrew Bible in Context

Abstract

This article explores ideas concerning human conception as reflected in the Hebrew Bible in particular. After reviewing above all biological texts from ancient Indian, Greek and Roman sources, the various clues as to how human conception may have been understood in the ancient Hebrew context are thoroughly investigated. The notion that Aristotelian ideas of preformationism and pneuma inform the Hebrew Bible is refuted. Instead, both divine and female contributions to conception appear to be more prominent.