know, lie with

know, lie with, verbs   The Hebrew Scriptures have two metaphors for sexual intercourse, yada and shakab. Both have English equivalents that were common euphemisms when the King James Bible appeared in the seventeenth century: know and lie with, respectively. By the twentieth century, both of these metaphors had fallen into disuse. The only current remnant of earlier usage is the legal term for unwanted sexual intimacy, carnal knowledge. In spite of the shift in language, the translators of the New Revised Standard Version in many instances retained know and lie with.

Examples of passages about sexual intercourse in which New Revised Standard Version translates yada as know:

          Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the Lord." [Genesis 4:1]

         The girl was very fair to look upon, a virgin, whom no man had known. [Genesis 24:16]

         They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. [I Samuel 1:19]

         Occasionally, the New Revised Standard Version uses a more contemporary English expression to translate yada.

      New Revised Standard Version                              King James Version

         At the end of two months, she returned to           And it came to pass at the end of two
her father, who did with her according to the        months, that she returned unto her father,
vow he had made. She had never slept                who did with her according to his vow
with a man. [Judges 11:39]                               he had vowed: and she knew no man.

          But the men would not listen to him. So the        But the men would not hearken to him: so
man seized his concubine, and put her out          the man took his concubine, and
to them. They wantonly raped her, and               brought her forth unto them; and they
abused her all through the night until the              knew her, and abused her all the night
morning. [Judges 19:25]                                    until the morning.

            More often than not, the translators of the New Revised Standard Version translate yada with some form of know, but when they want the word to be taken literally, they sometimes use other English terms with slightly different connotations. All these terms represent aspects of the basic meaning of yada, which is to ascertain.

         The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful. [Genesis 24:21]

          So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.” [Genesis 41:39]

         His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. [Exodus 2:4]

          God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them. [Exodus 2:25]

          Pharaoh's officials said to him, "How long shall this fellow be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God; do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?" [Exodus 10:7]

In two critical passages, the context does not make clear whether yada is to be taken in the literal sense of ascertain or the metaphorical sense of a sex act. In the first instance, the translators have left the interpretation up to the reader, but because the term know is a matter of law as well as language, people generally assume that the offense of the Sodomites¹was homosexual rape. In the second passage, the translators have passed along their interpretation that the demand was indeed that a male guest be produced for the sexual satisfaction of local men. In both cases, the author or editor of the story might have meant by yada that the local people wanted to interrogate the guest, perhaps violently.

         But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them." [Genesis 19:4-5]

         While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, "Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him." [Judges 19:22]

The early Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint, usually translated yada with ginosko. In old English the initial consonant k was sounded in know, as was the initial g in the Greek gno, one form of ginosko. The similarity of the English and Greek verbs suggests the etymological relationship between know and ginosko. The metaphorical use of ginosko for sexual intercourse appears twice in the gospels.

                 New Revised Standard Version                               King James Version

         When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as        Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as
the angel of the Lord commanded him; he          the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and
took her as his wife, but had no marital            took unto him his wife: And knew her not till
relations with her until she had borne a son;     she had brought forth her firstborn son:
and he named him Jesus. [Matthew 1:24-25]    and he called his name JESUS.

         Mary said to the angel, "How can this be,         Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall
since I am a virgin?" [Luke 1:34]                   this be, seeing I know not a man?