Friday, November 21, 2025

Strack and Billerbeck on Parallels to Romans 1:26

  

Most find in Rom 1:26 B a reference to the lesbian debauchment of women designated as frictrices or triabdes (τριβάδες).

 

Lucian, Ἑταιρικοὶ διάλογοι 5: Τοιαύτας γὰρ ἐν Λέσβῳ λέγουσι γυναῖκας, ὑπὸ ἀνδρῶν μὲν οὐκ ἐθελούσας αὐτὸ πάσχειν, γυναιξὶ δὲ αὐτὰς πλησιαζούσας, ὥσπερ ἄνδρας.… Ἐγεννήθην μὲν ὁμοία ταῖς ἄλλαις ὑμῖν. γνώμη δὲ καὶ ἐπιθυμία καὶ τἅλλα πάντα ἀνδρός ἐστί μοι. ‖ Martial, Epigrams 90.5: Mentiturque virum prodigiosa Venus. ‖ The halakah has something similar in view in the following passages. Jerusalem Talmud Giṭṭin 8.49C.58: As for two women who have moved to and fro מסלדות on each other (in fornication), the school of Shammai has declared them to be ineligible (to marry priests; thus, their act was viewed as harlotry), but the school of Hillel declared them to be eligible. — The parallels in b. Šabb. 65A and b. Yebam. 76A do not read מסלדות, but rather מסוללות with the same meaning. In b. Yebam. 76A Rashi gives the explanation: “they rub each other’s genitals.” ‖ Tosefta Soṭah 5.7 (310): As for a woman who has moved to and fro מסלסלת on top of her son who is a minor so that genital touching has occurred, the school of Shammai has declared her to be ineligible (to marry a priest), but the school of Hillel has declared her to be eligible. — Parallels can be found in y. Giṭ. 8.49C.58 with the verb מסלדת, and in b. Sanh. 69B as a baraita with the verb מסוללת. ‖ Another kind of female fornication is mentioned in b. ʿAbod. Zar. 44A: What does מִפְלֶצֶת (“idol,” 1 Kgs 15:13) mean? Rab Judah († 299) said, “There was occasion for too much mockery מפליא ליצנותא” (a notarikon interpretation of מפלצת), as Rab Joseph († 333) taught as a tannaitic tradition: “She (Maacah, the mother of King Asa) had a certain kind of penis made with which she had intercourse every day.” ‖ It is worded quite dully in SLev 18:3 (337A): “You are not to act as they do in the land of Egypt and as they do in the land of Canaan” (Lev 18:3). Are we then not to construct buildings or set up any planting as they do? Scripture teaches: “And you are not to walk in their statutes” (Lev 18:3). I have spoken only of statutes that were established for them and for their fathers and for their fathers’ fathers. And what did they do? A man married a man and a woman a woman. A man married a woman along with her daughter, and a woman married two men. Therefore, it is said: “And you are not to walk in their statutes.” (Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, ed. Jacob N. Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and Joseph Longarino; Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2021], 3:82-83)

 

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