This essay traces the features of a symbolic construct which seldom garners much attention among scholars of biblical and Second Temple texts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely, the likening of earth and womb. It contends that understanding this symbolism brings clarity to several texts whose interpretation is disputed and illuminates important aspects of sectarian thought, including a perspective on human sexuality which has escaped some current scholarship. The representation of the sexed body in the Thanksgiving Psalms (or “Hodayot”) receives extended attention. These psalms, it is shown, have been influenced by the negative rhetorical application of the phrase “born of woman” as found in the book of Job and by a tradition reflected in Jubilees and 4Q265 which employs the creation of Adam and Eve as a paradigm for the purification of new mothers (as described in Lev 12). The argument will show how a homology of earth and womb lies behind or can be derived from each of these traditions and how it comes to shape a profoundly negative, if highly contextualized, view of sexuality in the Psalms of Thanksgiving.

这篇文章追溯了一个很少引起圣经和第二圣殿文本（包括死海古卷）学者关注的象征结构的特征，即地球和子宫的比喻。它争辩说，理解这种象征意义使一些解释有争议的文本变得清晰，并阐明了宗派思想的重要方面，包括对人类性行为的看法，这已经逃脱了一些当前的学术研究。感恩节诗篇（或“Hodayot”）中性别化身体的表现受到了广泛的关注。这些诗篇显示，受到约伯记中“由女人所生”这一短语的负面修辞应用的影响，以及反映在禧年和 4Q265 中的传统的影响，该传统采用亚当和夏娃的创造作为净化新母亲的范式（如第 12 章所述）。这个论点将展示地球和子宫的同源性如何隐藏在这些传统的背后或可以从这些传统中推导出来，以及它如何在感恩节的诗篇中形成一种非常消极的、如果高度情境化的性观念。