Mandrakes, what are they?

by purrpurr 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  purrpurr

  I decided to do about of research about mandrakes. Remember the ones found by Dan and purchased from Leah by Rachel?

  Now I don't remember seeing any indepth explanation of what mandrakes are in the WT. Having found out more about them there may be good reason for that.!

  Mandrakes are a root vegetables that have a long history of association with magic and witchcraft. They are narcotics and produce hallucinations and hypnosis.

  In the bronze age time they were also meant to bring fertility and prosperity if placed within a home.

  I cannot find anywhere that says mandrakes make a good meal in fact quite the reverse, they are poisonous and can kill or turn a person mad if ingested.

  So it would appear that Rachel wanted these mandrakes to: practice magic with, to get high or to bring their magical powers into the home to help her get pregnant?

  Now I perhaps might be wrong but I'm just going on all that I've researched.

  I'd like to know what you think?
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  Witness My Fury

  Step away from the bible and play some gta v or something.

  Atheists book of bible stories for you: https://app.box.com/shared/uclytd91jd
  
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  OrphanCrow

  purrpurr:So it would appear that Rachel wanted these mandrakes to: practice magic with, to get high or to bring their magical powers into the home to help her get pregnant?

  Not neccessarily. Mandrake has been used medicinally for centuries for far more than the purposes that you have mentioned.

  https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mandra10.html
  

  Medicinal Action and Uses---The leaves are quite harmless and cooling, and have been used for ointments and other external application. Boiled in milk and used as a poultice, they were employed by Boerhaave as an application to indolent ulcers. The fresh root operates very powerfully as an emetic and purgative. The dried bark of the root was used also as a rough emetic. Mandrake was much used by the Ancients, who considered it an anodyne and soporific. In large doses it is said to excite delirium and madness. They used it for procuring rest and sleep in continued pain, also in melancholy, convulsions, rheumatic pains and scrofulous tumours. They mostly employed the bark of the root, either expressing the juice or infusing it in wine or water. The root finely scraped into a pulp and mixed with brandy was said to be efficacious in chronic rheumatism. Mandrake was used in Pliny's days as an anaesthetic for operations, a piece of the root being given to the patient to chew before undergoing the operation. In small doses it was employed by the Ancients in maniacal cases.
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  Vidiot

  Maybe Leah thought that if Rachel got Jacob wasted, he'd be a little more into some of the freaky stuff that inevitably happened.
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  pronomono

  Thanks for the new reading, WMF.
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  CalebInFloroda

  While heathen cultures may have used the root in magic, the Hebrews had a more erotic purpose in mind.
  
  Mandrake was an aphrodisiac in ancient Jewish culture. The Hebrew word used here in the account at Genesis 30 is, etymologically speaking, a perfect example of onomatopoeia, very erotically so.
  
  The word is DUDA’IM, a word play on the word for “breasts” (DADDAYIM) and “sexual pleasure” (DODIM).
  
  It should be noted that the heathens generally did not use words that suggested an immediate connection with the erotic. The etymology of the current word “mandrake” comes from words in other languages that suggest magical properties due to the shape of the root (often resembling a human being) and its narcotic properties (in Latin, dragora from which also comes the word “dragon”).
  
  While the Hebrews connected the plant to sex, heathens connected it with the type of lore that has associated it with other herbs of what has been termed the “Nightshade” family, potent Solanaceae of which many are toxic. The family of Solanaceae are frequently referenced in entertainment that deals with monsters, witches, magic, werewolves, and vampires.
  
  Apparently the DUDA’IM was prepared as a love-making tonic in ancient times suggested by Genesis, but it is also likely that the reference to DUDA’IM is merely a narrative device not based upon historical truth but merely used as a means of moving the drama of the legend of the competition between Rachel and Leah along.
  
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  millie210

  Now Im curious as to what the AID or INSIGHT book had to say about this.

  Did they sanitize it the way they tried to the Song of Solomon?