DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI issue:Obsah / Contents
DOI article:Kusters, Liesbet; Sidgwick, Emma: A motif and its basal layer: the Haemorrhoissa (Mark 5.24-34) and the interplay of iconological and anthropological research
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31179#0157
both texts, the description ")gy77ř čw.M ř77 fT)/rT
Xor" is used, iiteraüy: "a woman being in a Row of
blood" or "a woman being in a fountain of blood" T
The is accordingly unclean in the terms of the
Levitical lawT' Her uncieanness is transferred by
her contaminating touch. But what is the précisé
locus of uncieanness in the case of the ^7&7? This
locus is not simply menstrual blood or the female
bodv as suchT We came to the conclusion that the
fundamental layer of this affective pattem is to be
understood from a homological connection between
the wellspring that transgresses its boundaries, over-
Rows and needs to be dammed in order to be repro-
ductive ('Tüll of life"), and the utérus as a similarly
potentially overRowing "wellspring".^ or the
"wellspring" is used hguratively in Levitical writings
to indicate the womb. The motif also articulâtes itself
from this homology between the blood "Row" of
the Haemorrhoissa - her overRowing menstruation
is a "fountain" or "Rood" - and the overRowing of
the "wellspring". The issue of blood is thus fraught
with connotations of the "Rood", overRowing its
boundaries. Here perhaps there is a connotahve feel-
ing of "Row" and "Ruidity" as possessing an excess
of potentiality, needing channelling or containing to
a balanced - reproductive - potency.
The touch appears not only in its contaminating
form, the passage is also interwoven with a tactile
epistemology: m the tiny moment of the unchain-
ing touch the Haemorrhoissa "knows" or "feels"
that she is healed, and Jesus "knows" or "feels" that
MARCUS 2000 (see in note 10), p. 357.
The Levitical purity laws are seen as an important intertext
of the Gospel story of the Woman with the Flow of Blood
in a.o. SELVIDGE 1984 (see in note 10), pp. 619-623; MAR-
CUS 2000 (see note 10); HABER 2003 (see in note 10), pp.
171-192; GENCH, F. T: ILT A? /A TLX
pn/t A /A (LjpřXf. Westminster 2004.
As analysed from a Jewish background by DOUGLAS, M.:
Pwýy London 2008 (L' ed. 1966); or from a Hei-
lerde background by GEYER, D. W: Mark 5:21-34: Uterine
Affliction and the Death of a Maiden. In: Tkz?;
UwřřfízLTy A /A çf MřzrÁ. Lanham 2002. For a broader
contextualization of blood in Jewish culture, see BIALE,
D.: B/LJ BřÁ'§6 TA CvYw/Lhw ^ Jwr
Berkeley 2007.
^ See WHITEKETTLE, R.: Levitical Thought and the Female
power has gone out from HimT The most parhcular
tlaing about the moment of touch in this passage,
however, is that sensory perception - embodied
"feeling" — seems to coincide with knowledge.
Perception does not précédé knowledge, or: this
knowledge is no secondary derivaùon. This "know-
ing" of the touch and the healing furthermore moves
according to a relational modality: the Haemor-
rhoissa's and Jesus' epistemological percephons are
inextricably interconnected. Their "knowledge" is
not translated by verbal means, but manifests itself
in a shared embodied expérience, in the expérience
of a binding RuxH In other words the epistemology
at issue is not that of representaRon but of presence.
In the passage, this epistemology is in tension with
sight and hearing, in a Judaeo-ChrisRan context the
standard senses for the acquisiRon of knowledge.
In other words, we can here discern an acRvation
of the potentiality of revelatory presence, a com-
mingled "knowing" and "feeling", mediated through
the relaRonal embodied expérience.
The motif is cast in the form of a miracle story:
the Haemorrhoissa is miraculously healed. This
miraculous healing is also mediated by touch, spe-
ciRcally through the "mere" touch as a typical early
ChrisRan phenomenonT The early ChrisRan healing
touch is not framed or manipulated by other ritu-
als or healing practices, and its ephemeral character
is in inverse proportion to the force liberated: the
more ReeRng the contact, the more intense what is
releasedT In this passage, as in the rest of the Old
Reproductive Cycle: Wombs, Wellsprings, and the Primeval
World. In: TAAwa%7œw, 46,1966, No. 3, pp. 376-391.
^ "Knowing" and "feeling" are both translations of the Greek
word in its turn a translation of the Hebrewy%<7&7.
BothyAatT? andj^Æ? dénoté "feeling" as well as "perceiving"
and "knowing". See STRONG, f: TAlVw ČUwp/Ař
DA/A/Mry B?W<? ÎToHr. Nashville 1996, p. 597; DOOB
SAKENFELD, K. (ed.): cf /A
BAT Vol. 3. Nashville 2006, p. 539.
^ LOCHRIE GRAHAM, S.: Silent Voices: Women in the
Gospel of Mark. In: 54, 1991, pp. 145-158, p. 150.
^ LALLEMAN, R }.: Healing by a Mere Touch as a Christian
Concept. In: Ty7A;ABAAA, 48, 1997, No. 2, pp. 335-361.
^ THEISSEN, G.: TL Æ&AA AAnA ç/* 7A Tt?-
A2A/7. Philadelphia 1983, p. 62.
153
Xor" is used, iiteraüy: "a woman being in a Row of
blood" or "a woman being in a fountain of blood" T
The is accordingly unclean in the terms of the
Levitical lawT' Her uncieanness is transferred by
her contaminating touch. But what is the précisé
locus of uncieanness in the case of the ^7&7? This
locus is not simply menstrual blood or the female
bodv as suchT We came to the conclusion that the
fundamental layer of this affective pattem is to be
understood from a homological connection between
the wellspring that transgresses its boundaries, over-
Rows and needs to be dammed in order to be repro-
ductive ('Tüll of life"), and the utérus as a similarly
potentially overRowing "wellspring".^ or the
"wellspring" is used hguratively in Levitical writings
to indicate the womb. The motif also articulâtes itself
from this homology between the blood "Row" of
the Haemorrhoissa - her overRowing menstruation
is a "fountain" or "Rood" - and the overRowing of
the "wellspring". The issue of blood is thus fraught
with connotations of the "Rood", overRowing its
boundaries. Here perhaps there is a connotahve feel-
ing of "Row" and "Ruidity" as possessing an excess
of potentiality, needing channelling or containing to
a balanced - reproductive - potency.
The touch appears not only in its contaminating
form, the passage is also interwoven with a tactile
epistemology: m the tiny moment of the unchain-
ing touch the Haemorrhoissa "knows" or "feels"
that she is healed, and Jesus "knows" or "feels" that
MARCUS 2000 (see in note 10), p. 357.
The Levitical purity laws are seen as an important intertext
of the Gospel story of the Woman with the Flow of Blood
in a.o. SELVIDGE 1984 (see in note 10), pp. 619-623; MAR-
CUS 2000 (see note 10); HABER 2003 (see in note 10), pp.
171-192; GENCH, F. T: ILT A? /A TLX
pn/t A /A (LjpřXf. Westminster 2004.
As analysed from a Jewish background by DOUGLAS, M.:
Pwýy London 2008 (L' ed. 1966); or from a Hei-
lerde background by GEYER, D. W: Mark 5:21-34: Uterine
Affliction and the Death of a Maiden. In: Tkz?;
UwřřfízLTy A /A çf MřzrÁ. Lanham 2002. For a broader
contextualization of blood in Jewish culture, see BIALE,
D.: B/LJ BřÁ'§6 TA CvYw/Lhw ^ Jwr
Berkeley 2007.
^ See WHITEKETTLE, R.: Levitical Thought and the Female
power has gone out from HimT The most parhcular
tlaing about the moment of touch in this passage,
however, is that sensory perception - embodied
"feeling" — seems to coincide with knowledge.
Perception does not précédé knowledge, or: this
knowledge is no secondary derivaùon. This "know-
ing" of the touch and the healing furthermore moves
according to a relational modality: the Haemor-
rhoissa's and Jesus' epistemological percephons are
inextricably interconnected. Their "knowledge" is
not translated by verbal means, but manifests itself
in a shared embodied expérience, in the expérience
of a binding RuxH In other words the epistemology
at issue is not that of representaRon but of presence.
In the passage, this epistemology is in tension with
sight and hearing, in a Judaeo-ChrisRan context the
standard senses for the acquisiRon of knowledge.
In other words, we can here discern an acRvation
of the potentiality of revelatory presence, a com-
mingled "knowing" and "feeling", mediated through
the relaRonal embodied expérience.
The motif is cast in the form of a miracle story:
the Haemorrhoissa is miraculously healed. This
miraculous healing is also mediated by touch, spe-
ciRcally through the "mere" touch as a typical early
ChrisRan phenomenonT The early ChrisRan healing
touch is not framed or manipulated by other ritu-
als or healing practices, and its ephemeral character
is in inverse proportion to the force liberated: the
more ReeRng the contact, the more intense what is
releasedT In this passage, as in the rest of the Old
Reproductive Cycle: Wombs, Wellsprings, and the Primeval
World. In: TAAwa%7œw, 46,1966, No. 3, pp. 376-391.
^ "Knowing" and "feeling" are both translations of the Greek
word in its turn a translation of the Hebrewy%<7&7.
BothyAatT? andj^Æ? dénoté "feeling" as well as "perceiving"
and "knowing". See STRONG, f: TAlVw ČUwp/Ař
DA/A/Mry B?W<? ÎToHr. Nashville 1996, p. 597; DOOB
SAKENFELD, K. (ed.): cf /A
BAT Vol. 3. Nashville 2006, p. 539.
^ LOCHRIE GRAHAM, S.: Silent Voices: Women in the
Gospel of Mark. In: 54, 1991, pp. 145-158, p. 150.
^ LALLEMAN, R }.: Healing by a Mere Touch as a Christian
Concept. In: Ty7A;ABAAA, 48, 1997, No. 2, pp. 335-361.
^ THEISSEN, G.: TL Æ&AA AAnA ç/* 7A Tt?-
A2A/7. Philadelphia 1983, p. 62.
153