“Sterelity and Gender in the Narratives of the Pentateuchal and the Gospel: A Review from Contemporary Medicine”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48047/HM.V12.I1.2026.119-136Keywords:
Bible, Male sterility, Stigmatization, Gender, Infertility, Medical reinterpretation, Biblical infertility analysisAbstract
Objective: To analyze the narratives of the Pentateuch and the Gospels from the perspective of contemporary medicine to identify potential pathologies of sterility and infertility, challenging the exclusive attribution of this condition to women in the Bible.
Methods: An interdisciplinary approach was employed, combining the exegesis of sacred texts with retrospective clinical analysis. A differential diagnosis was performed based on the symptomatology described in biblical accounts, paying special attention to the purity laws of Leviticus, and contrasting them with hormonal, genetic, and infectious pathologies well known today.
Results: Clinical pictures compatible with coagulation disorders (such as von Willebrand disease in the hemorrhaging woman), male genetic syndromes (Kallmann, Klinefelter), and sexually transmitted infections were identified, which could explain the absence of offspring in Hebrew couples since the patriarchal era.
Conclusions: Medical reinterpretation allows for the destigmatization of women in Sacred Scripture, demonstrating that infertility was a multifactorial problem in which the male played a fundamental pathological role, albeit invisible at the time.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Beatriz Díaz San Andrés, Ramón Cantero Cid (Author)
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