Barren Womb 1979 by Richard Rappaport. cc 4.0
God Opened Her Womb – The Biblical Conception of Fertility
Is infertility a divine punishment?
Published: November 28, 2017
|
Last Updated: September 7, 2026
This article was adapted from Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden, Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015).
1 Enoch 98:5. Translation from E. Isaac, “1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (ed. James H. Charlesworth; ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1983), 5–89 (at 78). I am including the additional text found in one Greek manuscript in the English quote above, because it was simply too apropos to ignore.
Harald M. Wahl, “Ester, das adoptierte Waisenkind. Zur Adoption im Alten Testament,”Biblica 80 (1999): 78–99 (here 92; see also 97).
See discussion in Joel S. Baden, “The Nature of Barrenness in the Hebrew Bible,” inDisability Studies and Biblical Literature (eds, Candida R. Moss and Jeremy Schipper; New York: Palgrave Macmillan; 2011), 13-27.
Such notions are found elsewhere in the ancient world. From Egypt a sizable collection of amulets have been found that depict a god or gods, a uterus, and a key. Though the precise meaning of these amulets remains debated, the imagery and the mechanism are clear.
