point since their birth, emasculated as the result of a disease.

No explanation of the word mamzer is given in the Masoretic Text, but the Septuagint translates it as "son of a prostitute" . In the Talmud, it is suggested that the word mamzer derives from mum zar "a strange blemish", and thus suggesting illicit parentage in some sense. There are differing opinions in the Talmud as to what this consists of, but the universally accepted