BETHULAH_ and/or _(ALMAH_

Raymond de Hoop rdehoop at tref.nl
Mon Jan 29 10:56:26 EST 2001


As we know (almah is the female form of (elem, "lad, young man". Because 
the latter is NOT used to indicate whether we are dealing with a young 
man, who had sexual intercourse or not; it might be correct to consider 
this fact also with regard to (almah. It is used for young women, 
regardless wether they are married or not.

Bethulah occurs already in the texts of Ugarit to denote the goddess 
(Anatu, who did have intercourse with her husband, the god Ba(lu. So 
this word did originally not have the specific meaning of "virgin"in 
West-semitic languages.

Raymond

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Dr Raymond de Hoop	   Telephone: ++31-(0)50 553 0115
Boeiersingel 11		   
NL-9745 CA Groningen
The Netherlands		   E-mail:    rdehoop at tref.nl

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