Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Ronning <ronning AT nis.za>]

jim west wrote:

>
>  if the hebrew text had
> wished to say virgin it would have used bethulah.

One might think so from some of the uses of bethulah, but then there is Joel 
1:8 which
speaks of a bethulah weeping for the husband of her youth.  Then there is Gen 
24:16,
where Rebekah is called a bethulah, with the statement added that "no man had 
known
her" - perhaps not superfluous information.

> the passage doesnt prophesy a miracle- it maintains that the threat from
> Israel and Syria will be wiped out before the kid knows his right hand from
> his left--- read the context of the passage-

Reading the context is a good idea - like v. 11 for example "Ask a sign for 
yourself
from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven."  For 
analogy of a
sign "high as heaven" we could note Isaiah 38:7-8 - the shadow going 
backwards on the
steps of Ahaz - something totally contrary to nature (like a virginal 
conception).

So if you say the great miracle (something like the sun going backwards) is 
not the
conception, what is it?


> there is NOTHING prophetic of
> Christ there!
>

Then presumably you can tell us from the book of Isaiah who Immanuel is (or 
can you
only tell us who he isn't?).

John