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b-hebrew - Re: Alma, Parthenos, Virgin

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  • From: kdlitwak <kdlitwak AT concentric.net>
  • To: Lewis Reich <lewreich AT javanet.com>
  • Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Alma, Parthenos, Virgin
  • Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 21:45:28 -0700




Lewis Reich wrote:

> On 29 Oct 99, at 22:16, Ken Litwak wrote:
>
> > a) almah cannot mean virgin or that no reader would have guessed that in
> > Isa 7:14 it meant that.
>
> Even if almah did mean virgin you'd have to show that the meaning
> of the text wasn't:
>
> behold this [young woman who is now a] virgin will [marry and then]
> become pregnant and give birth to a son,
>
> but instead was:
>
> behold a virgin [sometime in the future] will [without having lost her
> virginal status] become pregnant and give birth to a son.
>

Since we cannot say for sure how the readers might have understood this, or
in fact if
there would have been only interpretation on their pat, I cannot see that your
requirement is intrinsically necessary.

Ken Litwak





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