Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Jonathan,

I agree with your post to a great degree, but still find Messianic
significance in Isa 7:14. The article that I recommended to Dan tries to
show how both your idea and the Messianic idea can work together. Perhaps
you would be interested in looking at it. As I told Dan, the link is:

http://journalofbiblicalstudies.org

Just go to the articles of issue one, and look for THE LINKAGE BETWEEN
ISAIAH 7:14 AND 9:6, by
by Harold R. Holmyard. I do see "almah" as referring to a virgin, as I
argue in an excursus, but can see your view, too.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard
                                Dallas, TX, USA


>     If the verse is to be viewed in context, which is the only basis for
>philological - and not Christological - discussion, then the whole idea
>behind it is that some woman will very soon give birth, or has already given
>birth,  to some child, and before that child is even old enough to know the
>difference between good and evil, Aram Damascus and Smaria will be carried
>away into exile by Assyria.
>     THAT is the miraculous event expected by the prophet, and for this
>reason the child to be born, or already born, is to be named, or renamed,
>"God is With Us. And in view of the political-military situation obtaining
>at that moment, it must have really ben seen as a deus ex machina.
>     In other words, this is a prophecy of impending salvation for the
>sore-pressed House of David and Kingdom of Judah, delivered around 735 BCE,
>and borne out by the conquests of Tiglath-Pileser III. Seen that way, it
>doesn't really matter, for the purposes of understanding the implications of
>the prophecy, whether 'almah means virgin, young woman, or whatever, though,
>from a logical point of view alone, it would appear that some married
>woman - whoever she is - is being referred to. Married women are generally
>not virgins, as far as I know.