Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> The way I see it, the whole problem with this discussion is whether you wish
> to view Isaiah 7:14in its context or use it as a Christological prophecy.
> If the verse is to be viewed as a Christological prophecy, then I have
> nothing to add to this discussion, so please leave me out.
> If the verse is to be viewed in context, which is the only basis for
> philological - and not Christological - discussion, [snip]

I just don't see how this kind of compartmentalization can be done 
legitimately.  Matthew's use indicates a certain history of 
philological interpretation of the word, and it's doubtful that he made 
up the translation and nuance out of his own head.  There has to 
be some historical and philological reason for using the text in this 
way, and hence the Christological question is going to be an 
integral part of the philological one.  Results obtained by favoring 
one over the other, or narrowing the approach down to one at the 
expense of the other, is only going to produce artificial results and 
isn't really going to tell us much about the language.

That said, the oft-repeated argument about `almah meaning "young 
woman [of marriageable age]" AS OPPOSED to "virgin" seems 
equally artificial to me; wouldn't a "young woman of marriageable 
age" be expected to be a virgin in that culture?

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No study of probabilities inside a given frame can ever
tell us how probable it is that the frame itself can be
violated."  C. S. Lewis