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b-hebrew - Re: BETHULAH - virgin

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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: BETHULAH - virgin
  • Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 08:55:05 -0700


George,
> A study on the contextual usage of the word BETULAH shows this. Often, the
> explicit
> statement is made, of a BETULAH that she "had known no man" (or another
> similar
> expression). If BETULAH purely alluded to physical virginity (and not
> social virginity),
> then the statement becomes redundant through tautology. The fact that
> BETULAH has a
> socio-relational focus means that if the woman were a physical virgin, then
> it would need
> to be pointed out in addition to simply naming her as a BETULAH.

Biblical Hebrew is loaded with this type of redundancy, so I don't
think we can read as much into it as you would like. A good
example is 2 Sam 14:5: "I am a widow; my husband died." With
the redundancy of "my husband died" should we seek to find some
more general meaning of "widow" that doesn't necessarily indicate
a dead husband? I don't think so. The redundancy is just a feature
of the language, and I don't think the redundancy of "I have not
known a man" is likely to tell us anything about the connotations of
BETHULAH or `ALMAH.

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




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