Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>]

At 10:46 AM 1/30/01 +1100, George Athas wrote:
> | That is good Ian, because there is none. Almah is the n.f. of elem. This
> | list seems to be degenerating into theology.
> I beg to differ, Moshe. We are discussing the semantic range of a Hebrew 
> word. I think I
> can summarise the general gist of what people are saying:
> (1) `Almah means "young girl"
> (2) The word makes no specific reference to physical virginity
> (3) According to social custom of the ancient Near East, an `almah can be 
> expected to be a
> physical virgin by virtue of the young girl's age. But since the word does 
> not refer to
> virginity, this is only a possible corollary statement.


1 and 2 are true. Three is not. Marriage at very young ages was the norm 
until recently.


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