Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>]

What I don't understand is why Ian's arguments need to be endlessly
repeated.
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren
Chairman
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Israel


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 11:37 PM
Subject: btwlh & `lmh


>
> -----------------
> `LMH
> -----------------
>
> I can see no biblical textual grounds for the claim that `lmh can mean
> "virgin". There seem to be only four examples of the word being used in
the
> OT/HB:
>
> Gen 24:43
>
>    (speaker standing by a spring) "let the young woman [`lmh] come
>    out and draw (from the spring)..."
>
> Ex 2:8
>
>    Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "go." So the young woman [`lmh]
>    went and called the child's mother.
>
> Is 7:14
>
>    The young woman [`lmh] shall conceive...
>
> Prov 30:19
>
>    ... the way of a man with a young woman [`lmh].
>
> Nothing in any of these uses points to any idea of virginity being
> suggested. In fact, there is no reason to suspect that the idea of
virginity
> is contained in these words -- if it were not for the fact that the LXX
> translated Is 7:14 with parthenos, Greek for "virgin", which in turn was
> translated in the Peshitto as the Aramaic cognate of btwlh, suggesting
that
> btwlh continued to mean "virgin".
>
> The masculine form `lm is also used in the OT/HB, a form which should help
> to clarify the significance of the feminine form. Does one think that the
> writer implies any sense of virginity in the following?
>
> 1Sam 20:22

>
>    But if I say to the young man [`lm], 'Look...'
>
> or
>
> 1Sam17:56
>
>    Enquire whose son the stripling [`lm] is
>
> I should hope not. In the masculine form we are dealing with an age
related
> term. Is there anything to suggest in the feminine form `lmh that its
usage
> is anything different? Or is there anything in the OT/HB to suggest that
> `lmh means "virgin"?
>
> BDB relates `lm to (sexual) maturity, citing an Aramaic cognate, meaning
"be
> strong", and the Palmyrene feminine plural form, meaning "harlots".
>
>
> -----------------
> BTWLH
> -----------------
>
> btwlh on the other hand is related to virginity in a legalistically viewed
> sense.
>
> Gen 24:16
>
>    (Rebekah was) a virgin [btwlh], whom no man had known
>
> Deut 22:13-5
>
>    If a man marries a woman,... slandering her saying,
>
>    "I married this woman, but when I lay with her I found that she
>    was not a virgin."
>
>    Then the father and mother of the young woman shall then submit
>    the evidence of the young woman's virginity to the elders of the
>    city at the gate
>
> Deut22:23
>
>    If a young woman [n`rh], a virgin [btwlh] already engaged to be
>    married, and a man meets her in the city, and lies with her...
>
> Deut22:23
>
>    If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged and seizes her and
>    lies with her...
>
> In each of the Deuteronomy examples we have rulings about women
specifically
> dealing with the loss of virginity. 22:23 is perhaps more helpful for it
> confronts btwlh with n`rh, so btwlh is clearly not directly related to
being
> a young woman. Again, as Gen 24:16 uses btwlh in relation to "whom no man
> had known", when in the same chapter we come to v43 and the young woman
> [`lmh] drawing at the well, we are shown the difference between the two
> words, the former related to virginity, the latter not.
>
> People have used the argument that, because in Joel 1:8 btwlh is related
to
> a widow, the word cannot fundamentally refer to virginity, yet in the
verse
> cited we find
>
>    'ly cbtwlh     "lament like a virgin"
>
> and, as this a simile, the text doesn't state that the widow was a btwlh,
> only that she should lament like one. Therefore there is nothing here to
> contradict the evidence from elsewhere that points to btwlh meaning
> "virgin". The argument is obviously ill-founded.
>
> The following ruling about priestly marriage
>
> Lev 21:14
>
>    ...he shall marry a virgin [btwlh] of his own kin
>
> not only contrasts btwlh with "widow", "divorcee", "defiled woman" and
> "prostitute", all of whom are no longer virgins, but it also paraphrases
> v13:
>
>    He shall marry a woman in her virginity [btwlym]
>
> A btwlh is therefore a "woman in her virginity"
>
>
> -----------------
> Comparison
> -----------------
>
> Virginity is a checkable situation and I'd guess that the evidence
mentioned
> in Deut 22:15 involves the presentation of witnesses who had checked
before
> the marriage. (How else could one demonstrate prior virginity?) The
> Deuteronomy examples relate btwlh to situations regarding loss of
virginity.
>
> The `lmh examples don't deal at all with virginity, and I can't imagine
that
> their writers had reason for, or means of, checking the young woman's
> virginity or had need of the significance of "virgin" in their discourse.
> These examples deal with two young women in public situations, a pregnant
> woman and a young woman apparently involved in sexual activities.
>
> The young woman in Is 7:14, as has been pointed out, is already with
child,
> so I can see no way to claim that the verse says that she was a virgin at
> the time. Being pregnant normally suggests that she was no longer a
virgin,
> and none of the other examples of `lmh contributes anything to suggest the
> contrary.
>
> I can see no way to escape the fact that btwlh means "virgin". At the same
> time, there is nothing which suggests that `lmh has anything directly to
do
> with the notion of "virgin".
>
>
> Ian
>
>
>
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