Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim West" <jwest AT highland.net>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>; <biblical-studies AT yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 7:48 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] red heifer


> At 08:44 AM 12/22/2004, you wrote:
> > All very intersting, but my question was, why the translators took such a
> > general term as "cow" and translated it as the more narrow "heifer". Did
> > they have any reason to think that this particular cow was special in any
> > way, besides its color?
> >
> > Yigal
>
>
> Isn't a heifer a virgin?  And if so, it seems there would be significant 
> reasons for suggesting that this special cow was even more special.  Now 
> forgive me - because I'm not a farmer- if I'm wrong about the virgin cow 
> thing.
>
> Jim

You are right in that the Red Heifer needed to be a perfect and totally 
unblemished sacrifice and that means "virginal" as well.  The parah adumah 
had to be without defect and, as in humans, "service" from a male causes a 
permanent defect.

Jack