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  • From: <tladatsi AT charter.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Almah vs. Bethulah in Isaiah 7
  • Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2005 6:01:38 +0000

It is the case that both the Hebrew word *almah* and the
Greek word *parthenos* have two meanings, either a woman of
any age who has never had sexual relations or simply a
young woman of marriageable age. It is not that different
from other languages, e.g. German (Jungfrau vs. Junge
Frau). The word by itself can have either meaning or both
at the same time. The only way to determine the intended
meaning is by the context.

For me, the key contextual element is it is not all unusual
for a young woman to give birth to a baby but it is
completely unheard of in the OT for a virgin to give birth.
Nowhere else in the OT does such an event occur. If the
author of Isaiah had meant that the mother of l)wnmm( was a
virgin, an unexpected, unprecedented, and miraculous event,
it would be reasonable for the author to call attention to
this fact. However, the author draws no particular
attention to this amazing fact. It is stated as a flat
fact and not mentioned again. This would suggest that the
author was not attempting to describe something unusual.

The second contextual element is how the rest of the text
handles the same issue. Isaiah uses the word *bethulah*
(hlwtb) in other settings where the author clearly means
virgin (Isa 23:12, Isa 37.22, Isa 62.5). Both of these
contextual elements would suggest that the author of Isaiah
had meant in 7:18 a routine birth by a young women rather
than miraculous birth by a virgin.






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