Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Evgeny Ivanov <evi7538 AT yahoo.com>]

It's interesting that the argument of early christians
was exactly the opposite - the Is.7.14 is a message of
prophesy. 

>However, the author draws no particular
> attention to this amazing fact

"For this reason the sovereign master himself will
give you a confirming sign". If the message is just a
routine birth by a young women, then what is this
phophesy about, what is the sign?

Evgeny 

--- tladatsi AT charter.net wrote:
> 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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