Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

Biblically, it had to do with her inheritance and property rights, 
etc. - and later on, whether she was married or not previously, has 
everything to do with her rights in her Ketuba.

Shoshanna



Harold,

What I am saying is scripturally and legally of the utmost importance
since it may mean the difference between life and death.
If you define virgin as a woman with an intact hymen, then I say the
Hebrew bible has no use for it. A BTULAH is a woman not yet married,
that's all. By tacit assumption she is also chaste. On her marriage
contract, a Jewish woman, first married, is designated as a BTULAH,
even without producing any certificate of virginity. So the most one
can say about an (LMAH is that she is not yet married.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jul 16, 2007, at 3:31 PM, Harold Holmyard wrote:

> Dear Isaac,
> > There is no, and there can not be, any reference in the Hebrew bible
> > to physical virginity as it MEANS NOTHING. We know, and the ancient
> > Hebrews certainly knew as well, that a girl may inadvertently lose
> > her virginity for no fault of her own. Some girls are born non
> > virgins, some girls need a certain medical intervention to facilitate
> > their blood flow during menstruation which may lead to virginity
> > loss, and a good number of girls loose their virginity by some common
> > non sexual activities. Lack of physical virginity is surely no
> > admissible evidence against any woman. You can rest assured that the
> > ancient Hebrews never stoned a woman to death for sheer lack of
> > virginity.
>
> HH: No one said they did. Virginity is a moral issue in the Bible and
> concerns pre-marital sex. It is these kinds of odd physical issues you
> bring up are nothing to Scripture.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
> >
>
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