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  • From: "JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.anglia.ac.uk>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] virginity
  • Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:34:04 +0100

Yigal wrote
I think that Kevin's comment is right to the point. The "prophecy" involved
is not about the birth of the boy, but about the fact that within a fairly
short time God will make the threat posed by the kings of Israel and Aram go
away. The message is really, "have faith, life will go on as usual, all will
be okay". And as part of the normalcy, I would assume that the 'almah in
question was one of the (young) women of the court, whose pregnancy was not
to be considered out of the ordinary: "See, that there girl is pregnant and
will have a boy...". That considered, I would assume that she would have
been married, although if someone WAS to show that the term 'almah always
refers to an unmarried young woman (I don't think that this has yet been
proven) that would be fine with me as well.
END QUOTE


I agree that the prophecy is in connection with an act
of salvation. And I agree that the girls pregnancy was
a sign that this salvation would be coming quickly.

However, any speculation about who the woman was is
exactly that, pure speculation.

The context talks about a sign. We usually believe a
prophets ability to predict salvation if he can also
predict another event. Isaiah's ability to predict a
'alma' getting pregnant out of the blue proved his
ability to predict the salvation which would quickly
follow.

The sign would have no meaning if it were merely 'some
random woman who is already married will get pregnant'
to which you can imagine the sarcastic reaction of
critics would be 'Wow! Fancy that! A married woman
getting pregnant? Never before have I heard of such a
miraculous sign. You truly are god's spokesman Isaiah.
I can't believe I doubted you for a minute.'






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