Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 20/07/2007 07:18, JAMES CHRISTIAN READ wrote:
> I have to say I'm still not all that impressed. How 
> impressed would you have been in 1939 if a local lad 
> claiming to be a prophet said 'here is a sign. An essex 
> lass will get knocked up and have a wee lad called John .
> He'll eat Kellogs crunchy nut corn flakes and before 
> and before he's old enough to down a pint of Boddington's 
> bitter Hitler and Mussolini will have lost the war.'?
>
> Surely your average local critic will say something 
> like 'but John's are born every year. What does that 
> prove?'. Surely there must have been something special 
> about the birth of the boy in order to make the 
> prophecy spectacular.
>
>   
I disagree, James. Not only because here in Essex they didn't have 
crunchy nut cornflakes before about the 1970s, and they only drank 
Boddingtons in those wild northern parts. For the point of the saying, 
with that definite article we discussed at such length, is about a 
specific girl. More like:

Look, this girl here is pregnant. Before her child (it'll be a boy, by 
the way) has got past eating boiled eggs for breakfast and is old enough 
to down a pint of Ridley's bitter Hitler and Mussolini will have lost 
the war.

Or maybe "Look, this virgin girl here is about to get pregnant. ..."

Maybe "this girl here" was the prophet's wife, or the king's, someone 
who was with them when they were having the conversation, or who had 
already been discussed.


--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
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