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  • From: John Ronning <ronning AT nis.za>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Alma, Parthenos, Virgin
  • Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 20:34:03 +0200


jim west wrote:

>
> if the hebrew text had
> wished to say virgin it would have used bethulah.

One might think so from some of the uses of bethulah, but then there is Joel
1:8 which
speaks of a bethulah weeping for the husband of her youth. Then there is Gen
24:16,
where Rebekah is called a bethulah, with the statement added that "no man had
known
her" - perhaps not superfluous information.

> the passage doesnt prophesy a miracle- it maintains that the threat from
> Israel and Syria will be wiped out before the kid knows his right hand from
> his left--- read the context of the passage-

Reading the context is a good idea - like v. 11 for example "Ask a sign for
yourself
from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven." For
analogy of a
sign "high as heaven" we could note Isaiah 38:7-8 - the shadow going
backwards on the
steps of Ahaz - something totally contrary to nature (like a virginal
conception).

So if you say the great miracle (something like the sun going backwards) is
not the
conception, what is it?


> there is NOTHING prophetic of
> Christ there!
>

Then presumably you can tell us from the book of Isaiah who Immanuel is (or
can you
only tell us who he isn't?).

John






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