>Dear all,
>
>I am new to the list and think that this interesting discussion is moving
>more and more outside of the domain of "hebrew studies", but may I add one
>more point" :-)?
agreed
>
>If my memory serves me right, isn't it so that [in the intertestamental
>period] there is also some evidence of Jewish writers expecting the Mesiah
>to be born by virgin birth?
If you would be so good as to offer a citation or two.
>If so, then the concept of virigin birth is not
>so alien to Judaism as many in this discussion are assuming. Furthermore,
>there was a tradition in diaspora Judaism of the virginal conception of the
>patriarchs. (See Philo; De Cherubim 13).
Philo uses the same greco-roman "great man" theory I mentioned earlier. So,
he gets it not from the HB but from his environment.