Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Alma, Parthenos, Virgin
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 21:45:28 -0700
Lewis Reich wrote:
> On 29 Oct 99, at 22:16, Ken Litwak wrote:
>
> > a) almah cannot mean virgin or that no reader would have guessed that in
> > Isa 7:14 it meant that.
>
> Even if almah did mean virgin you'd have to show that the meaning
> of the text wasn't:
>
> behold this [young woman who is now a] virgin will [marry and then]
> become pregnant and give birth to a son,
>
> but instead was:
>
> behold a virgin [sometime in the future] will [without having lost her
> virginal status] become pregnant and give birth to a son.
>
Since we cannot say for sure how the readers might have understood this, or
in fact if
there would have been only interpretation on their pat, I cannot see that your
requirement is intrinsically necessary.