Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 20:10:57 +0100 From: George Reid <greid@FreeBSD.org> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: "Neal E. Westfall" <nwestfal@directvinternet.com>, chat@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Why did evolution fail? Message-ID: <20020906201057.A18193@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <3D78F5CB.6541A3FA@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Fri, Sep 06, 2002 at 11:36:59AM -0700 References: <20020906013554.A42842@FreeBSD.org> <20020905211353.W92353-100000@Tolstoy.home.lan> <20020906155919.A6312@FreeBSD.org> <3D78E56B.36741301@mindspring.com> <20020906184838.B17895@FreeBSD.org> <3D78F5CB.6541A3FA@mindspring.com>
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On Fri, Sep 06, 2002 at 11:36:59AM -0700, Terry Lambert wrote:
> I don't read Hebrew; the closest I get is some Yiddish; but I
> do read some Greek. 8-). Was the "young girl"/"virgin" mixup
> also from the Hebrew?
I assume you mean Isaiah 7:14 ("The virgin will be with child and will
give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel"). The Hebrew verse reads
"Hinneh ha-almah harah ve-yeldeth ben ve-karath shem-o Immanuel".
"ha-almah" does indeed mean "the young woman". However, it needs to be
read in its social context -- "almah" typically refers to a young woman
who is not yet married and therefore assumably a virgin. There *is* a
specific Hebrew word ("betulah") for "virgin" but it wasn't used here.
Certainly the Hebrew text does not explicitly mention virginity. I think
the English translation probably comes from the Greek "parthenos" in later
traditions. Additionally, the definite Hebrew article "ha" (the) appears
to have been replaced with the indefinite "e" (the) in the Greek. I
*believe* (although I am not certain as I don't have any copies handy and
no time to look for one) that in the Latin translations, "almah" was
translated into "virgo" (you can guess what this means).
--
George C A Reid
WWW: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~greid/ Mob: (07740) 197460
FreeBSD Committer/Developer greid@FreeBSD.org
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