{"id":65070,"date":"2019-11-02T18:56:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T16:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65070"},"modified":"2023-05-28T11:29:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T08:29:21","slug":"virgins-maidens-and-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/virgins-maidens-and-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgins, Maidens And Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[478,506,574],"acf":{"old_id":"65070","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36147,"related_cahpter":"341","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"When is a virgin not a virgin? At least not any more...","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isaiah tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz, pious king that he is, demurs: \u201cI will not ask; I will not test the Lord!\u201d Like a comedian with a good joke to tell, though, Isaiah insists: \u201cAssuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman will be pregnant and will give birth to a son. Let her name him Immanuel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who was this young woman? We will never know. We do know, however, something of the afterlife of this verse. In the version in Matthew 1, we read:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. \u2026 An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, \u201cJoseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.\u201d All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: \u201cLook, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,&#8221; which means, &#8220;God is with us.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hebrew word in Isaiah 7:14 is <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018almah<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; the Greek word used in Matthew to translate that is <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">parthenos<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Hebrew does not really mean \u201cvirgin.\u201d It means roughly the same as English \u201cmaiden\u201d used to: a young woman of marriageable age, who \u2013 normally, in pre-modern society \u2013 could be assumed to be virginal. One biblical passage (Proverbs 30:14) actually talks about \u201cthe way of a man with an <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018almah<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d as a wondrous thing, so not every <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018<\/span><\/i><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">almah<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (like not every maiden) was in fact a virgin. (Actually, the same was true for Greek <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">parthenos<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: here, too,<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/perseus.uchicago.edu\/cgi-bin\/philologic\/getobject.pl?c.56:8:156.LSJ\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">some passages show clearly<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the word was not restricted to virgins.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is, however, an even more basic point to make about the sign in Isaiah, and why it does not really predict the virgin birth of Jesus. Even if the anonymous <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018almah<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was a virgin when Isaiah pointed to her, there\u2019s nothing all that miraculous about the line, \u201cLook, the virgin will be pregnant.\u201d All she has to do is have sex.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65071,"id":65071,"title":"is7-pregnant","filename":"is7-pregnant.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/virgins-maidens-and-signs\/is7-pregnant\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is7-pregnant","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65070,"date":"2019-11-02 16:55:48","modified":"2019-11-02 16:56:05","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":640,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant-150x300.png","medium-width":150,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant-512x1024.png","medium_large-width":512,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant-512x1024.png","large-width":512,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant.png","1536x1536-width":640,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant.png","2048x2048-width":640,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant-600x1200.png","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-pregnant-210x420.png","home_baner-width":210,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Virgins, Maidens And Signs","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"When is a virgin not a virgin? 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