From: Carlton Winbery (winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net)
Date: Wed Dec 27 1995 - 04:46:08 EST
Jimmy Adair wrote;
>Those of you on the Ioudaios list have already seen some discussion on
>this subject, but I think more could be said from a text-critical
>perspective. Does the fact that the LXX was transmitted exclusively by
>Christians (after a certain point) imply that parthenos was substituted
>in all available LXX mss in Isa 7:14 on the basis of Mt 1:23, replacing
>the earlier neanis? I doubt it myself. If not, then can we say with
>certainty that parthenos means "virgin" in Isa 7:14 rather than "young
>woman"? Again, I have my doubts.
>
I do not have a critical text of the LXX at home, but I am unaware of any
mss of the LXX that read NEANIS instead of PARQENOS. That does not
absolutely rule out the possibility but makes it unlikely. I would say
that the Hebrew ALMAH means young woman and the Greek word PARQENOS
normally means virgin. The evidence that ALMAH does not refer to a virgin
in Is. 7 is the context in which that birth (or the child that was born)
was a "sign" to Ahaz. It is possible that the translator of the LXX did
not know the appropriate word for young woman in Greek. Later Greek
translators avoid the word PARQENOS at this point.
Carlton L. Winbery
Prof. Religion
LA College, Pineville, La
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
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