Subject: parthenos in Isa 7:14

From: "James R. Adair" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 14:22:38 -0500 (EST)

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.

Jimmy Adair
Manager of Information Technology Services, Scholars Press
    and
Managing Editor of TELA, the Scholars Press World Wide Web Site
---------------> http://scholar.cc.emory.edu <-----------------

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From: [email-masked] (Carlton Winbery)
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 14:00:22 +0400

>Mime-Version: 1.0
Jimmy Adair wrote;
>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.

I posted this to the b-greek list by mistake.
Sorry,

Carlton L. Winbery
Prof. Religion
LA College, Pineville, La
[email-masked]