First some background as to how I will eventually get to my question.
There I was mixing up my special salad dressing ( a simple vinaigrette, with variations ) and I dropped the bottle of olive oil. As I watched gurgle all over the kitchen floor I muttered, " What a foolish virgin! I should have trimmed the wick."
My SO looked at me strangely and raised a WTF eyebrow. I then had to explain my reference. Barely remembered and barely cogent as it was.
Now, our brains wander off into weird territory at all times…
Q: Are references to virgins, in the bible, literal or a mistranslation?
Could it just mean young women? Is there a moral crusade happening here?
Look! I am a virgin. I can save olive oil. Marry me.
Matthew 25:7-8. Basically, you have to prepared because you don’t know when the End is coming.
"1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. 2 And five of them were foolish, and five wise. 3 But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: 4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. 5 And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him. **7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. **8 And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. 9 The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10 Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
11 But at last come also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. 12 But he answering said: Amen I say to you, I know you not. 13 Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour. 14 For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods; 15 And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. " -Douay Rheims Bible
Tonight is the beginning of a tw-day Jewish holiday, so I suspect that you won’t get answers from the most learned Jews in terms of the Hebrew bible. If you want to bump this on Friday, that’s fine.
I believe that Greek distinguishes “virgin” from “young woman” in the New Testament, but ancient Hebrew doesn’t in the Old. However, that’s my recollection, I haven’t tried to look it up.
“Virgin” translates παρθήνος in Greek, which can mean “person who’s never had sexual relations,” but which also can mean “maiden, young unmarried woman.” The Hebrew almah in the Old Testament, also usually rendered “virgin” in traditional translations, has almost exclusively the second meaning – they’re less interested in the state of her maidenhead than in her maidenhood – the key point is that she has not been given in marriage, not whether she’s ever got laid.
No time to look up references, but most of the uses of ‘virgin’ in the Old Testament are translations of ‘betulah,’ which really does mean virgin; there are a few, most notably Isaiah 7:14, where ‘virgin’ is used as a translation of ‘almah,’ meaning either ‘young woman’ or ‘young unmarried woman.’
So what was the point of “This shall be your sign: A young woman shall conceive, and bear a son”. A (not-necessarily-virginal) young woman having a kid is completely unremarkable: How is that a sign? Or was that the point: “You want a miracle? There’s not much more miraculous than childbirth”?
IIRC from the context, it was similar to saying, “Here’s proof that I’m telling the truth: tomorrow it will start to snow at exactly 4:26 P.M.” Isaiah was just making a prediction to prove his point. (One assumes he was pointing to a specific woman, or something. Just saying, “A lady somewhere will give birth” isn’t very convincing).
The specific young woman Isaiah was referring to was his own wife, and the sign would be that the baby would be a boy and that the young mother would, not knowing of the prophecy, name him Immanuel. These are not necessarily miraculous events, merely something that could not be known at that time by mundane means, so it offers a sign the the long-range prophecy (downfall of Assyria and Northern Kingdom) to which it is linked will be true as well.
I am not sure how you would figure out if the lady was his wife or somebody unrelated. The key point of this story is him giving a time limit for the destruction of Damascus and Samaria. He is saying that these nations will be destroyed by the Assyrians before this soon-to-be-born Emmanuel reaches the age of reason.
The ‘remarkable’ part was in what doesn’t get quoted when that’s taken as merely typological prophecy of Jesus. Full story:
King Ahaz of Judah, a small kingdom in the south of modern Israel, is worried that the Kings of Israel (the northern 2/3 of Israel, plus parts of adjacent Jordan) and Aram (southern modern Syria) are allied against him, and outnumber him greatly. Isaiah says, “Hey, fear not. God is with you. In fact, here’s a sign for you. See that maid-in-waiting over there? In the very near future, she’s going to [get married and] bear a son, and name him Imman-u-el (which means ‘God is with us’]. And before that kid’s old enough to know right from wrong, both those jkings you fear so much will be pushing up daisies.”
The details Chaim adds here are, of course, rabbinic traditions about the text. Which of course doesn’t mean they’re wrong – just not recorded in written Scripture.
I suspect Chaim won’t be posting again until Friday. Hag sameach, when you see this.
The verse from Isaiah occurs in 7:14. The question of authorship of the book of Isaiah is debatable. While tradition holds that it was all written by a prophet named Isaiah, modern scholarship tends to assign at least two different authors, living about two centuries apart. (See: Who wrote the Bible? (Part 3) - The Straight Dope for more info on this.) The verse in question occurs in the first Isaiah section, probably written during the reign of King Hezekiah. The explanation I heard was that Hezekiah’s young wife was pregnant, and so Isaiah’s prophesy was basically to encourage the people – that the prince-to-be-born will be a great national leader.
Just to note- when the Greek-speaking Jews translated the Septuagint, they rendered ‘almah’ in Isaiah 7:14 as ‘parthenos’, which generally means ‘virgin’. That is what Matthew used when he applied it to Jesus.
Re the immediate context being Isaiah’s wife… Doesn’t Ch 8 begin with “I went in unto the prophetess” indicating that he & his wife got busy with conceiving said son?
I’m too lazy to look it up now.
The Jewish holiday coming up- Shavuot? I know that Christian Pentecost is this Sunday.
Did they really need to make a distinction betwen “virgin” and “young unmarried woman” in those days? Or were the terms used interchangeably the way we take “maiden” to be today (or at least, 100 years ago). I’m sure it happened, just like in other societies; but the general morality of the time must have taken the two as interchangeable unless it was a morality tale. In quite a few societies through history, the suggestion that young unmarried girls still living at home were not chaste was a serious social faux pas.
Even around 0AD, Joseph was considering having Mary sort of kept indoors or sent away instead of marrying her when he found out she was pregnant; but despite the Bible laws there was no mention of stoning or whatever. I wonder what the expectation and reality of chastity was then? I assume “dishonouring the family” was liable to lead to killing the girl and possibly the guy if the men of the family were somewhat hot-blooded.
The story is told of the priest who gave a rousing sermon based on this passage, and concluded with:
“And now where will you choose to be: with the wise virgins in the light, or with the foolish virgins in the dark?”
