From: alanf@tekig6.PEN.TEK.COM (Alan M Feuerbacher)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: How to choose a Bible Translation
Date: 20 Dec 92 21:00:00 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.

In article <fWRiIK5@quack.sac.ca.us> pharvey@quack.sac.ca.us (Paul Harvey) writes:
>In article <1992Dec20.030245.9794@en.ecn.purdue.edu> 
>muehlhau@en.ecn.purdue.edu (John Muehlhausen) writes:
>>In article <BzJD0s.9r9@world.std.com> 
>rjk@world.std.com (robert j kolker) writes:
>>>Take prospective translation and turn to Isaiah 7:14. If you find the word
>>>"virgin" therein, consign the translation to the flames. It is NOT a
>>>correct translation from the Hebrew.  The word in question is ALMAH which
>>>in Hebrew means a young woman of marriageable age, not virgin, although a
>>>virgin of marriagable age could be so designated. The Hebrew word for
>>>virgin is B'TULAH which is not in that verse from Isiah.
>>You have conveniently ignored that in the OT Hebrew culture the two are
>>synonymous.
>
>No they are not! That's why there are two different words. A young woman who
>is pregnant can not also be a virgin, (except in pagan mythology), but she may
>be of marriageable age, in other words young, or she may even be married.
> [....]
>Then the term means nothing, only young marriageable woman. A virgin is
>*specifically* a person who has not experienced *sex*. If that was the
>intention of the writer, that is what would have been written. Virgin
>was *not* written. Perhaps your Revelation 22:18-19 may be of some assistance
>in this matter?
> [....]

Here is a bit more information on this discussion, from _Gesenius'
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon_, p. 634:  Hebrew has a term `ELEM for "a youth,
a young man of the age of puberty.  `ALMAH is the feminine version
of the root word, and means "a girl of marriageable age."  Of the
56 uses of "virgin" and related words in the NIV, only two are
rendered by `ALMAH and almost all the rest by B`TULAH.

_Gesenius_ comments further:  "The notion of unspotted virginity
is not that which this word conveys, for which the proper word is
[B`TULAH]....; neither does it convey the idea of the unmarried
state... but of the nubile state and puberty.... [Note.  The object
in view in seeking to undermine the opinion which would assign the
signification of _virgin_ to this word, is clearly to raise a
discrepancy between Isa. 7:14, and Matt. 1:23:  nothing which has
been stated does, however, really give us any ground for assigning
another meaning.  The ancient versions, which gave a different
rendering, did so for party purposes, while the LXX., who could
have no such motive, render it _virgin_ in the very passage where
it must to their minds have occasioned a difficulty.  _Alma_ in
the Punic language signified _virgin_, as Gesenius rightly states
in Thes., on the authority of Jerome.  The absolute authority of
the New Test. is, however, quite sufficient to settle the question
to a Christian.]"

_The NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament_ states, p. xii:
"In Isaiah 7:14, because the NIV translators chose `the virgin'
to translate the Hebrew word [`ALMAH], the interlinear translation
reflects this choice rather than using `the young woman,' which
might be the better option linguistically, contextually, and
theologically.  This `proves' only that the NIV agrees with the
word choice of some versions -- e.g., King James Version, Living
Bible, New American Standard Bible -- as opposed to the choice of
other versions -- e.g., Good News Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and
Revised Standard Version.  It does not prove that [`ALMAH] means
`the virgin.'"

So it seems that strict textual interpretation leans toward
"young woman", whereas the New Testament requires "virgin".
Therefore Isaiah 7:14 provides no basis for arguing that
"fulfilled OT prophecies" in the NT argue for inspiration of the
Bible, since one must *already* believe that the NT is inspired
to make the argument in the first place.  In fact, the use of
"virgin" in Matt. 1:23 has been used to argue the opposite.

>
>JPS (ISBN:0-8276-0252-9) translates this correctly. I'd be surprised
>that *all* other English translations see virgin here, but given the
>less than stellar history of Christianity, perhaps I shouldn't be.
> [....]

Here is a short list of some translations' renderings of Isaiah 7:14:

Using "virgin"                     Using "young woman" or equivalent

New International Version          Good News Bible
King James Version                 Jerusalem Bible
The Living Bible                   Revised Standard Version
New American Standard Bible        New Revised Standard Version
American Standard Bible            Am. Bap. Publ. Soc. The Holy Bible...
Rotherham's The Emphasized Bible   The New English Bible
Young's Literal Translation        The Revised English Bible
Interlinear Heb-Grk-Eng Bible      J. B. Phillips Four Prophets:...
                                   The Bible in Living English
                                   The New World Translation
                                   The Amplified Bible
                                   JPS Tanakh

Alan Feuerbacher
alanf@atlas.pen.tek.com