(Ron) Matt Relaxes His Standards
Farrell Till jftill@midwest.net
Wed, 06 May 1998 19:14:08 -0700 (00894528848, 2.2.32.19980507021408.007305a4@midwest.net)
At 11:34 PM 5/5/98 -0700, you wrote:
>At 08:31 PM 5/5/98 -0400, Brian Dean wrote:
>
>>RON
>> Have you considered that the traslators of the Septuagint and Matthew,
>>Jews, interpreted the word to be "virgin"?
>>
>
>TILL
>Certainly, I've considered it a possibility, but there really is no way to
>know, is there? Furthermore, even if you could prove unequivocally that the
>Septuagint translators and Matthew interpreted "almah" to mean "virgin,"
>that wouldn't mean that they were right. If a group of translators working
>on a French text should decide that the word "demoiselle" meant "virgin,"
>that wouldn't make them right, even if they numbered 10,000. "Demoiselle"
>simply means "young lady" and carries no implication about the young lady's
>sexual experience.
>
>Farrell Till
>Skepticism, Inc.
>jftill@midwest.net
>
TYLER
Just for future reference, the following texts use "parthénos" to signify a
young woman who is unequivocally no longer a virgin:
1. The Iliad, Book 2, line 514.
2. Pindarus, Pythian Ode 3, line 34.
3. Sophocles, Trachiniae, line 1219.
4. Aristophanes, Nubes, line 530.
5. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannos, Act 1, line 462.
et
Ed Tyler
Professor of English
Truman State University
Kirksville, MO 63501
etyler@truman.edu
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net