"For nearly two millennia the Church has insisted that the Hebrew word almah עַלְמָה can only mean “virgin.” This is a vital position for defenders of Christianity to take because Matthew 1:22-23 translates alma in Isaiah 7:14 as “virgin.” The first Gospel quotes this well-known verse to provide the only “Old Testament” proof text for the supposed virgin birth of Jesus. The stakes are high for Christendom. If the Hebrew word alma does not mean a virgin, Matthew crudely misquoted the prophet Isaiah, and both a key tenet of Christianity and the credibility of the first Gospel collapses.
How accurate is this Christian claim? The only place to explore this assertion is in the Jewish Scriptures. If the Hebrew word alma means virgin, then each usage in the Bible must be either a clear reference to a virgin or at the very least appear ambiguous. The word alma appears in the Jewish Scriptures seven times in the feminine and twice in the masculine. If even one reference refers to a woman who is clearly not a virgin, then Matthew’s rendition of Isaiah 7:14 becomes untenable.
One of the places where the uncommon Hebrew word almah appears in the Bible is in the Book of Proverbs.
The word “proverb” means “to be like,” thus Proverbs is a book of comparisons between common, concrete images and life’s most profound truths. Proverbs are simple, moral statements (or illustrations) that highlight and teach fundamental realities about life. In the following passage, King Solomon presents the following vivid analogy:
‘There are three things which are too wonderful for me, for which I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the middle of the sea, and the way of a man with a young woman b’almah. This is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong. “’ - (Proverbs 30:18-20)
In the above three verses, King Solomon compares a man with an alma to three other things: an eagle in the sky, a serpent on a rock, and a ship in the sea.
What do these four things all have in common?
They leave no trace.
After the eagle has flown across the sky, it is impossible to determine whether an eagle had ever flown through that airspace. Once a snake has slithered over a rock, there is no way to discern that the snake had ever crossed there (as opposed to a snake slithering over sand or grass, where it leaves a trail). After a ship passes through the sea, the wake behind it comes together and settles behind it, leaving no way to discern that a ship had ever moved through this body of water.
Similarly, King Solomon declares that once a man has been sexually intimate with an almah, i.e. a young woman, no trace of sexual intercourse is visible, unlike a virgin who will leave behind a discharge of blood after her hymen is broken.
Therefore, in the following verse (Proverbs 30:20) King Solomon explains that once this adulterous woman “eats” (a metaphor for her fornication), she removes the trace of her sexual infidelity, “wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done no wrong.’” The word alma clearly does not mean a virgin." Rabbi Singer
6 comments:
When the Old Testament and the Torah were written there was no skydiving, surfing, skating, tampons. Women in those far off days were not known for their running, jumping or horse riding abilities. To us, in the modern world, this may seem odd but this is not a discourse on modern woman, her being the equal of men or whether or not a hymen can be broken in multiple ways but whether or not the word, the Hebrew word alma means virgin or not. The Rabbi in question here is not holding forth on what breaks a hymen but rather on the misunderstanding of how that word alma has been misrepresented by Christians. We are looking here at scriptures 4,000 thousand years old or, as in this case, 2018 years. Devout Christians such as Bishop Jack Spong know this to be true. There was no Virgin Mary no matter how her hymen may have broke. x
Sorry. I didn't mean to be offensive. I tend to get steamed up when I think of how virginity is viewed as such a wondrous thing and anyone who is thought not to be one is considered to be all kinds of horrible things. There were rumors about me that I had eight abortions by the time I was fourteen years old and I'd not even had sex with anyone. So the issue tends to be a sore point. Again, I sincerely apologize. I am a very stupid person with big feet that I like to stick in my big mouth and I probably shouldn't interact with anyone ever.
I deleted the original comment.
Cara, you are my friend. Please don't apologise. I agree with what you say in the modern sense. You are absolutely right. We now know hymens break in many different ways. I posted this not due to the ignorance of those times when men (and women) judged females as having had sex if the hymen was broke but because of the word, Alma does not mean virgin. As for interacting, don't you dare stop. It makes this site what it is, good!
Thank you. I'm restructuring things because my crazy spider-on-lsd brain tends to make things a hodgepodge eventually. I appreciate your contributions. They have made this blog much better than it was when I was the only game in town.
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