| Subject: Re: 書生小賢, 恕我直言… |
Author:
XOX
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Date Posted: 10:05:23 11/30/04 Tue
In reply to:
書生小賢
's message, "Re: 書生小賢, 恕我直言…" on 02:04:36 11/30/04 Tue
你我他也不曉得希臘或希伯來原文...
Then tried to find studies or articles that have studies on the original text on Hebrew or Greek. Instead of having your faith based on word that is most probably a mistranslation.
I have given up on the Chinese Bible translation because it is really unrealiable. Chinese Bible was translated by several translators that translated from various English translated Bible.
You see the problem here.
So, to discusss Chinese meaning of a mistranslated word has no meaning. To discuss and expand the English meaning of a mistranslated word has no meaning either.
There are two hebrew words usually translated 'virgin' in English. 'Bethulah' means virgin in the sense that we understand it. It was used, for example, in Isaiah 62:5. 'Almah' (the word used in Isaiah 7:14) simply means a young woman. Although it is sometimes used in the sense of a sexually pure woman, this is not it's exclusive usage. The context will usually point out the correct usage.
The confusion arose when the Greek Septuagint used the greek word 'parthenos' to translate Isaiah 7:14. This word, in Greek, does denote a sexually pure woman, and was the inspiration for the gospellers myth of the Virgin birth.
A look at the context of Isaiah 7:14 will quickly reveal that the woman that Isaiah was referring to was probably *already* pregnant, thus pointing out which sense of 'almah' was intended. In any case, the point of Isaiah's prophecy was that before the child reached the age of accountability, both Israel and Syria would be desolated. (A prophecy which was only partly fulfilled, by the way). The use of the word 'virgin' is not germane in Isaiah's prophecy. The 'sign' was the child, not a miraculous conception.
In short, Isaiah's 'sign' was fulfilled in it's own context, hundreds of years before anyone thought to apply it in a different sense.
Roughly, this is what seems to have happened:
Word actually used in Hebrew scriptures is "almah" (="young woman").
Hebrew word which could have been used, but wasn't, was "bethulah" (="virgin").
The Septuagint is a version of the Old Testament prepared in the 3rd century BC by Jewish scholars who translated the Hebrew sciptures into Greek for the Greek-speaking Jewish community.
In translating for the Septuagint, "almah" was translated as "parthenos" (="virgin").
Thus, Isaiah's prophecy in the original Hebrew states that the Messiah would be conceived by an "almah" (="young woman"), whereas the Greek translation in the Septuagint version of Isaiah refers to a "parthenos" (="virgin").
It appears that Matthew's gospel attempts to justify Jesus's divine parentage by claiming fulfilment of a prophecy that was never actually made.
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