Question on Genesis 34:3 LXX
Maurice A. O'Sullivan
mauros at iol.ie
Tue Nov 5 14:00:54 EST 2002
At 13:36 05/11/2002, you wrote:
>My question is: I am given to understand by numerous commentators
>that parthenos means emphatically a virgin. However, it is used
>twice in Gen. 34:3 LXX seeming to contradict this. (It is used
>twice of Dina, there, *after* she had been violated.)
Bob:
If you consult BDAG, you will see that the entry of PARQENOS begins;
>> gener. of a young woman of marriageable age, w. or without focus on
virginity; in our lit. one who has never engaged in sexual intercourse,
virgin, chaste person << And, of course, the full title of BDAG is " A
Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian ......... "
So, you have to go to such LXX tools as exist: a good starting point is:
Lust, J., E. Eynekel, and K. Hauspie. A Greek-English Lexicon of the
Septuagint. Part I A-I Part II K-W . Stuttgar Deutsche
Bibelgesellschaft, 1992-97.
where you will find:
>> virgin Jg 19:24; virgin (as adj. ) Lv. 21:3; young woman Ez 9:6; a girl
of marriageable age Gn. 24:4<<
If you have access to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, you
will see that the ( long ) entry on PARQENOS is divided into:
A. Non-biblical and non-Jewish use
B. The O.T and Judaism, which in turn is divided into three sections, with
2. = " the meaning of PARQENOS in the LXX ".
This actually deals with your query in these words:
>> In a special instance PARQENOS can even be a girl who has been raped,
Gn. 34:3 PARQENOS is also used for this word at Sir. 30:20.<<
C. New Testament
All of this should alert you to the danger of assuming that one term has
its _precise_ and _exact_ meaning at any one time, let alone over centuries.
Maurice A. O'Sullivan [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie
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