[B-Greek] Luke 2:36
Tory Thorpe
torythrp at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 4 01:50:36 EST 2007
--- Randall Buth <ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> > state of virginity" still needs to be
> defined. For the Semitic betulah behind PARQENIAS is
> flexible,>
>
> Maybe it will help to explain the Hebrew. The word
> you want is
> betulim and is a technical term that enters into
> marriage law and
> contract. In this case the betulim are discussed
> after the 'first
> night'. Hanna's 'betulim' would be her marriage,
> that is, her leaving
> her betulim.
>
> Randall Buth
Respectfully, it cannot be her 'marriage' in the
abstract sense. For 'btwlym,' a masculine plural
cognate (lit. 'signs of virginity' visible on the $mlh
the night of consumation), never has this meaning in
BH, MH, or later rabbinic idiom. ZHSASA META ANDROS
ETH hEPTA already tells us Hanna married, i.e. she
presumably left the state of virgo intacta. What
follows seems, or is arguably, superfluous.
I wish to thank everyone for responding both on and
off-list. I should point out though that the responses
have one thing in common. I was asking whether APO THS
PARQENIAS AUTHS could be describing Hanna's marital
life. The answer should not really depend on how
PARQENIAS is defined, or whether a Judaic concept is
behind the Greek, but all the responses I've received
overlook the latter possibility completely and attempt
to define PARQENIAS as virgo intacta from a christian
hermeneutical perspective of PARQENOS earlier in the
infancy narrative. The LXX militates against a strict
definition of the Greek term as virgo intacta; and
this is consistent with the ambiguity attached to the
Hebrew btwlh. By itself, i.e. without a qualifying
phrase (e.g., Gen. 24:16), btwlh does not indicate
chastity.
Having said this, regardless how PARQENIAS is to be
defined, APO TWN KARDIWN HMWN in Matt. 18:35 means
forgiving 'sincerely' or 'wholeheartedly'. Other than
hermeneutics, I cannot see what prevents the
construction APO THS PARQENIAS AUTHS from having a
similar adverbial force. The sense may be fidelity in
marriage or purity with respect to the laws of Niddah.
Tory Thorpe
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