From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 21 1997 - 08:26:08 EST
At 6:20 AM -0600 12/21/97, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>In Rev 14:4, we are told that the 144,000 are those who have not defiled
>themselves with women (META GUNAIKWN OUK EMOLUNQHSAN), for they are virgins
>(PARQENOI GAR EISIN).
>
>Swete sees the use of virgin here as metaphorical (Metzger agrees with
>him). Robertson quotes Charles, who sees this as a plug for celibacy in
>both men and women. Is the word PARQENOS used in a similar metaphorical
>sense elsewhere? I'm having difficulty seeing the use as metaphorical, but
>I'm also having trouble coming to grips with a non-metaphorical
>interpretation...
How relevant this really is I'm not sure, particularly since the OT texts
I'm thinking of were not originally Greek. Yet what comes to my mind
immediately in this context is the prophetic usage, beginning, I think,
with Amos and Hosea, of thinking of Israel as the bride of YHWH (Amos:
"Fallen is the virgin Israel ..."), that usage which radically intensifies
the understanding of the covenant relationship by analogizing it to the
relationship of ancient Near Eastern gods with their feminine consorts and
then speaking of idolatry in terms of Israel's "whoring with alien gods."
This is the source I would think of as the background for the usage in
Revelation; in fact, I rather think there's consistency in the symbolism of
women and different feminine figures in the Book of Revelation, ending with
the Heavenly Jerusalem as a bride in chapter 21.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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