Virgin

VIEW:17 DATA:01-04-2020
VIRGIN usually represents (a) Heb. bĕthûlâh, an unmarried maiden. The word is frequently applied to countries, often with the addition of ‘daughter,’ e.g. Israel (Jer_18:13, Amo_5:2), Zion (2Ki_19:21, Lam_2:13), Babylon (Isa_47:1), Egypt (Jer_46:11). In Joe_1:8 it is used of a young widow. Deu_22:23 ff. has laws for the protection of virgins; Deu_22:13 insists on the importance of virginity in a bride. (b) In Isa_7:14 a rare word ‘almâh is used (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘maiden’). The OT usage is indecisive as to whether it is confined to the unmarried (e.g. Exo_2:8, Son_1:3; Son_6:8; masc. 1Sa_17:56; 1Sa_20:22). The Arab. [Note: Arabic.] root means ‘to be mature,’ and the Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] does not connote virginity. The word apparently means ‘one of marriageable age,’ and is certainly not the word which would naturally be used if ‘virginity’ were the point to be emphasized. LXX [Note: Septuagint.] has parthenos (‘virgin’); so Mat_1:23; but the complaints of Justin and Irenæus against the later Jewish tr. [Note: translate or translation.] neânis (‘damsel’) are hardly justifiable. A modern view holds that Isaiah was adopting the language of a current mythological tradition, and intended the word to convey the idea of a divine mother (note ‘the virgin,’ RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). (c) Rev_14:4 uses the word of men, probably metaphorically, implying chastity, not celibacy; cf. 2Co_11:2. Act_21:9 is probably the germ of the later ‘order’ of virgins. For ‘Virgin-birth’ see pp. 589b, 705a.
C. W. Emmet.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


One of the unique features concerning the birth of Jesus was his conception in the womb of his mother while she was still a virgin. Yet the Bible gives no detailed reasons for this. The Gospel writers clearly taught it, but, without attempting to explain its mysteries, they pointed to the goal God had in view. Through Jesus Christ, God became a human being for the purpose of saving human beings (Mat_1:21-23; Luk_2:11; Luk_2:29-32; cf. Heb_2:14-15).
Words translated ‘virgin’
In the Old Testament there are two Hebrew words translated ‘virgin’. In the New Testament only one Greek word is translated ‘virgin’, though that Greek word is used as the equivalent of either of the Hebrew words.
Of the two Hebrew words, the more commonly used is the one that refers to a young woman who had never had sexual intercourse (Gen_24:16; Lev_21:14; Jdg_21:12; 2Sa_13:2; 2Sa_13:18; cf. 2Co_11:2). Israelites considered it important that a woman be a virgin at the time of her marriage, and their law set out penalties for the loss of virginity before marriage (Exo_22:16-17; Deu_22:13-19; see ADULTERY; FORNICATION). Prophets sometimes used the word poetically, particularly in relation to nations and cities. The word indicated a variety of qualities such as purity, honour, privilege and safety against attack (Isa_37:22; Isa_47:1; Jer_14:17; Jer_31:4; Jer_46:11).
The other Hebrew word is less specific and has been translated by such words as virgin, maiden, girl and young woman. It refers to any young woman of marriageable age. In some contexts the word may imply virginity, but in other contexts the question of virginity is irrelevant (Gen_24:43; Exo_2:8; Psa_68:25; Pro_30:19; Song of Son_1:3; cf. Mat_25:1; Act_21:9; 1Co_7:25-38).
Isaiah used this latter word when giving the Judean king Ahaz a sign of promise at the time of a combined Israelite-Syrian attack on Judah. He promised Ahaz that God would be with Judah. This divine protection would become so evident over the following months, that in thanks to God one of the Judean young women would name her new-born child Immanuel, meaning ‘God with us’. Not only would this be a sign to reassure the royal household, but before the child was three years old Israel and Syria would be powerless to trouble Judah further (Isa_7:10-16).
When the virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, Matthew saw this as a greater fulfilment of the words that Isaiah spoke to Ahaz. But the word translated ‘young woman’ in the promise to Ahaz was ambiguous. Isaiah used the word with its broader meaning of ‘young woman’, but Matthew used it with its narrower meaning of ‘virgin’. In the time of Ahaz, God promised to be with his people and protect them; but with the birth of Jesus, God came physically to live with human beings in their world (Mat_1:23; Joh_1:14).
Miraculous conception of Jesus
God is the source of all life. Usually he begins the process of human life in the womb of a woman through using a human father, but when he himself entered the stream of human life he began the process miraculously, by the work of his Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary (Mat_1:18; Mat_1:20; Luk_1:26-35; see MIRACLE). However, the development of the child in Mary’s womb and the birth of the child at the appointed time seem to have been normal. The child, though without a human father, was fully human (Luk_1:42; Luk_2:6-7; Gal_4:4).
The virgin conception of Jesus shows that Jesus was not some ordinary person to whom God added deity, but a unique person whose existence came about through God’s direct activity. God did not make a human being into God; he became a human being. Jesus was not someone whom God adopted as his Son; he was actually God’s Son. He had existed eternally as the Son of God, and his coming into the world without the function of an earthly father was a clear demonstration of his divine origin (Luk_1:35; Joh_1:14; see SON OF GOD).
Moreover, the direct activity of God in the conception of Jesus ensured that the child would be holy. There could be no chance that sin, which affects everything that people do, could affect him (Luk_1:35; 1Jn_3:5). Jesus was the beginning of a new creation, separate from and unspoiled by sin. He was not under the curse of sin, but in the end he bore the sin of others, so that they through him might be part of God’s new creation (2Co_5:17; 2Co_5:21; Col_3:9-10; Tit_3:4-7).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


2Ki_19:21 (a) Our Lord uses this expression to describe the duty, the sweetness and the loveliness of the children of Israel in His sight. It was used to show the enemy how He despised them, and loved Israel. (See also Isa_37:22; Jer_14:17; Jer_18:13; Jer_31:4).

Isa_47:1 (a) In derision our Lord calls this wicked city by that beautiful name of virgin. He knew and they knew how wicked the city was, and He used this name in derision.

Jer_46:11 (a) Again our Lord speaks in derision of the evil nation of Egypt which was living in wickedness and sin, and was held up to ridicule by the GOD of Israel.

Mat_25:1 (b) Probably these women are called virgins to represent that they are professing Christians. It is generally thought by Bible students that five of these represent true Christians, who are real believers, and the other represent professing Christians, who are not really saved.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.



is the rendering, in the A. V., of two Heb. terms, concerning the distinctive use of which some exegetical and theological controversy has arisen. The word בְּתוּלָה, bethulah (from בָּתִל, to separate), occurs forty-nine times in the Old Test., and is translated by παρθένος in the Sept., except in two instances. It is rendered once by νεᾶνις (1Ki_1:2), and once by νύμφη (Joe_1:8). See Exo_22:15-17; Leviticus 21; Deuteronomy 22, 23; Judges 21, etc. It properly denotes a virgin, maiden (Gen_24:16; Lev_21:13; Deu_22:14; Deu_22:23; Deu_22:28; Jdg_11:37; 1Ki_1:2); the passage in Joe_1:8 is not an exception, as it refers to the loss of one betrothed, not married עִלְמָה, almah (from עָלִם, to conceal), also properly signifies a virgin, a maiden, a young woman unmarried, but of marriageable age. It occurs seven times, in four of which it is rendered νεᾶ νις, puella (Exo_2:8; Psa_68:25; Son_1:3; Son_6:8), in one (Pro_30:19) νεότης and in two (Gen_24:43; Isa_7:14) παρθενος.
The same word mi also rendered virgo in the Vulg. in these two passages in Exo_2:8, puella; in Psa_68:26, juvencula; in Son_1:3; Son_6:8, adolescentula; and in Pro_30:19 adolescentia, after the Sept. The Syriac follows the, Sept. in Isa_7:14, but in all the other passages agrees with Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, who translate עלמה by νεᾶνις, not only in Psa_68:25; Exo_2:8; Pro_30:19 (in which, they agree with the Sept.), but also in Isa_7:14. Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph.) complains of the partiality of the Greek translators in rendering עלמהhere by νεᾶνις (a term which does not necessarily include the idea of virginity), accusing these Jewish writers of wishing to neutralize the application to the Messiah of this passage, which the Jews of his time referred to Hezekiah. Jerome says that the Punic for virgo is alma, although the word עלמה is but twice so rendered in the Vulg. Gesenius (Com. in Isaiah) maintains, notwithstanding, that νεᾶνις, not παρθένος, is the correct rendering. in Isa_7:14, while he at the same time agrees with Justin that the prediction cannot possibly refer to Hezekiah, who was born nine years before its. delivery. Fürst (Concordance) explains עלמה by “puella, virgo, nubilis illa vel nupta, tenera et florens setate, valens ac vegeta; ” but Hengstenberg (Christology), although admitting that עלמהdoes not necessarily mean: a virgin (which he conceives is plain from Pro_30:19), maintains that it is always applied in Scripture to an unmarried woman. Matthew (Mat_1:23), who cites from the Sept., applies the passage Isa_7:14 to the miraculous birth of Jesus from the Blessed Virgin. Prof. Robinson (Gr. and Eng. Lexicon) considers παρθένος here to signify a bride, or newly married woman, as in Homer (11. 2, 514):
ΟÞς τέκεν Α᾿στυόχη...παρθένος αἰδοίη
(“Them-bore Astyoche, a virgin pure” Cowper);
and considering it to refer apparently to the youthful spouse of the prophet (see Isa_8:3-4; Isa_7:3; Isa_7:10; Isa_7:21), holds that the sense in Mat_1:23 would then be: Thus was fulfilled in a strict and literal sense that which the prophet spoke in a wider sense and on a different occasion. Though the prophet already had a son, it is by no means improbable that his former wife was dead, and that he was about to be united in marriage to another who was a virgin. The prophet predicted the birth of a male child which should occur within the appointed period from one who was then a virgin, an; event which could be, known only to God; and this event should constitute a sign, a proof or demonstration, to Ahaz of the truth of his prediction concerning Syria and Israel. In this remarkable event the prophet directed the minds of the king and people onward to the birth of the Messiah from a virgin, and to him the name “Immanuel” should be more appropriately given. Hence the evangelist Matthew, considering the former event as the predicted type of the latter event, applies the passage to the miraculous birth of Jesus from the Virgin. SEE IMMANUEL; SEE ISAIAH.
The early Christians contended also for the perpetual virginity of Mary against the Jews, who objected to the use of the term ἕως (until, Mat_1:25) as implying, the contrary; but the fathers triumphantly appealed” against the Jewish interpretation to Scripture usage, according to which this term frequently included the notion of perpetuity (comp. Gen_8:7; Psa_61:7; Psa_110:1; Isa_46:4; Mat_28:20; and see Suicer, Thesaur., and Pearson, On the Creed, art. 3). Although, there is no proof from Scripture that Marry had other children, SEE JAMES; SEE JUDE, the Christian fathers did not consider that there was any impiety in the supposition that she had (Suicer, ut sup.). But, although not an article of faith, the perpetual virginity of Mary was a constant tradition of both the Eastern and the Western Church. The most distinguished Protestant theologians have also adopted this belief, and Dr. Lardner (Credibility) considered the evidence in its favor so strong as to deserve that assent which he himself yielded to it. SEE PERPETUAL VIRGINITY OF MARY.
The word παρθένος, virgin, occurs in Mat_1:25; Luke 1; Acts 21; 1Co_7:2; 1Co_11:2; and Rev_14:14. In 1 Corinthians and Apoc. it is applied to both sexes, as it frequently is by the fathers, who use it in the sense of coelebs. It is sometimes metaphorically used in the New Test. to denote a high state of moral purity. Kitto. So also, among the Hebrews, the population of a place or city was sometimes personified as a female and called virgin; thus the inhabitants of Tyre (Isa_23:12), of Babylon (Isa_47:1), of Egypt (Jer_46:11), and of Judah and Israel, i.e. the Hebrews (Lam_1:15; Jer_14:17; Jer_18:13; Jer_31:4; Jer_31:21; Amo_5:2). SEE DAUGHTER.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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