Thursday, August 12, 2004

MORE ON VIRGINS: In the Forward Philologos has a column ("Questioning Virginity") on the recent debate about the Qur'anic "virgins" and connects it with the ancient Jewish/Christian debate over the meaning of the "young woman" ("virgin" in the Septuagint and the Gospel of Matthew) of Isaiah 7:14. It concludes:
And yet to think this really matters is, from a contemporary point of view, putting the cart before the horse. Not only needn't Jews be disturbed if the word almah in Isaiah can be interpreted legitimately as meaning "virgin," but they also should realize that such a meaning explains why Christianity came to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus in the first place. In other words, as is the case with many supposed details of Jesus' life and death in the New Testament, we are dealing here with a legend invented by Jesus' early disciples in order to portray him as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. It was only because they interpreted almah in Isaiah as "virgin," as did the Jewish translators of the Septuagint, that they imagined such a story about him.

In the case of both the Koran and the Bible, the attempt to determine the original meaning of this or that text can involve one in fascinating inquiries. But it is only the true believers, those who accept the Koran or Bible as God's literally given word, who will argue over the theological significance of the conclusions. Religious beliefs and behavior depend not on what a sacred text meant to say, but on what it has been thought to say over the ages by its followers. New advances in scholarship will not change their opinions, Mr. Kristof's hopes notwithstanding.

I think Philologos is wrong here. Knowledge about the actual meaning almah has done a lot to erode belief in the Virgin Birth in Christian circles over the last century or so. I suspect that we would see a similar effect in Islam if "Luxenberg"'s thesis were to convince scholars in Qur'anic studies.

UPDATE (13 August): Mark Goodacre comments. If you ask me, Philologos should be reading the Biblio-bloggers.

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