birth of Isaac. It is a reason, however, known only to themselves; to their contemporaries there would be nothing strange in their having a child.

This view is further strengthened by the fact that after the conception of Isaac Sarah lived thirty-eight years, and Abraham seventy-six. They had therefore advanced somewhat less than two thirds of the way through the whole term of their lives, and, according to the ordinary proportion of life in our own day, should still have been able to have children, unless prevented by special personal hinderance.

The objection to this view is obvious in the stress which is laid upon the fact of their old age, both in Genesis and in the New Testament; but this is removed if it be understood of old age as manifested to themselves by changes prematurely taking place within themselves; in other words, of old age quoad hoc. The point of the argument in the Epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews is, that Abraham and Sarah were in a condition in which they could not have a child in the ordinary course of nature; the same thing is emphatically said in Genesis. Yet it is plain from the considerations which have been adduced, that this would not ordinarily have been the case with their contemporaries at their age. The difficulty was therefore personal.

There is, then, no reason to question the accuracy of Stephen's statement, or to change the order of the narrative. in Genesis by which Abraham is made to have left Haran after the death of Terah.

ARTICLE VII.

IS ПAPOENOX THE CORRECT RENDERING OF Ħaby IN ISAIAH VII. 14?

BY REV. HENRY FERGUSON, EXETER, N. H.

THE answer to this question must depend upon the usage of the Hebrew language and upon the etymology of the word itself. We also need to inquire what is the necessary meaning of παρθένος. The importance of the question lies, of course, in its connection with the prophetic sign given by the prophet to Ahaz, and which is applied by Matthew to the conception of our Lord in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary.

The Septuagint in this passage translates the Hebrew word by by raplévos, and it is repeated by Matthew. It is not our purpose to enter at all into the general argument, or into the question as to exactly what the prophetic sign consisted of, but simply to investigate the meaning and usage of the Hebrew word, as a purely philological question.

by is derived, according to its form, from the root b, and is the most simple derivative form, corresponding to the Arabic nomen actionis, and usually known as a Segholate. This root when pointed has the signification of hiding, concealing, and occurs very frequently in the Hebrew literature. From it are derived the

But there is another .עָלַם .Chald ,תַּעֲלְמָה, צֵילום (עלָם) עוֹלָם words

class of derivatives which cannot be ascribed to this verb, and which accordingly are attributed to a root by, which, though not appearing in its verbal form in Hebrew, does exist in the cognate languages, while these do not possess the verb with the sense of to hide (though the Chald., Sam., Syriac, and Ethiopic have derivatives from it, with the senses of aeternitas or mundus). Such words are a young man (1 Sam. xvii. 56; xx. 22), □by youth (Job xx. 11; xxxiii. 25; Ps. lxxxix. 45; Isa. liv. 4). y, the word in question, the general meaning of which is young woman (Gen. xxiv. 43; Ex. ii. 8; Ps. lxviii. 25; Prov. xxx. 19; Cant. i. 3; vi. 8; Isa. vii. 14). i, probably plural of preceding, a musical term answer

ing to our soprano or treble (1 Chron. xv. 20; Ps. xlvi. 1). These all have the sense of youth and of youthful vigor, and the meaning accordingly attributed to the root is that of growing up, becoming strong, coming to puberty; cf. bx, cbn.

This root appears in Arabic under the form

coëundi cupidus

libidinosus eoque velut furibundus fuit [camelus] IV. Ad venerem incendit c. a. VIII. Coëundi Cupidus, libidinosus fuit (Freytag, Lex. Arab.). From this verb come the derivatives libidinosus,

venerea, adolescens amplus medio capite multisque crinibus praeditus.

In Syriac it also appears with much the same meaning, e.g. juvenis factus est, juvenescere fecit. Ethpa. adolevit, from (i.q. Heb. ) adolescens (masc.),

whence come

adolescens (fem.), 12

lescentia, juvenilitas.

pueritia, adolescentia, ado

In Chaldee = roboratus est, roboravit se, fortis fuit, = puer lactens, adultus ad ministerium aptus, adolescentula, sny =

In Samaritan the verb is used only in the sense connivit, but the nouns 2,2 (equivalent to and b) are found, and also homo, and 2×MV puer, servus.

In Phoenician (Punic), according to the testimony of Jerome, Alma was the common word for maiden. The same root is found in the Maltese hlym adolescens.

66

The meaning, therefore, by the etymology, would seem to be a young woman at the age of puberty, with no implication whether married or not (so Abulwalides, "ban est puella et adolescentula sive virgo est sive non virgo est"). The old derivation from by to hide, to conceal, the secluded one, is extremely improbable, and has no philological parallel in the cognate languages, and is now very generally given up by scholars. Cf. Hengstenberg, Christol

=

1 Note. The Arabic definitions in this Article are taken from Freytag's Smaller Lexicon (Halle, 1837), the Syriac, Samaritan, and Chaldee from Castle's Lexicon Heptaglotton.

ogy, i. p. 325; Delitzsch, Commentary on Isaiah, Vol. i. p. 217; Cheyne, p. 31.1

Let us now examine the usage among the Hebrews. It is to be regretted that there are so few instances of the occurrence of this word-only six in the whole Bible, besides the passage in question. However, the usage can be shown from these six to be upon the side of the meaning maiden or virgin.

The first passage is Gen. xxiv. 43: "Behold I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the 'Almah cometh forth," etc. Here the term is applied to Rebekah, who is expressly stated in vs. 16 to be a bar. From this we gather two things: first, that is used in this passage of a virgin; second, that it is not an equivalent of ; that is to say, it is not a specific term as the latter is. The LXX in this place translate it by rap0évos, the Targ. of Onkelos by sny, Targ. Jonathan and Jerus. by x, the Syriac (Peschito) by As, the Sam. by 9, the Arabic by

البحارية

It is to be noted, however, that in verses 14, 16, 55 the Sept. translates (K'ri ) also by raplévos, as it does also in xxxiv. 3 bis, and 3 Kings i. 2. It also occurs as a var. lect. Joel i. 8. These are the only examples of this translation of 5,

by

1 Cf. per contra, Jerome, Comment. in Isaiah vii. 14. He translates by virgo, and gives his reasons as follows: Quando autem dicitur, Dabit dominus ipse vobis signum, novem debet est atque mirabile, Sin autem juvencula vel puella, ut Judaei volunt, et non virgo pariat, quale signum potest appellari, cum hoc nomen aetatis sit non integritatis? Et revera, ut cum Judaeis conferamus pedem et nequaquam contensioso fune praebamus eis risum nostrae imperitiae, virgo Hebraice appellatur, quae in praesenti loco non scribitur, sed pro hoc verbum positum est, quod praeter LXX qui posuerunt raplévos, omnes adolescentulam transtulerunt. Porro y apud eos verbum ambiguum est, dicitur enim et adolescentula et abscondita, id est àжокpuós. Unde et in titulo Psalmi ix., ubi in Hebraeo positum est by caeteri interpretes transtulerunt pro adolescentia, quod LXX interpretati sunt, pro absconditis. Et in Genesi legimus, ubi Rebecca dicitur alma: Aquilam non adolescentulam, nec puellam sed absconditam transtulisse. Sunanimitis quoque mulier amisso filio, cum Helesei fuisset pedibus provoluta, et prohiberet eum Iezi, audit a propheta: Dimitte eam, quia in dolore est, et dominus abscondit a me. Pro eo quod in Latino dicitur, abscondit a me, in Hebraeo scriptum est . Ergo alma, non solum puella vel virgo; sed cum iráσe virgo abscondita dicitur et secreta, quae nunquam virorum patuerit aspectibus, sed magna parentum diligentia custodita sit. Lingua quoque Punica, quae de Hebraeorum fontibus manare dicitur, proprie virgo alma appellatur."

it being rendered in other passages variously, sometimes by maîs, sometimes by νεάνις, sometimes by κοράσιον.

2. Ex. ii. 8: "And the 'Almah went and called the child's mother." Here used of Miriam, who at the birth of Moses can hardly have been married. Here the Sept. translates by veâvis, Targum Onk., Syriac, and Arabic as above, Sam. 2, Vulg. puella.

3. Ps. lxviii. 25: "among them were the 'Alamoth playing with timbrels." The passage illustrating this best is Ex. xv. 20 (see also 1 Sam. xviii. 7) where the corresponding word is, and where Miriam—who was at that time at least eighty-five, and, according to Josephus, the wife of Hur was the leader of the dance. Still the almost universal custom in the East confines these dancers and players on the timbrels to unmarried women. The Sept. here translates, as above, by veávides, the Targum paraphrases it with the expression, the Syriac has, the Arabic

(among the girls), Ethiopic PGA (virgines),1

Vulg. juvenculae.

4. Prov. xxx. 19: "and the way of a man with an 'Almah.” Here the allusion is evidently to the sexual act, and particularly to the first sexual act of the 'Almah; the case is expressly stated as different from the way of the adulterous woman. The force in this case seems to depend upon the 'Almah being considered as a virgin. The Sept. does not give the passage; the Syriac misunderstands it,

and translates it by 12223 as if the text read b, Vulg.

the same.

The Targ. reads the text we have, and translates . 5. Cant. i. 3: "therefore do the Alamoth love thee." From this passage no decided conclusion can be drawn either way. It is perhaps best explained by vi. 8, which see below. Sept. veávides, Vulg. adolescentulae, Syriac , Arabic ass = adolescentulae, Ethiopic PA = virgines.

السَّبَابٌ

6. Cant. vi. 7: "There are threescore queens and fourscore concubines, and Alamoth without number." Here the parallel word in the next verse is nie, which proves nothing; but the mentioning of the 'Alamoth as inhabitants of the harem, distinct from the queens (wives) and the concubines, shows that in this passage it

1 The Ethiopic in the first two cases is translated adolescentulae by Walton. The rendering given is from Dillmann (Chrestomathia Aethiopica, Leipz. 1866)