The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ʿalmâ and parthenos in the World of the Bible; A Linguistic Perspective by Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ʿalmâ and parthenos in the World of the Bible; A Linguistic Perspective by Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry Sehoon Jang christophe rico and peter j. gentry, The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ʿalmâ and parthenos in the World of the Bible; A Linguistic Perspective (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2020). Pp. xiii + 217. Paper $48. Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry seek to offer a comprehensive treatment of the Hebrew word ʿalmâ and its Greek rendering parthenos in Isa 7:14, a controversial term that has occasioned countless debates and still leaves us with much uncertainty. R. deals primarily with the main part of the biblical book, and G. with the last section of Appendix II. Both R. and G. are willing to remain unsympathetic with and even to audaciously fly in the face of a nearly universal scholarly consensus that ʿalmâ refers to a young girl. Rico initially poses the question, "Does the word ʿalmâ refer to a virgin, a married [End Page 122] woman, or a young girl?" (p. 4), adumbrating the primary goal of this research. He then commences his study of ʿalmâ with a concise overview of the history of the developing connotations of parthenos in ancient Greek. He asserts that, during the Hellenistic era, parthenos appears to have referred exclusively to a virgin as the final development in the meaning of the word. He offers a full-scale analysis against the universal consensus that ʿalmâ designates "a young woman." The consensus is based primarily on an etymological study of ʿalmâ the exclusive role of bĕtûlâ as "virgin," the occurrence of ʿalmâ in Prov 30:19, and Jewish tradition. R. finds any etymological approach to ʿalmâ problematic if it fails to keep the semantic value of the word in mind. He contends that ʿalmâ is utilized as a hyponym of bĕtûlâ "if the meaning of ʿalmâ joins the respective values of the terms bətûlâ and naʿărâ" (p. 30). He pays close attention to a difficult problem with the appearance of ʿalmâ in Prov 30:19, suggesting a possible solution that ʿalmâ could be emended as ʿlm(y)w connoting "in youth," a textual emendation that is said to be supported by several ancient versions. Furthermore, an extensive investigation of traditional Jewish interpretations of ʿalmâ especially five rabbinic sources from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, leads him to confirm his conclusion that the word means "virgin." In the last part of the book, R. provides a wide-ranging examination of the meaning of ʿalmâ from a semantic perspective. In particular, he focuses on the Psalms, especially the title of Psalm 46, where ʿălāmôt is exceptionally set forth as an instrumental instruction related to the soprano voice. In his judgment, the musical usage of ʿalmâ in the Psalms plays a significant role in maintaining the argument that ʿalmâ connotes "virgin." Finally, R. offers a painstaking analysis of the structure of Isaiah 1-12, especially the Immanuel cycle (7:1-8:18), where the mysterious mention of ʿalmâ and her child is significantly highlighted. Given the elusive identity of ʿalmâ in the cycle, R. comes to the conclusion that Isa 7:14 ought to be understood as the prediction of a birth by a young virgin that will take place in the distant future (p. 155). This unflinching position is subsequently reinforced by G., whose updated treatment of Isa 7:14, including his critical response to H. G. M. Williamson (review of La mère de l'Enfant-Roi, Isaïe 7,14: 'ʿalmâ' et 'parthenos' dans l'univers biblique; Un point de vue linguistique, by Christophe Rico, CBQ 76 [2014] 338–39), is presented in Appendix II, with the succinct claim that Isa 7:14 must be construed as "a direct prediction for the distant future" (p. 217). This research is a significant contribution to a linguistic study of the Hebrew word ʿalmâ rendered as parthenos in the LXX of Isa 7:14. R. and G.'s approach to ʿalmâ provides valuable insights into the history of the reception of the meaning of the word...