From: "Randy H" 

Try this on for size:

http://www.samharris.org/

"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
news:43282259$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>
> "Ellen K."  wrote in message
> news:kqdfi1ludgd7r95aqqosfs6b4vlungfulg{at}4ax.com...
>> One I find particularly egregious underpins the Christian doctrine of
>> the virgin birth.  The word Christians translate as
"virgin" does not
>> mean "virgin", it means a young woman.  There is an
exact word that
>> means "virgin" which appears many times in the Bible,
which is not the
>> one used.  The Bible is not shy about these things, if
"virgin" was
>> meant, the word for virgin would have been used.
>>
>>
>
> FWIW some Catholic theologians agree with you. Many ( myself included )
> feel that the virgin birth mythology was more a product of pagan religious
> influence - keeping the story of the birth in context with other mythical
> heroes/gods  of the populace
>
> http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15448a.htm
> The Jewish Origin Theory (Isaias 7:14)
>
> A second class of writers derive the early Christian tradition of the
> virgin birth from Jewish Christian influence. Harnack [39] is of the
> opinion that the virgin birth originated from Isaias 7:14; Lobstein [40]
> adds the "poetic traditions surrounding the cradle of Isaac, Samson, and
> Samuel" as another source of the belief in the virgin birth. Modern
> theology does not grant that Isaias 7:14, contains a real prophecy
> fulfilled in the virgin birth of Christ; it must maintain, therefore, that
> St. Matthew misunderstood the passage when he said: "Now all this was done
> that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying;
> Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son," etc.
> (1:22-23). How do Harnack and Lobstein explain such a misunderstanding on
> the part of the Evangelist? There is no indication that the Jewish
> contemporaries of St. Matthew understood the prophet's words in this
> sense. Hillmann [41] proves that belief in the virgin birth is not
> contained in the Old Testament, and therefore cannot have been taken from
> it. Dalman [42] maintains that the Jewish people never expected a
> fatherless birth of the Messias, and that there exists no vestige of such
> a Jewish interpretation of Isaias 7:14.
>
>
>
>

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5