a) Isaiah 7: 10-16
10 Καὶ προσέθετο Κύριος λαλῆσαι τῷ ῎Αχαζ λέγων· 11 αἴτησαι σεαυτῷ σημεῖον παρὰ Κυρίου Θεοῦ σου εἰς βάθος ἢ εἰς ὕψος. 12 καὶ εἶπεν ῎Αχαζ· οὐ μὴ αἰτήσω οὐδ᾿ οὐ μὴ πειράσω Κύριον. 13 καὶ εἶπεν· ἀκούσατε δή, οἶκος Δαυίδ· μὴ μικρὸν ὑμῖν ἀγῶνα παρέχειν ἀνθρώποις; καὶ πῶς Κυρίῳ παρέχετε ἀγῶνα; 14 διὰ τοῦτο δώσει Κύριος αὐτὸς ὑμῖν σημεῖον· ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει, καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ᾿Εμμανουήλ· 15 βούτυρον καὶ μέλι φάγεται· πρὶν ἢ γνῶναι αὐτὸν ἢ προελέσθαι πονηρά, ἐκλέξεται τὸ ἀγαθόν· 16 διότι πρὶν ἢ γνῶναι τὸ παιδίον ἀγαθὸν ἢ κακόν, ἀπειθεῖ πονηρίᾳ τοῦ ἐκλέξασθαι τὸ ἀγαθόν, καὶ καταλειφθήσεται ἡ γῆ, ἣν σὺ φοβῇ, ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν δύο βασιλέων.
Isaiah 7:10-16
7:10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying,
7:11 Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.
7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.
7:13 Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also?
7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
7:15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
7:16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.
Comments on Isaiah 7:14
I shall limit myself to one verse (14); like other verses in the LXX version of this chapter, it diverges somewhat from the NRSV.
[14] διὰ τοῦτο δώσει Κύριος αὐτὸς ὑμῖν σημεῖον·: ‘Therefore the Lord himself (αὐτὸς)will give you (pl.) a sign.’
σημεῖον = ‘sign’ (cf. Engl. ‘semantics’); in class. Greek σ. can mean ‘ a sign from a god, an omen’, as in Soph. Oedipus at Colonus 94, where σημεῖα (pl.) refers to ‘an earthquake, thunder or lightning from Zeus’.
The rest of the verse spells out what the extraordinary sign will be. ἰδοὺ, ‘behold’ (see immed. below) heralds the sheer miracle to come: the virgin with child.
ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει, καὶ τέξεται υἱόν: For the exclamation ἰδοὺ (which is exampled in class. Greek but much used in the LXX and NT) see previous blog entries.
ἡ παρθένος: here and in Luke 1: 27a, b the term means ‘virgin’ in the strict, biological sense (according to EDNT, s.v., p.40). In ancient poetry (e.g. Hesiod, Works & Days 63, 699) and a range of prose authors (e.g. Aristotle, History of Animals 581b 11 ff.) a parthenos is an unmarried (and well-guarded) virgin.
‘Maiden’ (NRSV) is correct so long as ‘maiden’ is taken to mean ‘virgin’.
ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει: γαστήρ = ‘belly, stomach, womb’ (cf. Engl. ‘gastronomy’, ‘gastrointestinal’). The phrase ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχειν = ‘be pregnant’ (cf. EDNT, s.v. γαστήρ, p. 239). The phrase is prob. a colloquial euphemism.
τέξεται υἱόν: τέξεται = middle fut. of τίκτω, in Greek poetry used of either the father (‘beget’) or mother (‘give birth to’); but in cl. & post-cl. prose, including medical authors the verb is used of the mother, as here.
καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ᾿Εμμανουήλ: ‘and you (sg.) will call his name Emmanuel’. τὸ ὄνομα, repeating as it does the notion of the vb to ‘name’ or ‘call’ (καλέσεις), is a cognate accusative.
b) Matthew 1: 18-25
18 Τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἡ γέννησις οὕτως ἦν. Μνηστευθείσης γὰρ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ Μαρίας τῷ Ἰωσήφ, πρὶν ἢ συνελθεῖν αὐτοὺς εὑρέθη ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα ἐκ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου.
19 Ἰωσὴφ δὲ ὁ ἀνὴρ αὐτῆς, δίκαιος ὢν καὶ μὴ θέλων αὐτὴν παραδειγματίσαι, ἐβουλήθη λάθρᾳ ἀπολῦσαι αὐτήν.
20 Ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐνθυμηθέντος ἰδοὺ ἄγγελος Κυρίου κατ᾿ ὄναρ ἐφάνη αὐτῷ λέγων· Ἰωσὴφ υἱὸς Δαυῒδ, μὴ φοβηθῇς παραλαβεῖν Μαριὰμ τὴν γυναῖκά σου· τὸ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν ἐκ Πνεύματός ἐστιν Ἁγίου.
21 Τέξεται δὲ υἱὸν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν· αὐτὸς γὰρ σώσει τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν.
22 Τοῦτο δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ρηθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου διὰ τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος·
23 Ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσουσι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ, ὅ ἐστι μεθερμηνευόμενον μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός.
24 Διεγερθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰωσὴφ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕπνου ἐποίησεν ὡς προσέταξεν αὐτῷ ὁ ἄγγελος Κυρίου καὶ παρέλαβε τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ,
25 καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἕως οὗ ἔτεκε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς τὸν πρωτότοκον, καὶ ἐκάλεσε τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν.
Matthew 1:18-25
1:18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
1:19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
1:20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
1:21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
1:22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
1:23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”
1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,
1:25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Comments on Matthew 1: 18-25
[18] Μνηστευθείσης γὰρ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ Μαρίας τῷ Ἰωσήφ: postpositive γὰρ is explanatory, and has the force ‘that is to say’. ‘The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way (οὕτως), that is, his mother after her betrothal to Joseph…’
Μνηστευθείσης: genet. abs. (here the equivalent of a temporal clause or expression), aor. passive part. μνηστεύομαι; in class. Greek the passive form means ‘to be wooed, sought in marriage’ (of a nubile woman). In koine as here the vb. has a legal meaning, ‘to be betrothed’: μν. + dat. pers. = ‘to be betrothed to a certain man’.
πρὶν ἢ συνελθεῖν αὐτοὺς εὑρέθη ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα: συνελθεῖν, aor. inf., συνέρχομαι, lit., ‘come together’. The vb. decorously implies sexual intercourse in Hippocrates and other class. prose authors, as here.
εὑρέθη ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα: εὑρέθη, ‘was found, was discovered’ (M.), pass. aor., εὑρίσκω. (Cf. Engl. ‘Eureka!’, ‘heuristic’.) εὑρέθη is construed with a supplementary part., ἔχουσα (‘she was found to have…’). As noted in a) above, ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχω, ‘I am pregnant’.
[19] αὐτὴν παραδειγματίσαι: παραδειγματίζω, ‘expose to ridicule or scorn, to disgrace’ (EDNT, s.v., p. 17). Disgracing Mary in public would not only be a form of punishment for her but also a stinging public lesson, a living example (παράδειγμα) which would in future serve as a precedent (παράδειγμα) for others. Aristotle, in his On Rhetoric (esp. 2.20), notes that a past example (παράδειγμα) works as an inductive argument.
λάθρᾳ ἀπολῦσαι: λάθρᾳ = ‘secretly’. ἀπολῦσαι, aor. infinitive, ἀπολύω, ‘to release or dismiss a woman from marriage by means of a letter of divorce (ἀπολύσιον).’ A man issued the letter alleging grounds of indecency, as suggested by Deut. 24:1,3, etc.
[20] κατ᾿ ὄναρ ἐφάνη αὐτῷ: ὄναρ, already in Homer, is a (significant, impactful) dream (as distinct from a waking vision, or ὕπαρ, another Homeric word). ἐφάνη, 2nd aor., φαίνομαι, ‘to appear’; Joseph experiences an epiphany in a dream at night (cf. 24, Διεγερθεὶς… ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕπνου ).
μὴ φοβηθῇς παραλαβεῖν Μαριὰμ τὴν γυναῖκά σου: παραλαβεῖν, 2nd aor. inf., παραλαμβάνω, a class. Greek vb for ‘I take to or with myself’ (M.), e.g. as a concubine, as an adopted son, etc. ‘Do not be afraid to take Mariam as your wife.’
[21] τὸ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν: τὸ γεννηθὲν = ‘that which has been begotten, brought forth’; aor. pass. participle, γεννάω/ ῶ, ‘I bring forth’, in class. Greek usually of the father. γεννηθὲν is proleptic, looking ahead of the conception to the birth of the child, who has been conceived ‘from the Holy Spirit’ (ἐκ Πνεύματός ἐστιν Ἁγίου).
[25] ἕως οὗ ἔτεκε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς τὸν πρωτότοκον: ἔτεκε, 2nd aor., τίκτω, ‘I bring forth’, see on Isaiah 7: 14 above.
τὸν πρωτότοκον: πρ. is here an adj., ‘firstborn’ (pass. sense); apparently a koine word.
ἔτεκε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς τὸν πρωτότοκον: πρωτότοκον repeats the notion of giving birth (ἔτεκε), recalling a figura etymologica. See above on Isaiah 7: 14, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ᾿Εμμανουήλ. *The NRSV does not mention ‘firstborn’.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 