3.513 queries (87)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Fri, 29 Sep 89 19:58:34 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 513. Friday, 29 Sep 1989.


(1) Date: 29 September 1989, 14:07:19 EDT (16 lines)
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: the value of querying; Mary Magdalene?

(2) Date: 29-SEP-1989 17:22:39 GMT (36 lines)
From: AEB_BEVAN@VAX.ACS.OPEN.AC.UK
Subject: Origins of the Virgin Birth?

(3) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 17:05:00 EDT (10 lines)
From: JQRBH@CUNYVM
Subject: computing course?

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 29 September 1989, 14:07:19 EDT
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: the value of querying

Sorry, Don, but I still like the process of filing an open-ended query
on Humanist. Because I am lazy? No: because the readership of Humanist
is so wide-spread one never knows what they may come up with. And some
members know of databases others of us have never heard of. Here is a
case in point. A graduate student friend of mine is finishing a
dissertation on the legend of Mary Magdalene (conflated with that of
"Mary the Egyptian") culminating in Shakespeare's *Pericles*. Any
last-minute suggestions to her out there from scholars interested in
medieval legends, the origins of the Queen of the Gypsies, Donatello's
wretcheddly beautiful hag? Sorry, Don, again, but I would like to learn
things from the discussion I haven't gotten so far from reference works
I've been exposed to. Roy Flannagan (not nude and not at ten pm)
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------49----
Date: 29-SEP-1989 17:22:39 GMT
From: AEB_BEVAN@VAX.ACS.OPEN.AC.UK
Subject: Origins of the Virgin Birth

Was there a mistranslation?

I've got a query on the origins of the Virgin Birth as a
theological concept in Christianity.

I read some while back -and can't now locate the references - that the phrase
used in the prophecies of the Messiah referred to a woman who conceived without
first having a period: i.e., who conceived at her first ovulation and
therefore had never been 'polluted' by menstrual blood. The Greek, Latin
and subsequent translators of the Bible translated this word or
phrase as Virgin in the modern sense of virgo intacta.

Given that women were married off at very early ages, conception at the
first ovulation was a social as well as a biological possibility in
the Israel of Christ's time.

The references I am trying to trace go on to argue that being a son
'of an undefiled woman' was a pre-requisite for a certain kind of
mystic leader at that time, and that Christ would not have been the
only person making a claim to such status. The chances of such a birth might
have been within an order of magnitude of the chances of someone being born the
seventh son of a seventh son.

Can Humanists give me any pointers to tracing the references or make any
comments on the claims as outlined here?

Thanks for any help. The idea is batting around our electronic common room over
here...

Edis Bevan
Open University, UK.

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 89 17:05:00 EDT
From: JQRBH@CUNYVM
Subject: computing course?

I am teaching, for the first time, an experimental course in writng about
computers (chiefly social issues), and would like to share experiences with
anyone else trying something similar. In particular, I'd like to know
about any good software and any experiences with collaborative writing.

Joseph Raben