Virgin, Virginity in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism

Frequently the term means simply “girl” or “young woman,” conveyed, for example, in its common pairing with the word for “young man, בָּחוּר (bachur) (Deut 32:25; Isa 23:4; Ezek 9:6; Zech 9:17; Psa 78:63; Lam 1:18; 2:21; 2 Chr 36:17).

When the text wants to emphasize the sexual status of a girl, it occasionally adds the phrase “who has not known a man” (Gen 19:8, 24:16; Num 31:18; Judg 19:30; Judg 21:12). In other contexts, however, where בְּתוּלָה (bethulah) is contrasted with various classes of women who have had sexual experience, it seems probable that the concept of “virgin” is in view (Lev 21:13–14; Ezek 44:22; Judg 11:37–38). Similarly, the plural term בְּתוּלִים (bethulim) in Deut 22:13–21 serves as a “telling sign” of a new bride’s virginity—namely blood of defloration or menstruation.

The mother of Immanuel in Isaiah’s famous oracle to Ahaz (7:14) is a special case. It is difficult to determine whether the translation of the Masoretic Text (MT) עַלְמָה (almah) by παρθένος (parthenos) in the Septuagint (LXX) Isa 7:14 bears the marks of a theologically purposeful deviation (see De Sousa, “Is the Choice of Π, PAPΘ, THENOΣ, S; in LXX Isa. 7:14 Theologically Motivated?”). The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew term עַלְמָה (almah) is commonly νεᾶνις (neanis, “young woman”; Exod 2:8; Song 1:3; 6:8; Prov 30:19; Psa 68:25), though παρθένος (parthenos) is used in Gen 24:43 (of Rebekah) and Isa 7:14.

As a result, the Isaiah passage has been regarded since early Christian times as a prophecy of the virgin birth of Christ (Matt 1:23). On purely lexical grounds, however, it is impossible to say whether the LXX translator of Isa 7:14 is expressing true virginity when he uses παρθένος (parthenos): עַלְמָה (almah) probably has the same sense that בְּתוּלָה (bethulah) and παρθένος (parthenos) had originally, namely, a young woman who has just reached sexual maturity.

The ambiguity and variability of use of the term בְּתוּלָה (bethulah) (and עַלְמָה, almah) in the Hebrew Bible (and παρθένος, parthenos; in LXX) arises from a basic, patriarchal valuation of the premarital female body. Since the בְּתוּלָה (bethulah) was conventionally a virgin, it was not difficult for this meaning to become attached to the word. This was especially the case in relationship to the economics of marriage: a young girl’s virginity was frequently perceived as a temporary, requisite state that preceded proper conjugal relations (Gen 24:16; Exod 22:15–16; Deut 22:13–29; Judg 11:37–40).

Tikva Frymer-Kensky writes that such valuation and guarding of the premarital female virgin body primarily has to do with relations between men (see Frymer-Kensky,” Virginity in the Bible“). The culture circulating through the biblical narratives and legislation illustrates the gender asymmetry common to ancient Near Eastern social policy in general: it does not grant to women their bodily integrity, and sexual access to women, above all, is regarded as the possession of the dominant male in her life, whether father or husband (Gen 19:24; 34:5–7; Deut 22:13–29; Num 5:11–31; Judg 19). Yet, because male members of the family had the responsibility to guard the virginity of the young women of the family, a girl’s sexual status also served as a central indicator of the social worth and the honor of both her and her household.

Virginity operated as much more than a material “fact” of the premarital female body; it was a powerful signifier, capable of generating and representing a whole complex of cultural beliefs. Mieke Bal, in her study on the book of Judges, underscores the transition inherent in the social and sexual status of the בְּתוּלָה (bethulah) (Bal, Death and Dissymmetry, 69–93): no longer a young child, but not yet a wife and mother, the בְּתוּלָה (bethulah) signals the negotiation of a highly charged movement toward physical and moral maturity. Whereas the well-known metaphors of adulterous wife and harlot are frequently used to illustrate Israel’s infidelity to the Lord God, the personification of Israel as “virgin” (בְּתוּלַת, bethulath; Amos 5:2; Jer 18:13; 31:4, 21) or “virgin daughter” (בְּתוּלַת בַּת, bethulath bath; Isa 37:22; Lam 1:15; 2:13; 2 Kgs 19:21) can bear both positive and negative connotations. Both titles underscore the relationship between Israel and her Lord: “God’s claim upon the body politic is as complete as that of a father on his virgin daughter. She is his to discipline as well as to protect” (Foskett, A Virgin Conceived, 55–56).

Ezekiel casts Israel in analogous hues, not as a virgin daughter per se, but as a ward who has been placed in the care of the deity (Ezek 16:8). Similarly, the basic connotation of עַלְמָה (almah) (παρθένος, parthenos) in Isaiah’s sign to Ahaz (7:14) carries a heavy symbolic weight, representing the hope that in less than nine months, the oppressive situation in Judah would change in such a way that a child would be given the name of Immanuel, “God is with us.”

Many early Jewish texts recapitulate the expectation that a woman would marry as a virgin. For example, the Qumran community stressed the importance of a man marrying a virgin (4Q271.10–15) and set down provisions for physically examining a woman to confirm virginity (4Q159; compare Tigay, “Examination of the Accused Bride in 4Q159”). In the Mishnah, bride-price depends upon a bride’s virginity (m. Ketubbot 1.2; 5.2), and the very validity of a marriage can rest upon the truth of her sexual status (m. Ketubbot 1.1; 1.6). Rabbinic texts also continue to emphasize the importance of virginity in connection to the priesthood (see especially the sources cited by Satlow, Jewish Marriage in Antiquity, 315n141).

Philo and Josephus essentially repeat classical banalities when they emphasize that Jewish men prefer to marry virgins (see Josephus, Antiquities 4.244; Philo, On the Special Laws 3.51, 65–71). Ideally, the virgin minor daughter was both constrained by patriarchal authority and attributed sexual and reproductive power (see Wegner, Chattel or Person?).

The favorable estimation of marriage and positive valuation of marital sexuality that we find in some early Jewish texts does not suggest that virginity itself was devalued. Other early Jewish texts also value purity, integrity, and separateness and transferred these meanings to (female and male) subjectivity via virginity and/or continence. Judith is described as living in an unmarried state after her husband died after only a few years of marriage (Judith 8:6). The noncanonical novel or romance Joseph and Aseneth portrays the encounter of the virginal Aseneth (Gen 41:45; 46:20) and the conditions of her conversion and marriage to an irreproachable Joseph: supremely self-controlled and a virgin (see Kraemer, When Aseneth Met Joseph).

The group known as the Essenes are said by most sources to live in celibate communities, even though Josephus says one group married for purposes of procreation alone (for a discussion of the classical sources, see chapter four of Schofield, From Qumran to the Yaḥad, 191–219). Philo also relates that a small number of upper-class, well-educated Jewish women—most of them older virgins—joined the contemplative monastic Therapeutic community that was located outside of Alexandria (Philo, On the Contemplative Life 27–29, 30, 34–39, 68, 82; see Kraemer, “Monastic Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Egypt”; Satlow, “Philo on Human Perfection”).