Composer, you are right to consider the study of words and their meanings but we must be very careful when doing it… However, please consider the following:
Some years ago I heard a person stating that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was only engaged when at the Annunciation she was told she was to be the mother of God. Just imagine the profound effect that must have had on her, a teenager most likely, who had already consecrated herself to a life of virginity.
The point I want to make here is that we have to be careful of how we choose and interpret the meaning of specific words and how they are used today as opposed opposed to the meaning of the Hebrew or Aramaic word 2000 years ago.
The incident I am speaking about is that the person was interpreting the word “betrothed,” in an English translation of the Bible as “engaged.” The normal meaning of betrothal as used today meaning that a marriage will then follow after an appropriate length of time. The person was obviously suggesting that Mary was not married at the time Jesus was conceived. I just couldn’t imagine that God in His infinite wisdom would ever permit a scandalous thing like that to ever happen especially since Mary would be be subject to being stoned to death under Judaic law at the time, and especially since Mary was a devout orthodox Jew.
This led me to contact sources whose judgments I trusted to find out what was the ancient Judaic law, the normative societal practices,** and an understanding of the semantics of just what betrothal meant and was 2000 years ago**. My search results on the internet, using “ancient Judaism betrothal” as search criteria, included the Glossary of Jewish Terminology.” The glossary explains very clearly and definitively that 2000 years ago betrothal was more than just being engaged as we understand and practice today in that the couple were in fact,
actually legally (juridically) married under the Levirate law at the time and only death
or divorce could break the relationship. ( The glossary is on the internet: the URL is:
jewfaq.org/glossary.htm#3)
Code:
The next two paragraphs contain information from the glossary, reduced by me to bare essentials (with emphases mine.)
**“Betrothal**: The first part of a two-part process of Jewish marriage which creates the legal relationship without the legal obligations. In Hebrew (or is it Aramaic ?) it is called **kiddushin**, which means literally, sanctification. It is the first part of a two-step process of the Jewish marriage process which creates the legal relationship without the mutual obligations. Kiddushin was and is far more binding than an engagement as we understand and use the term betrothal in modern English today.
**“Once kiddushin is complete, the woman is legally the wife of the man. The relationship created by kiddushin can only be dissolved by death or divorce.** However, the spouses did not ordinarily live together immediately afterward and the bride would normally remain in her parents home for as much as a year after the kiddushin or until her husband can prepare a home for them to live in.. The mutual obligations created by this legal marital relationship did not take effect until the **nisuin** (from a word meaning “elevation) completed the process of marriage. Before the nisuin, the husband prepared a home for his new family. As I understand it, once the home was prepared, the husband brought his wife into his home, there was a celebration similar to a wedding reception of today in a different venue than where the ceremony similar to the kiddushin took place and they began their married life together.
The Bible states unequivocally that Mary was already “betrothed “ to Joseph at the time of the Annunciation and Joseph had made up his mind to **divorce** her informally. Therefore, the only conclusion possible is that “kiddushin” had already occurred and under Judaic law at the time they were in fact legally married.
The problems translators face in translating from the original language is that there are times that they just cannot find an exact word match in English and are forced to use a word that does not convey the full and exact meaning of the original word. Remember that the books of the Bible were written, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by men in their own words and language and usage as well as from personal experience I am in no way denying the Holy Spirit is the principal author of the Bible but the fact is that men physically wrote the books means that they are co-authors.
