Virgin birth...

An interesting article on the Guardian’s website today, about Christianity’s twin obsessions with sex and virginity. The Christian cult of virginity may be due to a mistranslation in an Old Testament prediction: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14). The Hebrew word ‘almah’, used here, can mean either ‘virgin’ or ‘young woman’ (the confusion might have arisen from the blithe assumption that a young woman would have been a virgin). It is just possible that one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity is no more than a slip of a transcriber’s pen.

Licensed today: kite-surfer and offshore windfarm at Redcar...