Your views: Readers' letters

Childish conduct

On Sunday evening, while watching the News on TV3, I saw a clip about irresponsible teenagers who trashed and vandalised a hotel suite.

This clip was followed by one about the National Party sending the coalition Government over 6000 requests for information in the past month.

I see both these incidents as being at the same level of childishness, vandalism and petty destruction.

JEAN MCDAVITT
Wanganui

Dangerous

I have noted on several occasions recently that drivers pass the empty turning bay at Durie Hill School, then do a U-turn at the end of Burtts Rd.

This action is extremely dangerous, and one day there is going to be a serious crash resulting from it.

Why anyone would elect to do this rather than using the turning bay is beyond me.
What is required is for a camera to be installed to identify the vehicles concerned, so action can be taken to penalise these drivers.

F FOSTER
Durie Hill

Misconceptions

It is Christmas time again and so many Christian congregations will be told of how Isaiah predicted the virgin birth of Jesus. But, in fact, that isn't so.

Isaiah predicted the birth of a child called Immanuel (God is with us) in the time of Ahaz, king of Judah, in the 700s BC, assuring him in the face of the Assyrian threat. That Immanuel was Hezekiah, celebrated in Isaiah 9.

The Matthew account of the birth of Jesus is based on the texts, Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, Hosea 11:1, Jeremiah 31:15, Judges 3:5,7, all lifted out of context. The LXX (Greek) translation of Isaiah 7:14 uses the word parthenos (virgin) instead of neanis (young woman) for the Hebrew Almah. This has been known since the revisions of Theodotion and Aquila in the second century AD.

Luke's account of the birth of Jesus is styled on the miracle birth stories of Isaac, Samson, Samuel, etc.

Joseph is the father of Jesus in Luke 2:33, 48, 4:22, John 1:45. And the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke are through Joseph. Matthew 1:16, Luke 3:23.

A recent idea is that Jesus was the legal son of Joseph. If Joseph died childless, Mary would be obliged to marry his brother, Clopas, who would hopefully father a son for him. But Joseph did not die childless. Jesus had four brothers and two sisters. Those who say that Mary was a perpetual virgin say that these children were those of a previous wife of Joseph.

But there is a possible historical basis for Mary having a virgin conception. The Mishnah at Niddah 1:4 says, "Who is the virgin? Any girl who never in her life saw a drop of blood, even though she is married." So if Mary conceived on the occasion of her first ovulation she will have had a virgin conception.

TOM PITTAMS
Whanganui

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