Here is the supporting occurrence in Num 4:23
כל־הבא לצבא צבא לעבד עבדה באהל מועד
all that go in and minister in the tabernacle of the covenant
Here is Num 8:24
יבוא לצבא צבא בעבדת אהל מועד
shall go in to minister in the tabernacle of the covenant.
As you can see the usage of צבא is strictly liturgical. Which you could have verified yourself, but instead chose to sidetrack into a dictionary meaning, which, of course, does not contradict the liturgical usage anyway.
'Shut up' need not mean 'cloistered', as it seems the writer has inferred.
Really? I always though that κατάκλειστοι IS "cloistered". So "shut up" virgin means something other than "under lock in a building"? Or "shut up" means "in a building" but never, ever "in a temple building"? No kidding?
Far better to take their word on the matter
Indeed. Mishna Shekalim, Babylonian Talmud Kethuboth, Pesikta Rabbati, 2 Baruch. Their word.
No it isn't 'strictly liturgical', as my previous post details - It's common meaning, outside of it's military root, is 'assemble' or 'assembly'... a grouping or group, or mustering, the act of forming a group. In fact, of the translations I have available, *none* use 'minister' in the verses you quote, with the general consensus being to 'perform' or to 'serve'... From that, 'ministering' could be inferred, no doubt, but since the passages are speaking to time frames of service rather than actual acts of service, 'You will assemble to perform or serve' would be a clearer sense than 'You will minister'. And such a reading would be more in line with how the word is translated elsewhere.
And even if I were to give you 'ministering' and allow a liturgical sense (which I will not), it would only open a possibility, as one is not required to allow the same sense in regard to the passages you offer with regard to an order of Temple virgins. One would still be obliged to read those passages using the common sense of the term primarily, and not jump to a use of special circumstance.
Which you could have verified yourself, but instead chose to sidetrack into a dictionary meaning, which, of course, does not contradict the liturgical usage anyway.
I did do exactly that, and my previous post speaks to that with specificity. Your interpretation would require a liturgical sense from two out of fourteen uses of the word, and by extrapolation, adopt two more of the remaining twelve verses into that sense... I am not requiring the ministerial sense, so I can allow the fourteen proof texts to remain within their common sense (or within their military sense, from which the word is derived). I see no need to modify the meaning beyond it's natural use.
Really? I always though that κατάκλειστοι IS "cloistered". So "shut up" virgin means something other than "under lock in a building"? Or "shut up" means "in a building" but never, ever "in a temple building"? No kidding?
Who would think of locking up their virgin daughters while a foreign military troop is inside the gates? How absurd is that reading? No one EVER did that in bygone days... Far better to assume cloistered nuns, even though there is no evidence of such a thing in Judaism... And why would anyone think against them being locked up in a temple where their very presence would require their death? Far better to invent a special circumstance to allow for temple virgins...
Indeed. Mishna Shekalim, Babylonian Talmud Kethuboth, Pesikta Rabbati, 2 Baruch. Their word.
Not at all - Their word on those passages, their tradition, allows for no such thing. One must impose the meaning you seem to desire.