What do Jewish people think of the scripture Isaiah 7:14?

Question

14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Has there ever been a time in Jewish History that a virgin conceived, had a child, and named him Immanuel? Is Immanuel supposed to be the Messiah? If not, who is he?
If the Messiah is named Immanuel, and that name means 'God with us'- doesn't that mean that he is God? and more than a mere man?

I appreciate all opinions on this question
thanks

Answer 1

we think "hey, how come christian bibles translate the word hebrew word for woman to mean virgin, even though thats not what it means? could it be because they have an agenda and are trying to dupe people who are ignorant of hebrew into believing in their idolatrous cult?"

Father K - its called history. the jewish rabbis only translated the torah. the torah does not include isaiah.

Answer 2

First off, the word usually translated as 'virgin' in Christian Bibles does not mean 'virgin' at all, but rather 'young woman' with the presumption of marriage or at least having had relations.


The 'young woman' of the prophesy is either Isaiah's own wife or one of the wives of the King. The prophesy is for the King of those days....the birth of a son portending an upcoming victory in war.

Of course if one reads Isaiah, it is clear that the child spoken of is born in those days. So now the question begs....if 7:14 was speaking about a virgin, then why was that child, who was called Immanuel, not the promised Messiah and Jesus, whose birth could have absolutely no bearing on what occured a millenium earlier, was?

By the way, the author of Isaiah knew the correct word for virgin quite well, and in fact used it on at least 5 occasions.

If virgin birth was so important to the prophesy, why did the author of Isaiah choose not to use it? Answer: because any concept of virgin birth is alien to Judaism and would properly be scoffed at. Further, the Messiah, who must be a direct male-line descendent of King David cannot be born of a virgin, even if it were possible or even miraculous. Any child born of a virgin would, by definition, have no male line ancestors, could not be a male-line descendent of David and therefore, could not be the Messiah. Period. End. Sorry. Matthew, Luke, John, Mark, Paul, the Church and the rest have deceived you for 2000 years, but they have, and you've taken it hook, line and sinker every time.

Answer 3

The jews are still waiting on him on the Messiah. They don't accept the suffering Messiah as presented in Isaiah 53. I heard the testimony of one Jew-christian who said he told another Jew about that passage and he didn't believe that passage was in the old testament. When he showed it to him he was open minded and began to consider it. he looked further into it and is now a christian.

Answer 4

NB: to Jewish Girl: Because the Jewish Rabbis who translated the OT into Greek translated "alma" as "parthenos" - which can *only* mean "virgin", my dear Jewish friend.

It's called the Septuagint.

Answer 5

I am afraid that is all made up Christianity.

The mistranslation was not in the Hebrew, but they used the wrong Greek word. They thought they were using the word for young woman in the Greek. They used the Greek word for virgin.

Answer 6

We think how nice it would be if Christians could actually read Hebrew and get the same laughs we do at these ludicrous translations.