Do the Hebrew Scriptures say that a Virgin will Give Birth?

Question

Because in Isaiah 7:14, almah gives enough vagueness to accommodate
the near fulfillment in the eighth century BC with a young woman
giving birth to the far fulfillment in the first century AD with the
virgin birth of Jesus.

Mr.K,

FYI, I have searched for instances in which almah might mean a non-virgin or a married woman. There is no passage where almah is not a virgin. Nowhere in the Bible or elsewhere does almah mean anything but a virgin. Do you?

Mr.K,

Answer for yourself: Then why does the quote from this passage in Matthew 1:20-23 not say “young woman” and says “virgin” instead?

You should be very curious at this point as you try to understand how “young woman” in the Hebrew as defined by “almah” in Hebrew came to mean “virgin” in the Greek as defined by “parthenos” and later in the English translations of the New Testament since the original from which it was taken does not covey such an idea.

What does all these Christian translations of the Bible have in common?

Revised Standard Version

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The Bible: A New Translation

An omen you shall have, and that from the Eternal himself. There is a young woman with child, who shall bear a son and call his name.

The New Jerusalem Bible

The Lord will give you a sign in any case: It is this: the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.

Answer 1

how bout you search somewhere apart from the bible , I'd assume someone who is Jewish would know more about their own language then an arrogant christain trying to prove their own religion is true , but more to the point the immaculate conception concept can be found in various primiative beliefs taht existed bertween 5000-1000 years ago , The wsord allmah means young women and I'm sure if you look up some old non-christain text in hebrew you will proably find the word , the immaculate conception myth was started because mary fell preganent outside of the period which was traditional for women of her cultural background , otherwise Jesus would never have been accepted by society and his peers stuidy some sociolgy , lingustics and anthropology before making ignoirnat statements just on faith I ,mean I believe in the existence of a higher power but immaculate conception - what is wrong wth peoples logic

Answer 2

The word 'almah' is used seven times in the Bible. Not once does it describe a married woman. In five cases there is no question about the virginity of the woman involved

If you have any doubt as to the intended meaning of the Messianic prophecy, look at the Septuagint [translation from Hebrew to Greek a few centuries before Jesus was born]. Notice the choice of Greek words to clearly indicate how they understood the Hebrew "almah" in this passage.

Clearly a Virgin shall conceive ...the TRUE fulfillment of the prophecy ... even though satan had counterfeit stories of other such.

Answer 3

Although this passage has historically been a favorite Christian "prooftext", serious weaknesses have caused a recent decline in its popularity. A comprehensive examination of this verse (Isaiah 7:14) is beyond the scope of this column; we will limit ourselves to a consideration of just two of its many problems.Someone once quipped that "a text without a context is pretext". The first question that needs to be raised is whether the verse cited here is indeed a reference to the Messiah. We might ask the missionary to provide some compelling reason for us to accept that the verse warrants such an interpretation. We suspect that the missionary will be hard-pressed to provide a logical basis for this assumption.

Then, of course, there is the crucial issue of the general context. The seventh chapter of Isaiah takes place about 700 BCE, and describes an alliance between Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel, whose combined forces threaten to destroy the kingdom of Judah. The prophet Isaiah assures Achaz, King of Judah, that G-d will protect his kingdom. He prophesies that a child will be born to a certain woman, and that, before the child learns to distinguish good from evil, the two kingdoms threatening Judah will be destroyed (verses 15 - 16). The prophecy contained in Isaiah 7 clearly addresses this particular political crisis; it in no way refers to the concept of a Messiah. Furthermore, Jesus was not born until 700 years later; his birth could hardly offer any reassurance to King Achaz!

The second flaw in this prooftext, and the one which ultimately condemns it to oblivion, is that it's founded upon blatant mistranslation. Isaiah, in fact, merely speaks of "the young woman "almah" who will give birth. Christian translators took great license, as did the New Testament when it "quoted" this verse in Matthew, when they rendered this word "virgin". There is a specific Hebrew word for "virgin" (betulah), which Isaiah would have used if that were what he meant.

Modern Christian scholarship has recognized that the "virgin birth" prophecy is based upon a distortion of the Hebrew scriptures. Beginning with the Revised Standard Version of the Bible in 1952, virtually all Christian translations have adopted "young woman" rather than "virgin" as the correct rendering of "almah".

Answer 4

almah simply means young woman. to be fair, the young woman could also be a virgin. but if isaiah had wanted to say a virgin would give birth, he would have used the hebrew word for virgin.

EDIT

as for what is so special about this verse, what is special about it is that it is a prophecy saying that G-d is going to send ahaz a sign. a woman would bear a child called immanuel within his lifetime. that prophecy came to pass loooong before jesus's time. obviously this sign sent specifically to ahaz is going to happen during the lifetime of ahaz and not hundreds of years later when ahaz is long dead and therefore won't be around to SEE the sign G-d is giving him. and also, jesus is not named immanuel.

as for almah being used only to describe virgins, then you'd have to account for the word almah being used in the book of proverbs to describe an adulterous woman. meanwhile isaiah uses the hebrew word for virgin "betulah" several times in his own book. you'd think if he meant to say virgin specifically and nobody BUT a virgin, he would have said betulah and not almah, which as we have already seen could have been describing an adulterous woman instead of a virgin.

Answer 5

Actually the word (almah) means "young girl" which cannotes virgin, but does not necessarily mean it. The prophecy probably refers to Isaiah's wife in terms of its immediate fulfillment for the contemporary audience. The second and greater fulfullment is of course Jesus and the literal virgin birth.

Answer 6

Isaiah 7:10-16 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain



10Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

11Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

12But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

13And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

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

Answer 7

The Hebrew word "Alma" (young woman) was translated in the Greek OT as "parthenos" - which can *only* mean "virgin".

The Jews themselves translated that word for the Septuagint (Greek OT Scriptures from the Hebrew)

The Jews themselves translated it. Even if not the original seventy (or 72) - they were still scribes and scholars.

They read Hebrew AND Greek. They were scholars and rabbis.


Do you?

Answer 8

NIV
7:14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Answer 9

in the Hebrew there is a letter called "mem" that means the womb. normally it has a small opening at the end, but in this case(and only this case) it has the opening closed. this represents the hymen.

or at least that's what I've heard. this is one of the jots and tittles. you can only see them in the original Hebrew and there is like 120 of them

Answer 10

Yes it does.