Is it true & now academically accepted Christians mistranslated the Hebrew word "young lady" to "virgin"?

Question

Christians assert Jesus fulfilled the prophesy that the messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). I'm told Judaism never said such a thing, only that the messiah is born to a "young lady". Some say the 'virgin' part was borrowed from the pagan God Mishra, not Judaism.

Who's right? How does the Tanakh English version translate it? What do scholars with no religion who couldn't care less (and therefore have no reason to be biased) say?

Answer 1

Isa 7: 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Let's use the Hebrew word Alma meaning young maiden.
First consider that this young maiden giving birth is a sign from God, Had no young maiden given birth before?
Is it a sign from God that a young unmarried woman would give birth?
Isn't there a Hebrew word for Harlot and isn't a unmarried woman with child a harlot?

Was the sign from God that a harlot would have a child?
If this was the sign why didn't Isaiah use the word harlot?

Alma referred to a young maiden and was then and is now interpreted virgin.

If the word was alma is interpreted to mean young woman....again is this a sign from God that a young woman would give birth? Seems young women giving birth would have been a common occurrence not significant enough to be considered a sign from God.

The Gospel writers were familiar with this prophesy and were familiar with the Hebrew language.

The sign from God is that a virgin would give birth.

Answer 2

Isaiah 7:14 says that a virgin will bear a son. The problem is dealing with the Hebrew word for virgin, which is "almah." According to the Strong's Concordance it means, "virgin, young woman 1a) of marriageable age 1b) maid or newly married." Therefore, the word "almah" does not always mean virgin. The word "occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament only in Genesis 24:43 (”maiden“); Exodus 2:8 (”girl“); Psalm 68:25 (”maidens“); Proverbs 30:19 (”maiden“); Song of Songs 1:3 (”maidens“); 6:8 (”virgins“)."1 Additionally, there is a Hebrew word for virgin: bethulah. If Isaiah 7:14 was meant to mean virgin instead of young maiden, then why wasn't the word used here?
The LXX is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. This translation was made around 200 B.C. by 70 Hebrew scholars. In Isaiah 7:14, they translated the word "almah" into the Greek word "parthenos." According to A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature,2 parthenos means "virgin." This word is used in the New Testament of the Virgin Mary (Matt. 1:23; Luke 1:27) and of the ten virgins in the parable (Matt. 25:1, 7, 11). If the Hebrews translated the word into the Greek word for virgin, then they understood what the Hebrew text meant here.
Why would the Isaiah choose to use the word almah and not bethulah? It was probably because he wanted to demonstrate that the virgin would also be a young woman. Is it still a prophecy? Of course.

______________
1. Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
2. Bauer, Walter, Gingrich, F. Wilbur, and Danker, Frederick W., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) 1979.

Answer 3

All I know is that no prophecy of the Hebrews ever suggested that anyone of a virgin birth would come and do miralces and then die on a cross as a self sacrifce for all of mankinds sins.What Jewish tradition says about the Messiah or Moshiach is before the time of the moshiach, there shall be war and suffering (Ezekiel 38:16)

The moshiach will bring about the political and spiritual redemption of the Jewish people by bringing the Hebrews back to Israel and restoring Jerusalem (Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 23:8; 30:3; Hosea 3:4-5). He will establish a government in Israel that will be the center of all world government, both for Jews and gentiles (Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:10; 42:1). He will rebuild the Temple and re-establish its worship (Jeremiah 33:18). He will restore the religious court system of Israel and establish Jewish law as the law of the land (Jeremiah 33:15).

All other prophecies that made any other claims outside of what traditional Jewish prophecy suggests, was written after the fact.Not before.

Answer 4

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

The key word is "sign." A sign was something out of the ordinary that the Lord would do to make people take notice.

What kind of sign would it be for a young unmarried girl to conceive a child a give birth to a son? Back then, that would have been a tragedy and could have resulted in her death.

But a virgin giving birth to a son would indeed be a sign.

Not only that, but early Jewish scholars recognized this word as being "virgin." And also, a young unmarried woman was always assumed to be a virgin.

250 years BEFORE Jesus was born, the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament into Greek (Septuagint) translates "almah" into the Greek word "parthenos" which can ONLY mean "virgin." Those Jewish scribes were looking for a virgin-born Messiah.

Answer 5

The original Hebrew in Isaiah is "young woman". The Greek of the Septuagint, which is what the New Testament writers quoted, definitely connotes a "virgin".

The original prophecy in Isaiah is referring to the birth of King Hezekiah. This gets reinterpreted by Matthew to refer to Jesus, and understandably Matthew uses "virgin" from the Septuagint. This has become standard Christian interpretation.

Peace to you.

Answer 6

In Isaiah 7:14, I think most scholars accept that. The "NT" is more difficult, for we seem to lack the original language, and most everything is in translation. Someone said there were over 1000 Prophecys in the TANAKH that pointed to Messiah. So I can't get overly worked up about any one. It is like 666. If the number were all we had, we might be confused, but there are 8 stipulations there, and if you look at all of them, there is no room to question.

Answer 7

virgin parqe/nov G4221 virgin (male and female), one who has never engaged in sexual relations (Greek) This is used in Luke 4: speaking of Mary.
Greek in New Testament is specific.

virgin (AL:MFH H6625 girl, young woman, (in certain contexts) virgin
Hebrew not specific in Old Testament.

Answer 8

Christians I know don't accept this. But rabbis, who actually work with Hebrew regularly from their teens on say that taken in context the word means "young woman." Yet Christians tell me they know and our rabbis don't.

sigh.

-Glenn O.

Answer 9

And exacly what type of a "sign" would conception by a young lady be?

Give it up, already!

Answer 10

Even if it was mistranslated, Jesus fulfilled hundreds of other prophecies, which proves beyond a shadow of doubt, that He is the Messiah, the Son of the Lord Most High.