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A Virgin Shall Conceive

DAY 254

CHALLENGE

“Isaiah’s prophecy of Immanuel (Isa. 7:14) doesn’t apply to Jesus. It doesn’t say ‘a virgin shall conceive.’ The Hebrew word ‘almāh doesn’t mean ‘virgin,’ but ‘young woman.’”

DEFENSE

Actually, ‘almāh can mean either.

Its basic meaning is a young woman of marriageable age. In Hebrew society, such women were expected to be and normally were virgins. The term thus was sometimes used to indicate virginity, though not always. After reviewing how the term is used in the Old Testament, John Watts concludes: “It is difficult to find a word in English that is capable of the same range of meaning. ‘Virgin’ is too narrow, while ‘young woman’ is too broad (Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 24: Isaiah 1–33 (rev. ed.), 136).

Translators therefore have to choose how to render it in particular cases. Watts points out (ibid.) that the translators of the Greek Septuagint rendered it parthenos (“virgin”), while other Greek translators used neanis (“young woman”).

We elsewhere discuss the fact that, on the primary, literal level, the Immanuel prophecy was fulfilled in the time of King Ahaz (732–716 B.C.) and that the child was, perhaps, his son Hezekiah (see Day 253). If so, the ’almāh in question would have been Hezekiah’s mother, Abijah (2 Chron. 29:1). Either way, some young woman known to Ahaz conceived the child.

This young woman may still have been a virgin at the time the prophecy was given, in which case the Greek translation parthenos would have applied to her in a precise way. Even if she was not a virgin, prophetic texts operate on more than one level, and this one had a greater fulfillment that occurred long after Ahaz’s time.

When that fulfillment occurred, God chose a woman—Mary— who was not only a virgin but who conceived while remaining a virgin (Matt. 1:18–25; Luke 1:26–35). Also, the child she bore was not simply called “Immanuel” (as Hezekiah may have been called early in life, as a second name; cf. 2 Sam. 12:24–25). Instead, the child was literally “God with us.”

In view of this, the first Christians looked back on Isaiah’s prophecy and naturally saw it fulfilled in Jesus. The connection would have been obvious from the Hebrew text alone, and the fact that, by divine providence, the Septuagint translators had used the term parthenos only underscored the point.

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