Isaiah 7:14 in Hebrew uses the word almah, which means a young woman of marriageable age, not the specific Hebrew word for virgin, bethulah.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Isaiah 7:14, Hebrew text
religion · Shared topic · Revision 0
Was the Virgin Birth a Mistranslation?
Was the Virgin Birth a Mistranslation?
The current answer
The Hebrew says young woman, the Greek says virgin, and the honest answer corrects both sides of the usual argument.
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Isaiah 7 is set during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis around 734 BCE, when King Ahaz of Judah is terrified because two neighboring kings, Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel, have allied against him.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Isaiah 7:1-16
Matthew 1:22-23 quotes Isaiah 7:14 in its Greek, parthenos form and presents the birth of Jesus to the virgin Mary as its fulfillment.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Matthew 1:22-23
Also bedrock, and usually left out by the skeptics: the "virgin" reading is not a Christian mistranslation but a pre-Christian Jewish rendering in the Septuagint, which Matthew then used.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Septuagint, Isaiah 7:14, bedrock
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