Question:
A guy at work told me that in the original Hebrew the word Alma which we have translated into virgin, does not truly mean virgin but rather young girl. Since I do not read, speak, or write Hebrew I am hoping you can help me out with this one!
Answer:
It's interesting that he should bring that one up. There are different ways that Isaiah 7:14 (the verse in question) is translated in English Bibles. In the NKJV, it is like this:
Isa 7:14: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,
But like this in the RSV, it is translated like this:
Isa 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman'u-el.
So your friend has gotten hold of a partial truth. The truth is that the word almah is not the technical equivalent of virgin because they did not have such a word in Hebrew when Isaiah was written. However, the word that is used is one that would always refer to a woman who was unmarried, yet of marriageable age, and so either a virgin or an immoral woman (and it is never used of an immoral woman). In their culture at that time, virginity was the norm—if a woman in Israel was unmarried, she was thought to be a virgin. A lot of people in our corrupt society can't believe that such women could exist in any culture, but they did. Not that they were not sinners too. They very much were, but there was a huge social stigma attached to fornication, and there were people who were truly Godly in Israel just as there are in the church today.
Isaiah introduces the statement with the word "behold." This is significant because he always uses this word to introduce some special work of God. That means that we should not be expecting something ordinary here. He also declares that this almah-conceiving-a-child is a sign. It would hardly be a sign for a married woman or an immoral woman to conceive a child. Such would not warrant the word behold or the calling of the event a sign.
But there are many people who hold to anti-supernaturalism. They do not believe that God works miracles. The translators of the RSV were largely or such a persuasion and there is not doubt that this influenced the way they translated Isaiah 7:14 . After Jesus came and the gospel began to spread, some of the Jewish interpreters also took hold of the argument that almah did not refer to a virgin birth. But there is a huge difficulty that they run into in trying to uphold this argument. The in Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word almah is translated by the Greek word parthenos which means virgin and is unambiguous. Now this might not seem like such a big deal until you realise that the Septuagint was completed over 130 years before Christ came. It is a pre-Christian, Jewish translation of the OT. And when the 70 Jewish scholars who did this translation saw the Hebrew word almah in Isaiah 7:14, they translated it with the Greek word that means virgin and is the very same word (parthenos) that was later used by the evangelists in Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:27 where there is no doubt that it means virgin. This is clearly not a matter of Christians trying to force the OT to say something. Matthew and Luke were simply translating the verse the same way it had been translated by the Jews up until that time. We have the clear testimony from the very Bible (the Septuagint) that was used all over the Hellenistic world of Judaism at the time of Jesus' birth that the word, according to the 70 Jewish scholars who did the translation, means virgin in Isaiah 7:14.
Of course there is more proof of this as well in that even the promise in Genesis 3 was that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. For this reason, ancient cultures often had stories of virgin's bringing forth sons who would be deliverers of various sorts. The real deliverance came through Jesus Christ.
I will add a few quotes and references from various scholars who are experts in Hebrew:
GROGAN> Almah is used consistently to refer to a sexual mature but unmarried woman.
EDWARD YOUNG: ‘almah is never used to refer to a married woman. ‘Almah seems to be the only word in the Hebrew language that unequivocally signifies an unmarried woman. The only way an ‘almah could bear a child would be illegitimately. But the whole context, indeed the whole Biblical context, rules this out. We have the fulfilment of the prophecy to show us the way, plus, what kind of sign would it be for an immoral woman to have an illegitimate child?
VISCHER mentions Luther’s offer to give a hundred Gulden to anyone who could show that ‘almah ever referred to a married woman. In characteristic fashion, Luther added that the Lord alone knew where he would get them. Says Vischer: ‘So far no on has collected the hundred gulden..’”
Also consider the following use of almah in Genesis 24:43.
Gen 24:43 ‘behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin (almah) comes out to draw water, and I say to her, "Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,"
This is especially useful because here the word almah is used while back in v. 16 beth-oo-law’ is the word translated virgin which sometimes means virgin, (but not always…it is used of young woman of marriageable age who is sometimes married or who is not a virgin). Here, instead of standing alone (as almah does in v. 43), beth-oo-law’ is explained with the words no man had known her" to indicate that she is a virgin. There are examples where beth-oo-law’ is used of a married woman or a prostitute, but almah is never used this way. What is the point then? That in Isaiah 7:14, almah was the word chosen rather than beth-oo-law because it is the best choice in the Hebrew language to refer to a virgin. The context makes it clear that it is talking about a virgin because it is a sign and because the event is introduced by the word behold. Of course beyond all that, the NT makes it absolutely clear that virgin was meant—however, we say all this for those who are looking for a way to deny this. The Jews who try to deny this have to reject their own scholarship prior to Christ's coming.
Hope that helps.
- John R Shearouse
A guy at work told me that in the original Hebrew the word Alma which we have translated into virgin, does not truly mean virgin but rather young girl. Since I do not read, speak, or write Hebrew I am hoping you can help me out with this one!
Answer:
It's interesting that he should bring that one up. There are different ways that Isaiah 7:14 (the verse in question) is translated in English Bibles. In the NKJV, it is like this:
Isa 7:14: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,
But like this in the RSV, it is translated like this:
Isa 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman'u-el.
So your friend has gotten hold of a partial truth. The truth is that the word almah is not the technical equivalent of virgin because they did not have such a word in Hebrew when Isaiah was written. However, the word that is used is one that would always refer to a woman who was unmarried, yet of marriageable age, and so either a virgin or an immoral woman (and it is never used of an immoral woman). In their culture at that time, virginity was the norm—if a woman in Israel was unmarried, she was thought to be a virgin. A lot of people in our corrupt society can't believe that such women could exist in any culture, but they did. Not that they were not sinners too. They very much were, but there was a huge social stigma attached to fornication, and there were people who were truly Godly in Israel just as there are in the church today.
Isaiah introduces the statement with the word "behold." This is significant because he always uses this word to introduce some special work of God. That means that we should not be expecting something ordinary here. He also declares that this almah-conceiving-a-child is a sign. It would hardly be a sign for a married woman or an immoral woman to conceive a child. Such would not warrant the word behold or the calling of the event a sign.
But there are many people who hold to anti-supernaturalism. They do not believe that God works miracles. The translators of the RSV were largely or such a persuasion and there is not doubt that this influenced the way they translated Isaiah 7:14 . After Jesus came and the gospel began to spread, some of the Jewish interpreters also took hold of the argument that almah did not refer to a virgin birth. But there is a huge difficulty that they run into in trying to uphold this argument. The in Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word almah is translated by the Greek word parthenos which means virgin and is unambiguous. Now this might not seem like such a big deal until you realise that the Septuagint was completed over 130 years before Christ came. It is a pre-Christian, Jewish translation of the OT. And when the 70 Jewish scholars who did this translation saw the Hebrew word almah in Isaiah 7:14, they translated it with the Greek word that means virgin and is the very same word (parthenos) that was later used by the evangelists in Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:27 where there is no doubt that it means virgin. This is clearly not a matter of Christians trying to force the OT to say something. Matthew and Luke were simply translating the verse the same way it had been translated by the Jews up until that time. We have the clear testimony from the very Bible (the Septuagint) that was used all over the Hellenistic world of Judaism at the time of Jesus' birth that the word, according to the 70 Jewish scholars who did the translation, means virgin in Isaiah 7:14.
Of course there is more proof of this as well in that even the promise in Genesis 3 was that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. For this reason, ancient cultures often had stories of virgin's bringing forth sons who would be deliverers of various sorts. The real deliverance came through Jesus Christ.
I will add a few quotes and references from various scholars who are experts in Hebrew:
GROGAN> Almah is used consistently to refer to a sexual mature but unmarried woman.
EDWARD YOUNG: ‘almah is never used to refer to a married woman. ‘Almah seems to be the only word in the Hebrew language that unequivocally signifies an unmarried woman. The only way an ‘almah could bear a child would be illegitimately. But the whole context, indeed the whole Biblical context, rules this out. We have the fulfilment of the prophecy to show us the way, plus, what kind of sign would it be for an immoral woman to have an illegitimate child?
VISCHER mentions Luther’s offer to give a hundred Gulden to anyone who could show that ‘almah ever referred to a married woman. In characteristic fashion, Luther added that the Lord alone knew where he would get them. Says Vischer: ‘So far no on has collected the hundred gulden..’”
Also consider the following use of almah in Genesis 24:43.
Gen 24:43 ‘behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin (almah) comes out to draw water, and I say to her, "Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,"
This is especially useful because here the word almah is used while back in v. 16 beth-oo-law’ is the word translated virgin which sometimes means virgin, (but not always…it is used of young woman of marriageable age who is sometimes married or who is not a virgin). Here, instead of standing alone (as almah does in v. 43), beth-oo-law’ is explained with the words no man had known her" to indicate that she is a virgin. There are examples where beth-oo-law’ is used of a married woman or a prostitute, but almah is never used this way. What is the point then? That in Isaiah 7:14, almah was the word chosen rather than beth-oo-law because it is the best choice in the Hebrew language to refer to a virgin. The context makes it clear that it is talking about a virgin because it is a sign and because the event is introduced by the word behold. Of course beyond all that, the NT makes it absolutely clear that virgin was meant—however, we say all this for those who are looking for a way to deny this. The Jews who try to deny this have to reject their own scholarship prior to Christ's coming.
Hope that helps.
- John R Shearouse
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