Two words in this passage need to be
considered: “sign” and “virgin.” The context of the verse is that king Ahaz was
terrified at the possibility of having his power usurped. Isaiah tells him that
God is surely on his side, and to prove it, Ahaz should ask of God a sign. But
not any old sign—it should be a miraculous one. Ahaz is reluctant to do this,
so God Himself speaks that wonderful prophecy through Isaiah.
Now among the several meanings of the
word “sign” (ôwth in Hebrew) is “miracle,” which perhaps should be used
by all translators when considering the very nature of the birth being prophesied.
Even Rashi, the most respected biblical and Talmudic commentator not only of
the Middle Ages but even of today, says that the Hebrew word ôwth, in
this passage, indicates a miracle and that no ordinary birth could fit the description.
With this in mind, look now at the
word “virgin” which all modern Jewish translators render either “maiden” or “young
woman.” True, the Hebrew word here is alma, “maiden,” and one cannot
help but wonder why Isaiah did not instead use besulah which in Hebrew
denotes a virgin. However, the prophet avoided using besulah because it
had also come to mean “a young married woman”:
Lamen like a virgin [besulah]
girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth (Joel 1:8).
Considering that this had to be a
miraculous birth, Isaiah chose the word that best conveyed such an idea, alma,
“maiden,” not besulah, “young married woman.” After all, a married woman
or an immoral woman who gives birth certainly could not logically be called a “maiden.”
Even the “Septuagint” translation of this passage (150 years before the birth
of Jesus) rendered it, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive. . . .”
Again, in an effort to put as much
distance as possible between Jewish tradition and the virgin birth of Jesus
Christ, Jewish translators have almost always rendered “virgin” as “maiden” or “young
woman.” Certainly this is far from what the prophet Isaiah had in mind, yet it
is one more example of how traditional bias can pervert integrity in
translation.
Even Henrich Gesenius, grammarian and
pioneer in the study of biblical Hebrew (a study incidentally free from
theological considerations), said that besulah could be translated as “a
virgin just married” or as “a young married woman.” It seems quite evident,
therefore, that Isaiah faithfully conveyed what God wanted him to convey, that
indeed a virgin would one day give birth to Immanuel—God in our midst. (Marshall
D. Isaacson, Children of the Covenant: What Christians Should Know About
Jesus [Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers and Distributors, Incorporated,
1998], 102-3)
