The
Virgin Birth of Jesus
Matthew
1:23
Behold a
virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which interpreted is, “God with us.”
Question: When compared with Isaiah 7:14,
from which Matthew is quoting, does this lead to the conclusion that Jesus was
born miraculously of the virgin Mary?
Answer: Yes, both Scripture and Tradition
indicate that, despite any alleged ambiguities in the wording of Isaiah 7:14,
Jesus was indeed born miraculously of a virgin, namely, the Blessed Virgin
Mary. The word “virgin” in Mt 1:23 is the Greek παρθενος (parthenos). It is
used 14 times in the NT (e.g., Lk 1:27; Ac 21:9; 2Co 11:2; Ap 14:4). When
explained in Scripture, as it is in 1Co 7:28-37, it refers to an unmarried
woman who has had no sexual relations with men. Thus from the New Testament
understanding of “virgin,” it is clear that Mary was a virgin when she
conceived and gave birth to Jesus.
Matthew
uses parthenos to interpret the Hebrew word עלם (almah) appearing in Isaiah
7:14. Some Hebrew exegetes claim that almah refers only to a girl or young
woman, not specifically to a “virgin,” and therefore Jesus was neither born of
a virgin nor was the Messiah. Support for this conclusion is made by claiming
that Isaiah would have used the word בתולה (bethulah), a more specific Hebrew
term for “virgin,” if he had meant that the prophesied woman would not have
engaged in sexual relations.
However,
the word almah appears only seven times in the Hebrew Old Testament (cf., Gn
24:43; Ex 2:8; Ps 68:25; Pr 30:19; Sg 1:3; 6:8; Is 7:14), thus the evidence
upon which to base such conclusions is rather limited. None of the above
passages suggest that almah refers to a woman who is married or has had sexual
relations. Conversely, there are explicit indications that almah refers to an
unmarried woman who has had no sexual relations. First, in Gn 24:43, almah is
used to refer to Rebecca before she is married to Isaac. Yet in the same
context (Gn 24:16), Rebecca is referred to as bethulah (“An exceeding beautiful
maid, a virgin, and not known to man...”). This interchange of terms means that
almah could certainly be interchanged with bethulah, and was understood to
designate a virgin. In addition, Rebecca is called a “maid” in the same passage
(Gn 24:16), from the Hebrew נערה (naarah) which, similar to
almah,
refers in Hebrew to a young woman, but also a virgin (see naarah in Dt 22:15-29
in which the husband suspects his wife was not a virgin when they married).
Identical to the interchange of almah and bethulah contained in Gn 24:16, 43,
again in Dt 22:23, 28; Jg 21:12; 1Kg 1:2; Es 2:3 naarah and bethulah are
interchanged. Added to these is the use of bethulah in Ex 22:16, which, in a
similar context to that of Dt 22, also refers to virginity before marriage.
The usage
of almah in Pr 30:19 also refers to a virgin. In this passage, “the way of a
man with a maid (almah),” who is assumed to be a virgin since she is unmarried,
is contrasted in the next verse, Pr 30:20, with an “adulterous woman (isha)”
who is understood as married but having sexual relations with other men.
The usage
of almah in Sg 1:3 leads to the same conclusion, since in the context the
maidens are attracted to the loving man of Solomon’s Song, implying they are
refraining from sexual relations with him so that the loving man can be
intimate with his one and only lover.
The above
passages also show that almah refers to more than identifying a girl or young
woman. Almah has procreative overtones, referring in the main to a young woman
who has the potential of engaging in sexual relations but who has refrained for
one reason or another. This connotation, of course, would also fit the Blessed
Virgin Mary who, tradition holds, took a vow of celibacy.
The above
analysis is confirmed by the fact that the LXX translates the Hebrew almah with
the Greek parthenos (“virgin”) in both Gn 24:43 and Is 7:14, showing that the
Alexandrian Jews understood the latter term to be identical with the former.
Moreover, the LXX rendering includes the Greek article η in the phrase η
παρθενος (he parthenos) as does Matthew, following the article ה in the Hebrew
of Is 7:14 העלמה (ha-almah). Hence, the “sign” is not merely “a virgin,” that
is, she is not any young woman who shall conceive by normal means, but “the
virgin.” The stature engendered by the article coincides with the testimony of
the greatness of her offspring (cf., Mc 5:3; Is 8:8; 9:5-6; 11:1-10). (Robert
A. Sungenis, The Gospel According to St. Matthew: Exegetical Commentary
(2d ed.; State Line, Pa: Catholic Apologetics International Inc., 2019], 165-67)
