Then God says that is a virgin who shall conceive. The Hebrew
word here is almah, and it has the definite article, making it “the
virgin.” The fact that the definite article is used means it must refer to a specific,
definite woman who is somehow known in one of two ways. Either she is woman
referred to in the immediate context or she is a woman generally already known.
In the immediate context, no woman has been mentioned. So the word almah
cannot refer to any woman of that time. Rather, according to the principle of
previous reference, it must refer to a woman or a concept already known by the
general population. Of course, that generally known concept would be Genesis
3:15, where it mentions the “seed of the woman.” When we refer to “the Madonna”
today, people in general know what we mean, because there is a general knowledge
to what the term refers. It is a reference to a specific woman. By the same
token, in the days of Isaiah, the “seed of the woman” was generally well known
by the Jewish population to refer to the woman of Genesis 3:15. That is why the
definite article is used in Isaiah 7:14.
The word almah should be distinguished from two other Hebrew
words. One is na’arah, which is usually translated as “damsel.” It could
refer to a virgin, as in 1 Kings 1:2, or to non-virgin, as in Ruth 2:6.
A second key word is bethulah, which usually means a virgin of
any age, but it does not always mean “virgin.” In a passage like Joel 1:8, for
example, it is used of a young widow, a young woman who had been married but
had lost her husband. Obviously she was not a virgin. Furthermore, since the
word bethulah does not clearly mean “a virgin,” it sometimes receives an
explanatory statement. For example, Genesis 24:16 refers to a girl as bethulah,
but then an explanation is added that she was a virgin [bethulah], neither
had any man known her. The same phenomenon is found in Judges 21:12a, where
it says, And they found among the inhabitants of Joseph-gilead four hundred
young virgins [bethulahs], that had not known man by lying with him. It
should be noted that wherever bethulah does mean “virgin,” it could
refer to a virgin of any age.
The reason why Isaiah does not use na’arah or bethulah to
describe the woman in verse 14 of chapter 7 is because he wants to specify that
this message is clearly speaking of a virgin and specifically a young virgin. Almah
is the only Hebrew word that fits the bill. It means “virgin,” but not a virgin
of any age. It means specifically a young virgin of marriageable age.
The word almah is used in six other passages in the Old
Testament:
·
Genesis 24:43
·
Exodus 2:8
·
Psalm 68:25
·
Proverbs 30:18-19
·
Song of Solomon 1:3; 6:8
In none of these passages is almah is used of a married woman.
Furthermore, in about 250 B.C., when Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew
Scriptures into the Greek (the Septuagint), they translated almah in
Isaiah 7:14 as parthenos, a Greek word which does clearly mean “virgin.”
So Jewish scholars who lived well before the time of Yeshua understood
the word almah to mean “virgin” and used the Greek equivalent, parthenos,
to emphasize it.
So what happens if this woman gives birth to a child? The very fact that
almah to an unmarried woman leaves us with only two options. Either the
child will be illegitimate or it will be born of a virgin. In light of the fact
that the Isaiah passage speaks of something God is going to do, it shows that
this could not be an illegitimate child, because that would create moral
problems concerning God. Therefore, it must refer to a virgin giving birth to a
child. Furthermore, a young woman giving birth to an illegitimate child would
not be a sign. To this day, illegitimate children are still being born.
However, if a virgin gave birth to a child, then it would be a true sign. (Arnold
G. Fruchtenbaum, Messiah Yeshua, Divine Redeemer: Christology from a
Messianic Jewish Perspective [San Antonio, Tex.: Ariel Ministries, 2015], 18-19)
