Expert: Sal - 3/22/2004

Question
But, if you look at the Hebrew word used in that prophesy, it is not the Hebrew word for virgin.  So the real translation of that verse would read that a woman would give birth to a child.  I figured that those who wrote the New Testament would know that because they probably spoke Hebrew.

However, even so, if it is as you say that The future fulfillment of a prophecy is always  greater than the historical or immediate fulfillment, How does the rest of the prophesy relate to Jesus?  

Thanks for answering my questions.  


-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Ok, I'm going to give a long introduction to my question which is my understanding of the prophesy in Chapter seven of Isaiah.

Rezin the King of syria or Aram I guess, and Pekah the king of Israel which at this time is the Northern Kingdom which is in Samaria and Ephraim, conspire together to conquer the Southern Kingdom which is Judah which is the House of David whose king is Ahaz.  They want to put their own king there.

God has a beef with the Kingdom of Israel because Pekah it's king is doing evil in the sight of the Lord.  And as for the Kingdom of Judah they are doing right in the sight of the Lord except that they allow incense to be burned on high mountains (I guess to other false Gods)

Now, Ahaz, king of Judah the house of David, is scared because Pekah and Rezin have conspired against his Kingdom even though God has told him that Ephraim (the Northern kingdom of Israel) shall be shattered in sixty five years.  Isaiah comes in and tells Ahaz to ask for a sign which Ahaz refuses saying he will not tempt God.

Now, here's the prophesy:

Isaiah says to the House of David Do you treat God as helpless?  He will give you a sign anyway.  The sign is that a young woman will give birth to a child and will call him Immanuel.  By the time he learns right from wrong people will be eating curds and honey.  And before he learns right from wrong the kings you dread will be abandoned.  The prophesy goes on to say something about the land becoming wilderness in those days.

Now, as I look at it, this prophesy came to tell the Ahaz king of Judah and the house of David that he's not going to be conquered by the other two kings.  The prophesy seems to last from the time the child is born until the land becomes wilderness.

Now in reading the scofield references, he says that it is childish to think tha this prophesy is just for Ahaz, but that it is an ongoing prophesy for the House of David because that's who he addresses.  But if you look at the context of the prophesy, it doesn't seem so.

So my question is, what is the reason that Christians believe that this prophesy in Isaiah 7:14 relates to Jesus.  
Answer -
Dear Sarah:

Christians see Isaiah 7:14 as a prophecy of the Virgin Birth of Jesus because this is what God, through the Holy Spirit, has revealed to us.

"All this happened to fulfill what the LORD has said through the prophet: 'The virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel,' a name which means God is with us " (Matthew 1:22-23).

The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 has a double meaning, that is one for the time that the prophecy was anounced and one for the future. The future fulfillment of a prophecy is always  greater than the historical or immediate fulfillment. For King Ahaz it meant that the kingdoms which he feared would be soon destroyed. Unfortunately, he did not trust God and entered into an unholy alliance with Assyria.

Hope that this helped.

Have a great day!
Sal

Answer
Dear Sarah:

The part of the prophecy that is quoted in Matthew 1:23 is that which is related to Jesus. At least the Holy Spirit feels that it is the part that should concern us. Various commentators have suggested ways that the rest of the prophecy might relate to Jesus. I do not see any necessity to relate each detail to the life of Jesus.

The fulfillment is indeed greater in Christ. In Isaiah's time a child was born of a young woman. The child would save his people physically from death. Jesus was God born of a virgin. He saved all people from spiritual death.

You appear to want some exact word for word prophecy to fit Jesus. This is not the way prophecy generally works. The Jews looked at prophecy in one of four ways.

1)   p'shat (simple)-the plain literal sense.
2)   Remez (hint)-an understanding based on a word or phrase hinting at a truth not fully revealed.
3)   Midrash (search)-the allegorical sense.
4)   Sod (secret)-the mystical or hidden meaning.

Matthew is using the remez sense of interpretation in 1:23. The virgin birth of the God-man is not p'shat but remez, i.e. hinted at. Matthew brings this full meaning out of Isaiah 7:14. He accomplished this in light of the facts that were before him. He knew that Jesus Christ was God, and that he had been born of a virgin.

St. Matthew used the word “virgin” (Greek:Parthenos) because that is what the common Bible of the time, the Septuagint, read. This Bible was a Greek translation of the original Hebrew texts. This was done because the common people did not read Hebrew, but would easily read Greek. The greatest Jewish scholars of the time participated in the translating of the Scriptures. These scholars translated the Hebrew “almah” into the Greek “parthenos”-virgin. They knew best what the meaning of almah was at the time of the translation (about 250 B.C.). In translating one language into another the basic rule is that the context determines the meaning.

Since God had just given the offer, “Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God, let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!” (7:11), could the sign that God chose be anything less than what was just offered? Is the best God could do is to bless the Isaiah's with another baby? A virgin giving birth to God would certainly qualify as a miraculous sign to God's people. Of course, I do not mean to imply that the Jews believe that their Messiah would be born of a virgin. This would not be fully understood until the coming of Christ (see Hebrews 1:1-2) and the coming of the Holy Spirit (see John 16:13). The word almah denotes a young woman who is not married. It is helpful to know that in Jewish society a young, unmarried woman was presumed to be a virgin unless proven otherwise. Never is almah used to refer to a married woman. These facts and the scholarly translation of the Septuagint shows that almah refers to a young virgin most likely in her early teens.

Let's now look at some uses of almah in the Bible. In Genesis 24 Rebekah is called an almah (see vs. 43) which in context means she was a virgin (see vs. 16). In Exodus 2 Moses' sister, Miriam, is called almah, but in context she is a virgin. In the Song of Songs we read that in the kings household , “There are 60 queens, 80 concubines, and almah without number” (6:8). Although the queens and concubines were likely young women the word almah is reserved for the unmarried virgins of the king's household. So we see that almah does not simply mean any youn woman. Almah had the force of a young, unmarried virgin.

Now let's look at the uses of betulah, which is the technical term for “virgin”, in the Bible. Rebekah is called a betulah is Genesis 24:16. “The girl was very beautiful, a betulah...” If betulah always meant a technical virgin then that would be all that was necessary to say. However, the verse continues, “…untouched by man.” This qualification would be unnecessary if betulah always meant virgin. In Judges we read that 400 betulahs were found in a city (see 21:12). The verse contines on to describe the betulahs as having “had no relations with men.” Again, if betulah always meant virgin, why the qualification? In Joel we read, “Mourn like a virgin (betulah) in sackcloth, grieving for the husband  (baal) of her youth” (1:8). Here the “virgin” is a married woman. There is no reason supplied by the text to believe that she did not have relations with her husband. I included the word here used for husband because some try to say that she was no yet married to the man, but was in a betrothed state, and, therefore, a virgin. The term “baal” always means a married man never a betrothed man. Finally, betulah is used to describe the pagan nations in spiritual fornication (see Isaiah 23:12; 47:1; Jeremiah 46:11), Israel/Jerusalem (see Isaiah 37:22; Jeremiah 14:17; Lamentations 2:13; Amos 5:2), and Judah (see Lamentations 1:15) in spiritual adultery. So we see the betulah is far from meaning a technical virgin and always just a virgin.       

I hope that i was able to clear up the Young woman/Virgin controversy for you.

God Bless You,
Sal