Does Isaiah 7:14 really Implicate virgin?
Lets Examine the evidence. Here is Isaiah 7:14 coming directly from the JPS 1999 Hebrew/English version of the Tanakh:
Is 7:14(JPS): Assuredly , my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let her name him Immanu El.
Here it is from the KJV:
Is 7:14(KJV): Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
What is strange is that the two dont translate exactly the same. From the Jewish translation above we have "young woman." When we read the KJV translation it reads as "virgin." why are they different?
The christian missionary will say that the word "almah" which means young woman is equal to virgin the way the Septuagint renders the word as "Parthenos." They will claim that Parthenos means "virgin" in greek and it is rendered as such according to the Septuagint. This passage is also found in the New Testament in Matthew 1:23. "behold a virgin shall conceive" a direct quote from here...
As a Jew, I must contend that the renderings the Missionary gave me are very much incorrect. The Hebrew language is very explicit at this point that the rendering is not a hint to a woman's virginity. The reference here had it said the Hebrew word for Virgin "Betulah" it would have read Virgin and all would have been gravy, but that is simply not the case. There are several instances in the Tanakh where Isaiah uses the word for virgin: in Isaiah 23, 37,47,62. all of those chapters used the word "betulah" for virgin and show that Isaiah knew the Hebrew word for virgin. So it is safe to conclude that the prophet knew the word for virgin and did not use it here.
There Have been instances where the prospective missionary will point to a verse where the usage of betulah is tricky lets look at such a verse:
Joel 1:8 Lament Like a virgin girded with sackloth for the husband of her youth.
This verse is used many times to say the word betulah does not mean a virgin in the sense of a sexually untouched girl. If you read it closely look at the Hebrew it will read "K'Betulah" which would make the rendering "Like a virgin." The implication here is not that the person is a virgin but for the person to do something like a virgin does. If you read the verses before you will see it is talking about the Elders of Zion.
Another thing I would like to discuss with you is the word "Parthenos." In my run-in's with his word I have come to think that this Greek word has in fact two meanings. If you take a look at Genesis 34:3 in the Septuagint they use the word Parthenos to indicate a woman who is not a virgin. They call Dinah, who has been raped and defiled by Shechem, a "Virgin." Can this be true???? The Hebrew uses the term Na'arah which has the connotative meanings of little girl or girl. Why would the writers of the septuagint render Na'arah as Parthenos? There is only one answer to this question. The word has two meanings. The Greek word Parthenos according to the native greek language speakers has the connotative meanings of both Virgin and Young Woman in the Greek language.
So with the evidence above we can see that Almah does not mean virgin but simply a young woman. That Betulah does mean virgin in the Hebrew Language and is the sole word implicating Virgin in the Hebrew Language and that Parthenos has two meanings in Greek that of a virgin and young woman.
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