Virgin Birth

Over 700 years before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the Jewish Prophet Isaiah said to the King Ahaz (of the southern kingdom of Israel, AKA Judah) and to the “house of David”:

  "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the  virgin  shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel [literally, God with us]” Isaiah 7:14

King Ahaz was to ask God for a sign from God for assurance that God would deliver Judah and Jerusalem which were under threat of attack by the Syrians and the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Ahaz was to ask for a sign of which Isaiah said, “ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”  In other words, something obviously miraculous.

Ahaz, feigning humility, refused to ask.  Therefore, God said what the sign would be, and this was addressed to the house of David:

 “Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son.”  His name will be “Immanuel,” literally “God is with us.”

The Gospel of Matthew tells us this was a prophecy of the conception and birth of Jesus by the virgin Mary:

“So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 

‘Behold, the  virgin  shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:22-23)

This sign and prophecy of a future virgin birth would seem irrelevant if not fulfilled until 700 years later.  And since the Hebrew word “almah” often translated “virgin” in Isaiah can mean “young woman,” it could be understood to mean only that.  And the sign and prophecy could be understood to have been fulfilled in Isaiah’s time by some woman known to them.

However, Matthew says Mary and Jesus fulfilled it.  Mary was a young woman, but more than that, she was a virgin when she gave birth—and that is how the prophecy was also a miraculous sign: “either in the depth or in the height above.”  

A young woman getting pregnant and having a child is not that miraculous, but a young woman who is and remains a virgin when she both conceives and gives birth to a child certainly is.  

The translators of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek (The Septuagint), which translation was initiated about 250 years before Christ, translated the Hebrew word "almah” with the Greek word “parthenos” which means “virgin.”  “Almah” appears only 7 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, and the Septuagint translators only translate it with “parthenos” in 2 places, Isaiah 7:14 and Genesis 24:43—where we read about the servant of Abraham being sent to find a bride for Isaac. 

The translators were probably being cautious by interpreting “almah” as a “virgin” in these 2 cases--but that they interpret and translate Isaiah 7:14 as “virgin” is telling.

A young woman can be a virgin just before she gets pregnant, but to get pregnant and give birth as a virgin is definitely miraculous.

Isaiah 7 must contain both a long range and a short range prophecy, the former is particularly to the house of David, and the latter to Ahaz the king.

The short range prophecy concerns giving assurance of the deliverance from the threat of Syria and Northern Israel.  The prophecy is directed to Ahaz who has his son with him: “Then the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller's Field,    "and say to him...” Isaiah 7.3-4

It is to Ahaz’s son that the short range prophecy is directed concerning deliverance from the threat:  “  "Curds and honey he shall eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.   "For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.” Isaiah 7:15-16

But the long range prophecy is made to the house of David in verses 13-14, which Matthew the Apostle says is fulfilled in Jesus.  This long range prophecy is the miraculous sign of the virgin birth, the birth of Immanuel, “God with us.”  

But what is the point of this sign, even if understood to be a long range prophecy to the House of David?  For one thing, the House of David will continue.   God will not only stop the immediate threat, but He will preserve them for hundreds of years until the virgin-born son comes.  Also, God will not only preserve them for this event, but through this one to be born, God is making provision for the salvation they more desperately need: “you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins”  Matthew 1.21.   “Jesus” fulfilled Isaiah’s long awaited sign.