There is much to-do being made of the new edition of the Catholic New American Bible coming out on March 9th, even though the controversial aspect of “virgin” verses “young woman” or “maiden” in Isaiah 7:14 is not new. A number of bible translations no longer use “virgin” in that verse. Articles like Alexander Silver’s (TIME NewsFeed), along with the commentators there, imply that the Catholic Church is (besides other things) very belatedly catching up to modern times. As if modern mores should inform us what the ancients thought and meant. Aside from the Catholic Church’s new bible version and their reasons for the wording in it, the Christian interpretation for Isaiah’s word meaning can be defended; in fact, it is not exclusively Christian.
The controversy comes from the use of the rare word almah--which generally is taken to mean “young woman” or “maiden”-- in Isaiah 7:14, the prophecy of the coming messiah’s birth, instead of the generally accepted word for “virgin,” betulah, used elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures (even by Isaiah elsewhere). I write “generally” taken or accepted because these words do not have definite meanings. There is more to consider than word meanings, as well. The context of the original passage is very important too, along with other factors, many of which are presented in list form below.
· Almah (or alma) and betulah. Almah is used only ten times in the Hebrew scripture. Betulah is used frequently and means “virgin,” yet it often has to be qualified so that the reader knows what is actually meant. Passages like Joel 1:8 is an interesting study of the unclear use of betulah. Rabbi S.B. Yitzhaki wrote that almah means “virgin” in Song of Solomon 1:3 and that almah and betulah are synonymous. Also, the modern Encyclopedia Judaica states this concerning “virgin”: “The biblical betulah usually rendered ‘virgin,’ is in fact an ambiguous term which in nonlegal contexts may denote an age of life rather than a physical state” (HaDavar.org).
· The prophecy to Ahaz was for two different times; the prophecy, or more correctly prophecies, were “signs” (miracles). For the prophet Isaiah to tell Ahaz that a young woman would get pregnant and have a baby would have been “everyday,” not miraculous. That being said, there are different interpretations about how Ahaz would have taken this statement by Isaiah. It could have meant that Isaiah was referring to someone in the room (while it also had the future meaning), or it could have been purely a future prophecy stated before the remainder of the prophecy in verses 15-25, which did come true within Ahaz’s lifetime. No matter how Ahaz took the prophecies at the time, after a while it was clear that Isaiah 7:14 was also a future prophecy.
· The pre-Christian Jewish scriptures called the Septuagint used “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Tanakh (the Old Testament to Christians), made in the range of 250 BC to 100 BC. Obviously by that time, the messianic prophecy was considered to mean “virgin” and the translators were simply using the Greek word that meant that, parthenos. The authors of the New Testament were Jews and used the Septuagint in their references.
Sources and recommended reading: Hard Sayings of the Bible (Kaiser, Davids, Bruce and Brauch, 1996); Isaiah 7:14 – Virgin; Almah: Virgin or Young Maiden? Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=885830
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