She was an ordinary woman and a virgin. The sign God talked about.
Whats so hard to believe about that?
BigMack
Whats so hard to believe about that?
BigMack
It's easy to believe that. It's also easy to believe differently.
This "Biblical Unitarian" thinks it makes no difference either way.
There are several unambiguous facts seen in the context of these verses.
First, Isaiah is talking to King Ahaz of Judah and tells HIM (Ahaz) that the sign of a birth will be for HIM. This fact alone makes application of Isaiah 7:14 to the birth of Yahshua impossible, since Ahaz was long dead by the time Yahshua was born; thus proving it is not a Messianic prophesy.
The ENTIRE context of these verses refer to the specific issue of the prophecy regarding what will happen to those that were plotting to destroy Judah, of which Ahaz was King. Even the term Immanuel, "god with us", was to assure Judah, as shown in Is. 8:8, that God would be "with them" during the time of trial that was to come when Syria and Israel strove against Judah and Assyria invaded. Only a few verses after Isaiah 7:14, in verse 8:3, we probably see the birth he was speaking of in Is. 7:14. It was a birth of a son to Isaiah and his young wife. Furthermore, even the term "virgin" would apply to the prophetess if the information shown earlier regarding the use of almah to mean "a young woman" (i.e., "sexually mature female of marriageable age, which may of may not be sexually active") is considered. I will comment more on this a little later.
Thus, the context is clear that the "virgin" (young woman) was probably Isaiah's wife, the "prophetess", mentioned in Is. 8:3. This is crystal clear when bias is removed and the Scripture is actually allowed to speak for itself. Some Judaic commentators believe it applies to Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, who proved to be one of Judah's greatest Kings; however, I feel the context more correctly points to Isaiah's son as the fulfillment. Either way, the newborn child being prophesied was for THAT PARTICULAR TIMEFRAME as a sign to Ahaz. The prophecy was NOT for the timeframe 700 years after Ahaz was dead (Yahshua was born about 700 years after this prophecy)!
Additionally, Isaiah 7:16 and 8:4 are almost identical, proving them to reference the same event, which was that while the newborn son of Isaiah was yet young, the prophecy would be accomplished, which was that God would eliminate the threat posed to Ahaz by the combined efforts of Ephraim and Damascus. This provides further evidence that the birth foretold as a sign TO AHAZ was fulfilled by the birth of Isaiah's newborn son with the prophetess (Isaiah's wife) as the mother.
The common sense context is clear. The ONLY way Isaiah 7:14 can be a Messianic verse referring to Yahshua the Messiah is to completely rip it free of the clear context in which it resides. The ONLY evidence that this is a Messianic prophecy is the evidence supplied by Constantinian Christian tradition and probable scribal manipulation of the Gospels.