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To: Alouette
Well, I don't speak Hebrew. Perhaps you're correct. For what it's worth, here's what my NIV Life Application Commentary says about the issue:

Isaiah 7:14-16

7:14-16 Virgin is translated from a Hebrew word used for an unmarried woman old enough to be married, one who is sexually mature (see Genesis 24:43; Exodus 2:8; Psalm 68:25; Proverbs 30:19; Song 1:3; Song 6:8). Some have compared this young woman to Isaiah’s young wife and newborn son (Isaiah 8:1-4). This is not likely because she had a child, Shear-Jashub, and her second child was not named Immanuel. Some believe that Isaiah’s first wife may have died, and so this is his second wife. It is more likely that this prophecy had a double fulfillment. (1) A young woman from the house of Ahaz who was not married would marry and have a son. Before three years passed (one year for pregnancy and two for the child to be old enough to talk), the two invading kings would be destroyed. (2) Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah 7:14 to show a further fulfillment of this prophecy in that a virgin named Mary conceived and bore a son, Immanuel, the Christ.

As you can see from the commentary, some Christians interpret the verse as a prophecy of Christ's birth.

Getting back to the original point, both Judism and Christianity claim extraordinary beliefs, which require faith. I understand Jews may have difficulty believing the Virgin Birth, just as those outside the Jewish or Christian faith find it hard to believe in the buring bush, the Passover, the Egyptian plagues, the parting of the red sea, or God's personal delivery of the Ten Commandments to Moses.

96 posted on 08/11/2003 12:43:34 PM PDT by keats5
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To: keats5
This is not likely because she had a child, Shear-Jashub, and her second child was not named Immanuel.

Jesus wasn't not named Immanuel either.

So who was Immanuel? Our rabbis say that it was Hezekiah, who became King after the death of Ahaz. (Chron. II 28:27)

There is nowhere in Tanakh the Hebrew Scriptures where the word almah is used to mean specifically virgin. If virgin is meant, the word bethulah is used.

We Jews have our own Hebrew and Aramaic commentaries that we rely on, and the verse from Isaiah 7:14 is by no means a convincing proof for virgin birth.

97 posted on 08/11/2003 1:44:19 PM PDT by Alouette (Every democratic politician should live next door to a pimp, so he can have someone to look up to.)
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