You wrote:
“That doesn’t matter.”
Even you suggested it did: “Then why did 70 of the best Hebrew scholars translate it as “virgin” in the Septuagint?”
You are clearly implying that the two (Masoretic text and Septuagint) are not the same. If they are not the same text - and they are not - then they will be translated differently when translated accurately.
“The Jews who created the septugine were translating the Hebrew scriptures and THEY thought the word in question meant “virgin” as used in Isaiah 7:14, therefore when they tranaslated the word into Greek they chose the specific word for virgin.”
As already noted by me: “Most likely they believed that was a better translation according to traditional understandings that had developed since the text was originally inspired.”
The problem is that he word gives no indication of meaning “virgin” when it was first written. What people viewed to mean centuries later does not affect or effect the original text. Texts do not work backword into time. You do realize that, right?
“This becomes more signigicant when one realizes that in the second century both Origen and Tertullian warned that the Jews were changing the wording of their Hebrew scriptures to water down the prophecies of Christ.”
ANd yet there is no evidence Isaiah 7:14 was ever watered down by anyone.
No I'm not, you are missing the point. The whole issue is what Isaiah wrote down and meant. The best evidence of that is the Septugent because it shows us what the Jews closest in time to Isaiah understood him to have written and meant. Further, the Apostles quoted the word "virgin" here approvingly. ALL of the ancient evidence we have unerringly points to "virgin". The fact that contemporary academics have a contemporary interpretation of a 10th century text pales in comparison to what Jewish scholars of 200 BC understood Isaish to have written and meant. Further, the context of the passage that this would be a "sign" makes no sense if the word is "maiden" but complete sense if it means "virgin". And combined with the warnings of Tertullian and Origen this is powerful evidence that the words of the mesoretic text were intentionally corrupted.