"The translators of the Greek Septuagint rendered ‘almâ as parthenos, which generally means “virgin,” instead of neanis, which generally means “young woman” (Danker, p. 667). Jerome, in his translation of the Bible into Latin, rendered parthenos as virgo, which usually means “virgin” (Dohmen, 10:160). It is interesting that the translators of the Septuagint took the thought of the Hebrew passage and translated it into a Greek word for “virgin.” Since they worked about two hundred years before Christ was born, then the translators of the Septuagint could not have been trying to “fit” scripture to a Christian viewpoint, but instead were merely giving the correct translation for the passage. Of the passage in Isaiah 7:14, H.D.M. Spence and Joseph Exell made the following observations:
The rendering “virgin” has the support of the best modern Hebraists, as Lowth, Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, Kay. It is observed with reason that unless ’almah is translated “virgin,” there is no announcement made worth of the grand prelude: “The Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold!” The Hebrew, however, has not “a virgin” but “the virgin” (and so the Septuagint, h parthenos), which points to some special virgin, preeminent above all others (1962, 10:128, emp. in orig., italicized Greek words transliterated from Greek characters in orig.).The point is well made that Isaiah was emphasizing a special birth, worthy of being considered a sign from God. With that in mind, the logical translation for ‘almâ is “virgin.”
Bingo! So we are to believe that the Holy Spirit was telling us: "Check THIS out!: a young women is going to have a son, now THAT'S a sign you can believe in!"/S.
Also, is it just me? or can we not also not logically believe that the Septuagint writers understood the nuance of a Hebrew word better than some modern scholars seeing that they were closer to the source?
"In Matthew 1:18-25, the apostle Matthew provided a divinely inspired commentary, citing Isaiah 7:14 as a prophecy fulfilled by the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us’ ” (Matthew 1:22-23, emp. added)."
Here we have it that some modern scholars seem to not believe in divine inspiration i.e., St. Matthew misunderstood Isaias. I think I'll take my Bible study from the Apostle.
"The translation “virgin,” therefore, deserves to be moved out of the margin [referring to the marginal translation of ‘almâ as “virgin” that the RSV gives] and into the text; and the translation “young woman” merits no more than marginal status (1988, 1:157)."
And have that young lady removed from the New American Bible too, please.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. - 1 Cor 2:14 (ESV)
30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, 33 and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"
Thank you for this, GonzoII. Makes me glad that my Bible is a Douay/Confraternity. ;) Well done, and interesting site.
Really really sad that people take so much time to disprove something they cannot. Their efforts are a window into their tormented souls, or they wouldn’t be doing it. The action itself presents evidence that the Holy Spirit has not given up on them. I will pray for them today at mass, just sad.
The rendering “virgin” has the support of the best modern Hebraists, as Lowth, Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, Kay
hardly
This is yet another reason why the Protestant deification of the Masoretic text is so dangerous; it's a post-Christian redaction, published by Jews who blamed the spread of Christianity for God destroying their temple, and their humiliation at the hands of the Romans.
Besides, how is a young woman becoming pregnant a sign of something so profoundly unique?
Lotta’ convolutions in arriving at the above. It demonstrates that “where there is a will there is a way.” “Maid” is a word that had a meaning comparable to ‘virgin’ but which has morphed with use to mean ‘domestic servant’.
“Faith” is a word that comes into play with respect to the Bible. If one has even a sliver of Faith or a hope to have Faith then one may, in his questioning, be visited by the Holy Spirit.
Faith absent the illumination of the Holy Spirit is just stupidity. God has not left us stranded on this ‘floating mote’ with no possible sense of His Being.
You know, if the man hadn’t healed the sick by touching them, if he hadn’t given sight to the blind by applying his saliva and mud, if he hadn’t walked on water, if he hadn’t come back after being brutally executed, if he hadn’t calmed storms with a word, if he hadn’t raised the dead, if many dead had not come out of their graves when he died on that cross, if there wasn’t eye-witness accounts for all the above, I’d say you might have a point.
A four-legged stool is very stable. Take away a leg and space the remaining ones evenly and the stool is still stable.
The three legs that support Christianity are 1. The Virgin birth (because it says that God, not Joseph, is Jesus’ father), 2. The crucifixion (because that solved the sin problem for every individual who wants it solved) and 3. the resurrection (proving He was God and prototyping every believer’s coming resurrection and qualifcation for eternal life).
These three are what is necessary for real Christianity, and they are proved by the fact that The Word Of God says they are so.
God’s enemies try to take His Word apart and remove key elements, because they are destructive to Satan’s kingdom.
makes sense, unless you know your anthropology.
A young woman refers to an unmarried girl of marriage age.
In Israel, like in today’s Muslim world,she was not allowed to be sexually active. If she became pregnant she’d be killed. Hence an “young girl” refers to a virgin.
The Greek women were less chaste, hence the ones who translated it used the Greek word for virgin. (the translators were Jewish Scholars in Alexandria, an Egyptian city with lots of easy going Greeks and Egyptian women living there).