Did Isaiah Prophesy the Virgin Birth of Christ?
The
typical Christian answer: The “church fathers” were of one mind.
Unless
you we're Arius, of course. Constantius II, who succeeded
Constantine, was an Arian sympathizer Following the abortive effort
by Julian the Apostate to restorepaganism in the
empire, the emperor Valens—himself an Arian—renewed the
persecution of Nicene hierarchs. Scroll Down for the facts.
BY WAYNE JACKSON
“Does Isaiah 7:14 contain a prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? Some suggest that Isaiah’s statement refers to a ‘young woman’ (not necessarily a ‘virgin’) of his day, who would conceive and give birth to a child, and that this event would be a sign to Hezekiah. It is then further said that Matthew took that text and applied it to Jesus’ birth, though, allegedly, this was not the meaning of the passage originally. How do we respond to this assertion?”
This theory contains so many flaws that it is difficult to know where to begin in refuting it. It can be traced ultimately back to the second century A.D., when it was employed by those who repudiated the concept of predictive prophecy that pointed to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.
It has been filtered down, revised and refined over the years, so that some Christians now “parrot” the theory — though they haven’t a clue that the “young woman” notion was birthed from the womb of skepticism.
As briefly as we can, we note the following points.
The background of the prophecy
When the kingdom of Judah was threatened by a confederation of enemies from the north, King Ahaz was terrified. God sent the prophet Isaiah to calm the king. The prophet declared that the evil forces would not prevail. Ahaz was encouraged to “ask for a sign” documenting this word of consolation, but the stubborn king refused.
Isaiah then directed his attention to the “house of David.” He promised a much greater “sign,” namely “the virgin” would conceive and bear a son, whose name, Immanuel, would signify “God is with us.” The time-frame that it would take for the Immanuel-child to reach the age of accountability was used as a chronological measurement. Before that time-span would expire, Judah’s current threat would dissipate (which reality came to pass).
More importantly, however, was the fact that a much greater deliverance was needed in Israel, and such would be provided by the actual arrival of Immanuel — who is Jesus Christ.
A “Sign”
This prophesied event is designated as a “sign.” The term “sign” is a point of controversy. While the word itself does not demand a “miracle” on a strictly etymological basis, a word’s meaning is determined by more than etymology alone. General usage and context (both immediate and remote) must be factored in.
The immediate context does suggest a miracle. The king had been challenged to ask for a “sign,” either “in the depth, or in the height above” (11). This indicates something phenomenal. Ahaz refused the proffered “sign,” claiming that such would “tempt” Jehovah (again hinting of the supernatural).
Additionally, Matthew’s inspired interpretation of the passage clearly establishes the miraculous nature of the prediction (Mt. 1:22-23). There is no evidence at all that there was a miraculous birth to a virgin in the days of Isaiah.
A virgin
The Hebrew word rendered “virgin” is almah. It is the only biblical word that truly signifies a virgin. Prof. William Beck, who researched this matter with great precision, declared1:
I have searched exhaustively for instances in which almah might mean a non-virgin or a married woman. There is no passage where almah is not a virgin. Nowhere in the Bible or elsewhere does almah mean anything but a virgin."
Robert Dick Wilson, the incomparable Hebrew scholar who was proficient in forty-five biblically-related languages, declared that almah “never meant ‘young married woman,’” and that the presumption of common law is that every almah is virtuous, unless she can be proved not to be2.
Even the Jewish scholar, Cyrus H. Gordon, who made some of the archaeological discoveries at Ras Shamra, conceded3 that recent archaeological evidence confirms that almah means “virgin.”
The notion that almah merely signifies a “young woman” was first argued4 by the anti-Christian Jew, Trypho, in the mid-second century A.D.
“The virgin shall conceive”
Isaiah’s text plainly says “the virgin” (note the definite article, denoting a specific virgin) “shall conceive.” The passage does not speak of a virgin who would marry (thus surrendering her virginity) and then conceive. She conceives as a virgin. If this alluded to some contemporary of Isaiah, who was the mysterious lady? Were there two virgin births — one in Isaiah’s day, and another involving Jesus? There is no credibility to this view.
Additionally, the virgin’s child was to be called “Immanuel,” which signifies “God is with us.” If this name applied to a child in Isaiah’s day, who was this illusive youngster? He seems to have vanished as soon as he was born!
Matthew mistaken?
The suggestion made by some, that Matthew took Isaiah’s text and gave it an application alien to the original meaning, is unworthy of a correct view of Bible inspiration.
Preachers today who take a text, extract it from its context, and make it a mere pretext for points they wish to establish, are strongly chastised and their credibility is compromised. Yet men, under the sway of modernism, do not hesitate to so charge God’s inspired apostle in the case of the virgin birth. This is a shameful circumstance.
Historical evidence
The “church fathers” were of one mind that Jesus was born of a virgin, and Isaiah 7:14 was appealed to as an Old Testament prophetic proof-text.
For example, Irenaeus (A.D. 120-202) wrote5:
Wherefore also the Lord Himself gave us a sign, in the depth below, and in the height above, which man did not ask for, because he never expected that a virgin could conceive, or that it was possible that one remaining a virgin could bring forth a son, and that what was thus born should be “God with us”?
Early scholarship, “rational” incfluence
The earlier scholars of Christendom (e.g., Calvin, Lowth, Gill, Henry, Clarke, Alexander, Hengstenberg, etc.,) argued that Isaiah 7:14 was exclusively messianic in its import.
In the mid-nineteenth century, however, as the influence of German rationalism made its presence felt, both in Europe and in America, even writers who were generally considered “conservative” began to yield to the pressure. They thus suggested that perhaps Matthew only “applied” Isaiah’s text to the circumstances, when, in reality, there was a primary application to a “young woman” of the prophet’s own day.
Edward J. Young’s masterful, three-volume set on the book of Isaiah (Eerdmans, 1965) was driven by a desire to refute this compromising drift — to which even some in the Lord’s family have fallen victim.
There is no reason for the Lord’s people to resort to such textual manipulations in dealing with the biblical evidence for the birth of the Savior. [1]
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Dual Prophecy' and the Virgin Birth
Question:
One of the methods you used in your tape series to refute missionary claims is to point out the context of the prophecy. For example, you point out that the seventh chapter of Isaiah cannot be a prophecy about Jesus' virgin birth because it suggests that the prophecy was to have been fulfilled in Ahaz's lifetime, some 700 years before Jesus.
Still, maybe this is a "double prophecy," a prophecy about a boy to be born in the days of Ahaz and also a prophecy to the birth of Jesus. The context is only for the first application of this double prophecy. Rabbi, do you have any comments?
Answer:
When missionaries are confronted with the glaring problem that the context of Isaiah 7:14 is unrelated to the messiah or a virgin birth, they frequently argue that Isaiah 7:14 is a "dual prophecy."
In order to fully grasp the massive theological problem missionaries are seeking to escape with using this response, let's begin by exploring the traumatic circumstance that is unfolding in the seventh chapter of Isaiah. This event is completely inconsistent with Matthew's application of these passages to his virgin-birth story.
As mentioned earlier, the word "virgin"does not appear in the seventh chapter of Isaiah. The author of the first Gospel deliberately mistranslated the Hebrew word הָעַלְמָה (ha'almah) as "a virgin." This Hebrew word, however, does not mean "a virgin." It simple means "the young woman,"with no implication of sexual purity. Most modern Christian Bibles1 have corrected this erroneous translation, and their Bibles now correctly translate this Hebrew word as "the young woman."
Matthew, however, not only changed the meaning of the word הָעַלְמָה to apply this verse from the Jewish Scriptures to the virgin birth, he also completely ripped Isaiah 7:14 out of context and utilize it to support his infancy narrative of Jesus.
The seventh chapter of the Book of Isaiah begins by describing the Syro-Ephraimite War, a military crisis that threatened Ahaz, King of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
In about the year 732 B.C.E. the House of David was facing imminent destruction at the hands of In about the year 732 B.C.E. the House of David 732 B.C.E. the House of David was facing imminent destruction at the hands of two warring kingdoms: the northern Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Syria. These two armies had laid siege to Jerusalem. The Bible relates that the House of David and King Ahaz were gripped with fear. Accordingly, God sent the prophet Isaiah to reassure King Ahaz that divine protection was at hand – the Almighty would protect him, the deliverance of his citizens was assured, and the formidable armies of Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel would fail in their attempt to subjugate Jerusalem. In Isaiah 7:1-16 we read,
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, marched on Jerusalem to wage war against it, and he could not wage war against it. It was told to the House of David, saying, "Aram has allied itself with Ephraim," and his heart and the heart of his people trembled as the trees of the forest tremble because of the wind. The Lord said to Isaiah, "Now go out toward Ahaz, you and Shear-Yashuv your son to the edge of the conduit of the upper pool, to the road of the washer's field, and you shall say to him, ‘Feel secure and calm yourself, do not fear, and let your heart not be faint because of these two smoking stubs of firebrands, because of the raging anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Since Aram planned harm to you, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying: "Let us go up against Judah and provoke it, and annex it to us; and let us crown a king in its midst, one who is good for us." So said the Lord God, "Neither shall it succeed, nor shall it come to pass...."' The Lord continued to speak to Ahaz, saying, "Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord, your God; ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above." Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not test the Lord." Then he said, "Listen now, O House of David, is it little for you to weary men, that you weary my God as well? Therefore the Lord, of His own, shall give you a sign: Behold the young woman is with child, and she shall bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel. Cream and honey he shall eat when he knows to reject bad and choose good; for, when the lad does not yet know to reject bad and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread, shall be abandoned."
It is clear from this chapter that Isaiah's declaration was a prophecy of the unsuccessful siege of Jerusalem by the two hostile armies of the Kingdoms of Israel and Syria, not a virgin birth more than seven centuries later.
If we interpret this chapter as referring to Jesus' birth, what possible comfort and assurance would Ahaz, who was surrounded by to overwhelming military enemies, have found in the birth of a child seven centuries later? Both he and his people would have been long dead and buried. Such a sign would make no sense.
Verses 15-16 state that by the time this child reaches the age of maturity ("he knows to reject bad and choose good"), the two warring kings, Pekah and Rezin, will have been removed. In II Kings 15-16, it becomes clear that this prophecy was fulfilled contemporaneously, when both kings, Pekah and Retsin, were assassinated. It is clear from the context of Isaiah's seventh chapter that the child born in Isaiah 7:14 is not Jesus or any future virgin birth. Rather, it is referring to the divine protection that King Ahaz and his people would enjoy during the Syro-Ephraimite War.
This is where the Christian response of a dual prophecy comes in. Missionaries attempt to explain away this stunning problem of Matthew's complete indifference to the biblical context of Isaiah 7:14 by claiming that Isaiah's words to Ahaz had two different applications. They concede that the first application of Isaiah's prophecy must have been addressed to Ahaz and his immediate crisis. That child that was born contemporaneously, and the first leg of this dual prophesy was fulfilled at the time of Ahaz, 2,700 years ago.
Missionaries insist, remarkably, that the second leg of this dual prophecy applied to Jesus' virgin birth 2,000 years ago. Using this elaborate explanation, Christian apologists maintain that Matthew's use of Isaiah 7:14 is entirely appropriate. In short, these Christians claim that Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled twice: The first, in 732 B.C.E., and a second time in the year 1 C.E. Problem solved?
The self-inflicted problems spawned by this adventurous dual-fulfillment explanation are staggering. The notion of a dual prophecy was fashioned without any Biblical foundation. Nowhere in the seventh chapter of Isaiah does the text indicate or even hint of a second fulfillment.2
This notion of a dual prophecy was contrived in order to conceal a stunning theological problem - the seventh chapter of Isaiah does not support Matthew's virgin birth story. Matthew's claim that Mary was untouched by a man when she conceived Jesus in unsupported by the Book of Isaiah.
The seventh chapter of Isaiah describes, in great detail, a contemporaneous, traumatic civil war which occurred 2,700 years ago, not the birth of a messiah many centuries later. Simply put, the Book of Matthew ripped Isaiah 7:14 completely out of context. Moreover, if, as missionaries argue, the Hebrew word almah can only mean a "virgin," and, as they insist, Isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled twice, who was the first virgin to conceive during Ahaz's lifetime? Were there two virgin births?
In other words, if Christians claim that the virgin birth of Isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled on two occasions, who was the first virgin to deliver a baby boy during the lifetime of Isaiah, in about 732 B.C.E.? Bear in mind that these missionaries zealously insist that the word almah can only mean a "virgin." Are they then suggesting that Mary was not the only virgin in history to conceive and give birth to a son?
Furthermore, if missionaries argue that the seventh chapter of Isaiah contains a dual prophecy, how do the verses that follow, Isaiah 7:15-16, apply to Jesus where the prophet continues to discuss this lad? The following passages state,
Cream and honey he shall eat when he knows to reject bad and choose good; ood; 16for, when the lad does not yet know to reject bad and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread, shall be abandoned.
(Isaiah 7:15-16)
If the seventh chapter of Isaiah contains a dual prophecy, at what age did the baby Jesus mature? Which were the two kingdoms identified by the prophet Isaiah that were abandoned during Jesus' lifetime? Who, during the first century C.E., "dreaded" the Kingdom of Israel when there had not been a Northern Kingdom of Israel in existence for 700 years? When did Jesus eat cream and honey? Does this biblical somersault make any sense? This argument is devoid of reason because this wild assertion of a dual prophecy was born out of a hopeless attempt to explain away Matthew's transparent mistranslation of the Jewish Scriptures.
Very truly yours,
Rabbi Tovia Singer
Footnotes:
1.Numerous Christian translators do not support Matthew’s misquote of Isaiah 7:14 and correctly translate almah as "young woman" in Isaiah 7:14. These Christian translators include:
Revised Standard Version
New English Bible
Revised English Bible
New Revised Standard Version
The Message of the Bible
The Layman's Bible Commentary
The Bible: A New Translation
The Bible: An American Translation
The New Jerusalem Bible (Catholic)
International Critical Commentary
Good News Bible
World Biblical Commentary
The Bible in Basic English
2.I once heard a missionary try to explain away the problem of the unbiblical nature of a dual prophecy by claiming that in the seventh chapter of Isaiah, the prophet addressed himself to King Ahaz in both the singular "you" and the plural "you." (Although in the English language no such distinction exists, in the Hebrew language "you" can be expressed in both the singular and the plural.)
He went on to explain that at times the prophet addressed Ahaz alone, and in other places in this chapter, the prophet addressed the House of David, employing a plural pronoun. He concluded, therefore, that whenever the prophet addressed the House of David or spoke in the plural"you," he was addressing the future virgin birth of Jesus seven centuries later. On the other hand, whenever the prophet addressed Ahaz or spoke in the singular "you," he was addressing the immediate crisis regarding Ahaz and the two kingdoms who were poised to defeat him. In Isaiah 7:14, he argued, the Hebrew word "la’chem" is a plural "you" and it therefore was addressing the future virgin birth of Jesus which was associated with the House of David, not Ahaz and his immediate military crisis.
I replied to him that this chapter quite clearly declares that it was both the House of David and Ahaz who were threatened by the immediate crisis, not just Ahaz alone. Every reference to the House of David and plural "you" which was addressed to the entire Davidic House referred only to the military crisis described in this chapter.
In fact, in the second verse in this chapter, Isaiah relates that both Ahaz and the House of David were informed of the immediate crisis of the two warring kingdoms. This verse, therefore, goes on to say, that both his heart (Ahaz — singular) and the heart of the people (the House of David — plural) trembled with fear. It was not Ahaz alone who was terrified of these two hostile armies, but the entire House of David as well.
The reason that the prophet saw fit to repeatedly address Ahaz as the House of David and in the plural "you" throughout this chapter was because Ahaz was a wicked king. As such, Ahaz did not merit God’s merciful intervention. Nevertheless, the Almighty did save Ahaz in the merit of the covenant that He forged with King David (II Samuel 7:12-16). The reason these two kingdoms laid siege to Jerusalem was to undermine the throne of David (Isaiah 7:6). As mentioned above, the Almighty promised King David that the House of David — his dynasty — would be preserved regardless of the worthiness of the king. God rescued King Ahaz in the merit of the House of David – the Davidic Covenant – not as a result of Ahaz’s own piety. Accordingly, the prophet delivers this profound message by addressing King Ahaz both as the House of David and in the plural "you." [2]
[1] https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/461-did-isaiah-prophesy-the-virgin-birth-of-christ
[2] http://www.outreachjudaism.org/articles/dual-virgin.html
