This passage has been debated for eons.
There are a number of difficulties with this passage. As many have noted, the Hebrew word translated as "virgin" in this verse is "almah," which is more accurately translated simply as "young woman." The Hebrew word "bethulah" means "virgin." In the book of Isaiah, "bethulah" appears four times (23:12, 37:22, 47:1, 62:5), so its author was aware of the word. In the New American Standard translation of the Bible, all other appearances of "almah" are translated simply as "girl," "maid," or "maiden" (viz: Genesis 24:43, Exodus 2:8, Psalms 68:25, Proverbs 30:19, Song of Solomon 1:3, 6:8). Thus the claimed fulfillment adds a biologically impossible condition which is not even present in the original prophecy.[2]
Here we get into the first issue.
This is not as obvious as it seems (although Jim's overall position is not really dependent on it); nor does the significance of the passage diminish if Jim is correct linguistically. As I mentioned earlier, there are evangelical scholars on both sides (or rather, all sides--since there are a number of options on this one!) of the question.
Let me start first by giving the opinion of the excellent OT/Tanaach scholar John Walton (in NIDOTTE) who takes a less-traditional view (i.e. the virginity aspect of the word is not important), even though the lexical data is supportive of the 'alma as virgin' position:
"We conclude, then, that applied to a female, the term [almah] refers to one who has not yet borne a child and as an abstraction refers to the adolescent expectation of motherhood. This would be captured in Eng. by a combination of the terms "nubility" and "fertility"a woman so described is full of childbearing potential. When applied to a male it [elem] describes a virile young man, (or, more neutrally, "a strapping young man") and as an abstraction refers to youthful virility. None of the overlapping near synonyms refer as explicitly to childbearing interests and status. The passage that is least compliant with this profile is Exod 2:8, for neither this nor any other specific nuance serves any purpose to the narrator.
"The most significant theological issues surrounding this term center on its use in Isa 7:14. The citation of this verse in Matt 1:23 and the nature of the doctrinal affirmation at stake have greatly hindered objective lexical analysis through the centuries. It must be immediately recognized that though Matthew cites Isa 7:14 in support of the virgin birth of Christ, he does not depend on the meaning of hm;l][' to establish that doctrine. Likewise parqevno" , as with hm;l][', does not refer specifically to a virgin.
"It is evident that the primary meaning of the word has to do with sexual maturity and, by extension, the age of the young woman, not with sexual experience or the lack of it. That the word may be used of a virgin is evident: it is not used, however, to define her virginity, but to define her capacity for marriage. So . . . it may also refer to a married young woman (until the birth of her first child) (Bratcher, 98).
"That the G parqevno" used by Matthew and by the LXX in Isa 7:14 can mean virgin and that an hm;l][' can be a virgin are sufficient for the fulfillment to be identified. The OT need not anticipate in its prophecy every specific element that finds fulfillment in the NT. One only needs to analyze Matthew's quotations of the OT in 2:15, 18, 23 to confirm the loose association that is often sufficient for the identification of fulfillment to be madeThe fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in the time of Ahaz concerned the birth of an individual who may not have had a recognizable role to play in the events of his time, but whose name represented the hope of deliverance. That hope was realized in a fuller way in the coming of Jesus, born of a virgin, God with us in incarnate form. This is in every sense a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, but that does not require that Isaiah anticipated the nature of the fulfillment.
"Consequently, our lexical study need not be hampered by theological mandates. We are not obliged to find the meaning "virgin" in the lexical profile of hm;l][' in order to justify the NT or our theological creeds.
Under this understanding of Matthew's use of Isaiah 7.14, we could understand Is 7.14 in the way set forth in the conservative, evangelical EBCOT:
"Interpretation 5 above seems the most promising. An unmarried young woman within the royal house would shortly marry and conceive. Her son would be called Immanuel ("God is with us"), probably in ignorance of the prophecy (which may have been given in the presence only of Ahaz) and possibly even as a presumptuous gesture to give the support of a complacent piety to the king's pro-Assyrian policy. Before the child is old enough to eat the characteristic food of the Land of Promise in its solid form (and so, if this is meant, well before the age of moral discretion), the Assyrians would lay waste the lands of Aram and Israel, which they did in 733-732 B.C., only a year or two after the prophecy was given.
"The "sign" of the child, therefore, constitutes an indication that the all-sovereign and all-knowing God has the situation completely in hand, and it rebukes the king's lack of faith in him. It is true that the instrument of this devastation was to be Assyria, the very power Ahaz was courting instead of relying wholly on God. But in fact the events of 733-732 not only heralded the downfall in 722 of Samaria--the capital city of the northern kingdom that was a large part of the domain of the house of David in its earlier days--but within a generation led to the devastation of Judah itself (cf. 1:7).
"The prophecy was given to the house of David and not simply to Ahaz ("you" in v. 14 is plural). In the fullness of time, the messianic Child would be born of that house. He was to be a symbol of God's salvation of his people, not simply from physical foes like Rezin and Pekah, but ultimately from sin (cf. Matt 1:21). He represents the final purpose of God in his person as well as his work. For he is, in fullness of meaning, God with us; and his mother was a virgin at the time of her conception and not simply, as in the case of the earlier royal mother, at the time of the prophecy. Matthew's concept of fulfillment is very wide-ranging and flexible and embraces many different kinds of correspondence between an OT passage and a NT event (cf. G.W. Grogan, "The New Testament Interpretation of the Old Testament," Tyndale Bulletin 18 [1967]:54-59).
"It is characteristic of Isaiah to introduce a messianic theme at a somewhat general level before spelling it out in unambiguously messianic terms (cf. comments at 4:2 and 42:1). This interpretation, therefore enables us to see the passage as part of a wider pattern in the book. So, we are contending, Isaiah predicted the coming of a boy who would be a sign from God to his contemporaries and who would foreshadow Christ, in whom the terms of the prophecy--abstracted from its historical situation--would be fulfilled in fullest measure. In terms of his heavenly origin and his destiny of suffering, death, and burial, as well as his exaltation to the highest place, where he fills the whole universe (Eph 4:9-10); the ultimate fulfillment in Christ of the sign given to Ahaz embraces in principle the whole range of options presented to that king (Isa 7:11). It is noteworthy that Matthew's next OT quotation (Matt 2:5-6) comes from a prophecy of Isaiah's contemporary Micah. This contains mysterious hints of preexistence, makes reference to the child's mother (Mic 5:2-3), gives Bethlehem as the place of birth, and stresses its insignificance, thus providing a possible spiritual link with the Midian-Gideon theme (cf. comment at 9:4).
Personally, I find this explanation reasonable and very supportable, but I suspect that the link might be 'tighter' than that. So, I will try to 'defend' the traditional understanding first, and then see where we end up. But, even if I can 'defend' the traditional view, that would not necessarily mean that Matthew depended on the connection--he might still have just seen the 'looser' connection described by the scholars above.
There are three words involved in this equation: bethulah (Heb), Almah (Heb), and parthenos (Gk), and we will start by looking at the lexical data for these.
So, as for the traditional view:
Bethulah is often connected with 'virginity' in the lexicons, but TWOT points out that this is now questionable:
"Virgin, maid, maiden; probably from an unused verb batal "to separate." Although Hebrew lexicons and modern translations generally translate betula as "virgin," G. J. Wenham ("Betulah A Girl of Marriageable Age, " VT 22:32648) and Tsevat (TDOT II, p. 33843) contest this as the general meaning but prefer "a young (marriageable) maiden." But whereas Wenham does not concede the meaning "virgin" in any text, Tsevat allows this meaning in three out of its fiftyone occurrences (Lev 21:13f; Deut 22:19; Ezk 44:22). In any case, a strong case can be presented that betula is not a technical term for virgo intacta in the ot, a conclusion that has important bearing on the meaning of >alma in Isa 7:14.
First the data from the ANE cognate languages...
Bethulah
From [TWOT]:
The Cognate Languages. A study of the word in the cognate language sustains C. H. Gordons contention that betula in the near eastern languages by itself does not mean virgo intacta (JBR 21:24041).
The Egyptian word especially parallel to our Hebrew word is hwnt. While the word may denote "girl," "virgin," it can also denote a young marriageable woman, or a young woman who has had sexual relations. Thus the word is used in the Pyramid Texts of the kings protectress who is explicitly called his mother, and of Isis, of whom it is said in a sarcophagus oracle that she is mysteriously pregnant. Tsevat concluded: "It can be stated that hwnt is not used to denote biological virginity, but rather youthful vigor and potential motherhood" (P. 339).
The Akkadian cognate, batultu, denotes "primarily an age group: only in specific contexts does it assume the connotation virgin " (CAD II:174). J. J. Finkelstein ("Sex Offences in Sumerian Laws," JAOS 86:355:72) and B. Landsberger "Jungfrulichkeit: Ein Beitrag zum Thema Beilager und Eheschliessung " in Symbolae juridicae M. David edid. J. A. Ankum , II (Leiden, 1968, pp. 41105) have underscored in independent studies that the word is normally best understood as "young (unmarried) girl." In fact, there is no one word for "virgin" in Sumerian or Akkadian; that concept is expressed negatively by "who is not deflowered."
In Ugaritic btlt is a frequent epithet for Anat, Baals wife, who repeatedly has sexual intercourse (cf. A. van Selms, Marriage and Family Life in Ugaritic Literature, London, 1954, pp. 69, 109). [Tanknote: the promiscuity of Anat has been called into question recently]
In a Shiite tradition, Fatima, though the mother of Hasan and Hussein along with other children, bears the title batul (C. Virolleaud, Le Theatre Persan, Paris, 1950, p. 37). And in an Aramaic text from Nippur, Montgomery interprets the phrase, btwlt "travailing and not bearing," to denote a hapless wife suffering from miscarriages and other female complaints (Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur, Philadelphia, 1913, p. 131).
Tsevat concluded that the word "does not mean virgin in any language exclusively (Aram.), mainly (Heb.), or generally (Akk. [and Ugar.?])" (p. 340).
From [HAL]:
"Jewish Aramaic. at;l]WtB] virgin :: adly alw albjm yd b who is in labour and does not give birth (Montgomery Inc. Texts. 13, 9); masc. Syriac. chaste, Mandean. bachelor; Syriac. denom. pa. to violate; Arabic. batul sacred virgin; Ugaritic. btlt epithet of >Anat, also n.m. (UTGl. 540); Akkadian. batulu young man, fem. virgin (in marriage contracts Meissner Bab. Ass. 1:402, cf. Driver-M. Ass. Laws 518): usually still secluded from married life."
From [NIDOTTE]:
"ANE Akk. m. batlu, young man; f. batultu, adolescent, nubile girl (CAD, B, 173a; in neo-Babylonian marriage contracts the word takes on the more specialized connotation of virgin, ibid, 174a.); Ugar. btlt, used most often as an epithet of Anat, the wife of Baal; Aram. at;l]WtB], young girl. More specifically, "In an Aramaic text from Nippur, a spell by a barren wife seeking children, there occurs the phrase, adly alw albjmyd atlwtB, a "virgin" travailing and not bearing" (Wenham, 326-27). It is Wenham's conclusion that the cognate occurrences consistently refer to a girl of marriageable age (326-29).
[Comment: A couple of these references are to 'sacral' virginity, which might not be virgo intacta in any sense, but we are not sure. We do know that some Sumerian 'sacral virgins' used 'alternate forms of intercourse' to avoid getting pregnant, so the terms MIGHT still be applicable, physiologically. But this is not central to the case here--there are plenty of 'ordinary' uses of the term, applying to ordinary pagan people, to demonstrate that bethulah's cognates meant something other than 'virginity' per se.]
Now let's turn to the use of Bethulah in the OT...
From [TWOT]:
OT usage. Whether betula is used in a general sense, "young woman" or a more particular sense "virgin" cannot be decided for Ex 22:16f [H 15f.]; Deut 22:2829; Lev 21:23; etc. But in Lev 21:1314 and Ezk 44:22 where betula is contrasted with various classes of women who have had sexual experience, it seems probable that the concept of "virgin" is in view.
Wenhams argument that qualifying clauses of betula, such as "that has had no husband" (Lev 21:23) or "whom no man had known" (Gen 24:16; Jud 21:12), are pointless if the word means "virgin" is less than convincing, for it cannot be decided whether these are non-restrictive or restrictive clauses, cf. II Sam 14:5 for a somewhat similar repetition.
But Wenham does call into question the conclusion that our word must mean "virgin" in Deut 22:1321 because he offers a plausible interpretation assuming the general meaning of "nubile adolescence." In the first place, betulm "tokens of virginity" (vv. 14, 15, 17, 18) is morphologically the regular form for abstract nouns in biblical Hebrew designating age groups (cf. ne>urm "youth" zequnm "old age"). Moreover, according to him, the "tokens of virginity" called for by the elders are not the sheets of the wedding night but garments stained by blood during her last period, and by producing these the girls parents could refute the jealous husbands complaint that his wife was with child by another man while she was still in her fathers house. Finally, he argued that this interpretation admirably suits the sentence that if such tokens could not be produced she should be stoned to death "because she wrought folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her fathers house" (Deut 22:21). Thus the "tokens" served as a test, proving that she was not pregnant when she was married. If she was not pregnant, she was presumed to be a virgin. If this interpretation of betulm is correct then this would further sustain the thesis that betula is a "girl of marriageable age," since the onset of menstruation would be the clearest sign that she had attained that age.
Since Wenham has presented a strong case that the interpretation test is not one of virginity but chastity, one must concede that betulm or betula does not clearly speak of virginity in this disputed text.
In eight places our word betula is contrasted to or combined with the Hebrew word for young man (Deut 32:25; II Chr 36:17; Ps 148:12; Isa 62:5; Jer 51:22; Lam 1:18; 2:21; Zech 9:17). In these places the phrases signify no more than young men and women. In Ezk 9:6 it (in plural) refers to girls together with little children and women who will be killed because of Israels wickedness.
But in Joel 1:8, where the betula is called upon to lament the death of her ba>al "husband," it probably does not mean "virgin" for elsewhere ba>al is the regular word for "husband" and its usual translation by "bridegroom" in the versions is otherwise unattested. Likewise in Est 2:17 the betulot who spent a night with King Ahasuerus are not virgins, unless it is a "shorthand" for "those who had been virgins." In a parable Ezekiel speaks of Oholah and Oholibah playing the harlot and their betulm breasts being handled (23:3). Here too the notion of virginity would be inaccurate. Finally in Job 31:1 even the neb translated our word by "girl" because it would not be sinful for Job to look on a virgin. Unless it is an epithet for a Canaanite goddess it probably designates a young married woman (cf. vv. 8ff).
Like Greek parthenos, Latin virgo and German Jungfrau, betula originally meant "young marriageable woman" but since she was normally a virgin it was not difficult for this meaning to become attached to the word. This more technical meaning is a later development in Hebrew and Aramaic and is clearly its meaning by the Christian era. When the change took place is not clear.
What is clear is that one cannot argue that if Isaiah (7:14) in his famous oracle to Ahaz had intended a virgin he could have used betula as a more precise term than >alma.
"betula is used in a number of figurative expressions referring to cities or countries as young women: Zion (Isa 37:22); Babylon (Isa 47:1); Israel (Jer 18:13) etc. Cf. the frequent expression "the daughter of Zion."
From [HAL]:
"1. grown-up girl without any sexual experience with men Gn 2416, who has no husband Lv 213 Ju 1212 (:: widow and repudiated wife Lv 2114 Ezk 4422); hl;Wtb] r;[}n" Dt 2223.28 1K 12 Est 23, pl. 22; rWjB; :: hl;WtB] Dt 3225 Jr 313 5122 Ezk 96 2C 3617, pl. Is 234 Am 813 Zech 917 (gloss) Ps 7863 14812 Lam 118 221; hl;Wtb] hT;Pi Ex 2215, tlWtB]h' rh'mo 2216, hl;WtB] l['B; Is 625: h;yr,W[n l['B' Jl 18 (married at a young age?); B]h' yTiBi my virgin daughter Ju 1924; 2S 132.18 Jr 232 Ps 4515 (virgins as a brides companions) Jb 311 Lam 14 210 511 Est 217.19; 2. personification ( tB' 3): laer;c]yI tl'WtB] the virgin Israel (not: the virgin of Israel) Dt 2219 Jr 1813 314.21 Am 52; /Yxi tB' B] the virgin daughter Zion 2K 1921 / Is 3722 Lam 213; with /dyxi Is 2312, with lb,B; 471, with yIr'x]mi Jr 4611, with hd;Why Lam 115, with yMi[' Jr 1417.
From Louw-Nida:
"virgin, i.e., a mature young woman that has never had sexual intercourse, and under the authority and protection of the father (Ge 24:16; Ex 22:15[EB 16]; Est 2:2)young women, i.e., a class of young female, though the class may be virgins, the focus is on the youth group (Dt 32:25; Ps 148:12; Jer 31:13; Am 8:13), cf. also 1436unit: tB' hl;WtB]...dear one, one cared for, loved one, formally, virgin daughter, a young woman who is loved by the father, with the associated meaning of being pure, innocent, and under the protection and care of the father (2Ki 19:21(2xs); Isa 23:12; 37:22, 22; 47:1, 1; Jer 46:11; La 1:15; 2:10, 13(2xs)
From [NIDOTTE]:
hl;WtB] ( betl), girl under the guardianship of her father (H1435); yliWtB] ( betlm), adolescence (H1436).
"Turning to the OT material, Wenham maintains that the lexical profile is identical to that of the cognates. One of the principal arguments supporting this conclusion is the fact that in their respective legal materials, Assyr. and Heb. law share nearly identical formulations of certain laws each using this cognate. If the laws are the same and the cognates are used, Wenham argues that the meanings of the cognates must be the same (330). Additional reasons he lists are as follows:
1. In Esther hl;WtB] is applied to the new members of the harem both before and after they have spent their night with the king (Esth 2:17-19).
2. rWjB; (young man) and hl;WtB] often occur as a fixed pair, and the former shows no evidence of referring to sexual status.
3. In Joel 1:8 the hl;WtB] has a l['B&', presumably a husband.
4. Job 31:1 is much more easily understood if the hl;WtB] he is referring to is married; otherwise it would be difficult to understand why this would be an offense in a polygamous society.
"On the other hand, 2 Sam 13:18 speaks of Tamar tearing the garment indicative of her hl;WtB] status after she had been raped by Amnon. If, as argued by Wenham, this is nothing more than tearing one's clothing in grief, the text would not have needed to go into detail concerning the significance of the garment. Rather, it is likely that Amnon's act has caused her to lose her status as a hl;WtB]. Even so, however, that does not mean that hl;WtB] means virgin.
From [BDB] (abridged):
"virgin one living apart in her fathers house as a virgin; hlwtb hr[n a virgin damsel; personification of nations.
From [WBC] (on Gen 24.16):
"of 'marriageable age' (the term hlwtb denotes a girls age range, approximately a teenager, rather than her virginity; see G. J. Wenham, "Betulah," VT 22 [1972] 32648; ISBE 4:98990). Her virgin status is affirmed by the next remark, lit. "whom no man had known." It may well be that her virgin status was obvious from her dress, but it could be that the reader is again being vouchsafed information that was not so immediately obvious to the servant (cf. v 15).
