The Virgin Shall Conceive – Isaiah 7:14 in Context

When the Revised Standard Version was published in 1952, many of our good brethren took exception with the translation of Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” When the New Revised Standard Version was published in 1989, the editors also chose to use “young woman” instead of virgin. Because Matthew used Isaiah 7:14 to show that Jesus’s virgin birth fulfills prophecy (Matt 1:23), many see a problem with translating the Hebrew ‘almah any way other than virgin.

However, objecting to the translation of “young woman” ignores a couple truths. First, ‘almah does not necessarily mean virgin—the word refers to a young girl of marrying age; the word can even mean a young girl who has just married. Second, the context of Isaiah 7 points to the prophecy’s fulfillment in Isaiah’s lifetime. When Ahaz was king of Judah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, marched toward Jerusalem to depose Ahaz and install their own puppet king. God promised Ahaz he need not worry, for the plot against him will fail. God gave the Judean king a sign—a young woman would bear a son, and before the boy would know right and wrong, the kingdoms of Aram and Israel would “be laid waste” (Is 7:16). Isaiah spoke to Ahaz about a situation the king was facing, not the future birth of the Messiah.

Since Matthew wrote his Gospel to Jews, he relied heavily on prophecy. Matthew used prophecy in a variety of ways as he demonstrated Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God. One of the ways Matthew used prophecy was in an allegorical or type/antitype method. There are other cases where Matthew used prophecies which are clearly allegorical; e.g., Matthew 2:15 (Hosea 11:1) and Matthew 2:18 (Jeremiah 31:15). Matthew, I’m convinced, did the same thing with Isaiah 7:14; in essence, Matthew said, “When Jesus was born of a virgin, it’s like the time Isaiah promised Ahaz that a young girl would have a baby and call him Immanuel. God would be with Ahaz and protect him from the foreign invaders. God will be with us in Jesus and protect us from sin and hell.”

As I look at the different ways Matthew used prophecy, I’m amazed at God’s power and wisdom. Matthew took prophecies intended for a different time and different audience and made them applicable to Jesus because Scripture is that rich and true, and because God is wise enough to have inspired his Word to stand firm through the ages.