Topic: Virgin and "Young Woman"
Question:
I was wondering if you can help me with something. I know you are very busy so I will keep this short. I have read that there is a mistranslation of a word concerning the virgin birth of Christ. In the Book of Isaiah there is a passage prophesising the virgin birth. There is a word, almah, which in Hebrew apparently means young woman with no implicit connotation of her being virginal. Yet the Septuagint translates this word as parthenos which can have connotations of virginity. Can you help me out with this its really bothering me. Thank you!
Answer:
The word "almah" in Hebrew means a virtuous young maiden. The technical word for virgin in Hebrew is "bethulah." While "almah" does not EXPLICITLY mean virgin, in that culture at the time that Isaiah was writing it did mean so IMPLICITLY. When we speak of a virtuous maiden in English virginal status is also implied.
The reason why "almah" was chosen instead of "bethulah" by Isaiah is open to debate. One possibility is that it was because "almah" singled out a young girl, possibly one who had not yet reached menarche. The Jewish scholar Geza Vermis speculates about this in his writings with reference to the virginal conception of Jesus. There were several stories in the Bible about barren women who bore children as if by miracle (e.g., Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, the wife of Manoah, Hannah, & St. Elizabeth). The term "barren" usually referred to women who were not menstruating. A pre-menopausal girl likewise is "barren" in that sense and so a conception in her would be in keeping with a long biblical tradition. We know that Mary was very young woman at the time that she conceived Jesus and so this would fulfill Isaiah's prophecy exactly.
Under ordinary circumstances when it is said that a virginal woman will bear a child it ususally meant that she would shortly marry and become pregnant. But Isaiah 7:14 was a prophetic utterance alleging an unmistakable sign from God. Young virginal women got married and had children all the time in Israel so this would not have been extraordianry. But if the virginal young woman REMAINED virginal and yet bore a son, that would indeed be a miraculous sign from God.
There is another rather fascination possibility. The Jewish people were taken into exile in Babylon by pagan invaders. Later, these pagans were defeated by the Persians who were Zoroastrian monotheists. Zoroaster was a Gentile "prophet" living in Persia around the time of Moses (or earlier, the dates are not clear). We know that there were true prophets among the Gentiles even after Moses' time such as Balaam. Zoroaster might have been one of them. In any case, he preached about the one God Azurha Mazda and his struggle agisnt the evil one Ahriman. He also taught the necessity for ethical living, life after death with rewards for virtue & punishments for sin, a cataclysmic end of the world, and bodily resurrection.
It was the Zoroastrian king Cyrus and his successors who allowed the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple. It is also beleived tha the Magi who came to see the Christ child were also Zoroastrian Mages. When the Greeks defeated the Persians at Thermopylae in 490 BC, it was a defeat for the monotheists against the polytheists. How different would history be if the Greeks had become Monotheists four centuries before Christ?
Now the Zoroastrians believed that there would be at least one savior born of a virginal woman. Peter Clark writes on page 15 of his book "Zoroastrianism, Introduction to an Ancient Faith":
"One of Zarathushtra's most revolutionary concepts [is] that of the savior, the 'bringer of benefit' or the benefactor known in the Gathas as the Saoshyant. It is this savior figure - also referred to in the plural - who will bring about the renovation of the world."
The expectation of the Zoroastrians was very EXPLICITLY that the savior would be born of a virgin. The exact details of how this would happen do not exactly correlate to the story of Jesus but the expectation was there and it could have influenced the Jews. At the time of Jesus, the largest Jewish population outside of Israel was in Persia around old Babylon. It was estimated at around 1 million people. The most widespread book of Jewish traditions still used by the Jewish people is the Bavli or Babylonian Talmud which was compiled around 600 AD. The relationship between the Jews and the Zoroastrians went back a long way and continued well into the Christian era.
Whether or not Zoroaster was a true prophet in the biblical sense, he was still very influencial in the ancient world and his ideas would have become know to Jewish sages. Much of hat he preached paralleled jewish teachings. When the Rabbis in Alexandria translated the Hebrew bible into the Greek Septuagint, many of them had studied in Babylon. Their experience among the Zorastrians MAY have influenced the way they translated Isaiah 7:14.
In short, the word "almah" does indeed imply virginal status and the expectation of a Messiah born of a virgin may have been reinforced by similar beliefs among the Zorastrians in Babylon. The original context of Isaiah 7:14 makes it clear that this was a miraculous Messianic prophecy. The Jewish tradtion of miraculous births by "barren" women could be consistent with a conception to a premenstrual virginal young maiden.
Art Sippo
Catholic Apologist
February 12, 2003