February 11, 2015Isaiah 7:14 and the “Virgin Birth” Part 2 of 2 Page 1 of 9 Isaiah 7:14 – Part...

February 11, 2015 Isaiah 7:14 and the “Virgin Birth”Part 2 of 2

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Isaiah 7:14 – Part 2 of 2:Refuting Christian Apologetics

A Counter-Missionary Education Lesson

by

Uri Yosef, Ph.D., Director of EducationVirtual Yeshiva of the Messiah Truth Project, Inc.

[The article on this topic is located here - http://thejewishhome.org/counter/Isa714_2.pdf]

Copyright © Uri Yosef 2015 for the Messiah Truth Project, Inc.All rights reserved

Counter-Missionary Education

http://thejewishhome.org/counter/Isa714_2.pdf


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Introduction

Ever since the advent of Christianity, 20 centuries ago, Christian apologists have been busy in fashioning arguments to defend their theology (ergo, the title “apologist” and the product “apologetics”). As these arguments were countered and refuted by responses from the Jewish Sages, new and more sophisticated arguments were created by Christian theologians – a chain of events that has continued to the present time. The verse Isaiah 7:14, being a foundational element of the Christian theological framework, has received a significant amount of attention in this “debate”.

In this lesson, several popular apologetics Christian missionaries use in their effort to defend their interpretation of Isaiah 7:14, the so-called “proof text” for the “Virgin Birth”, are presented. Each of these arguments is followed by Judaism’s response that refutes it.


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(†) Missionary Argument #1 () Judaism’s Response

• Every other instance of ה ָמ� ְל� in the ַע� Hebrew Bible refers to a virgin

ה • ָמ� ְל� represents an age group, not ַע� a state of sexual purity & innocence”

ה • תּוְל� ”is “a virgin (betulah) ְּב�

• Isaiah uses ה תּוְל� five (5) times ְּב�

(†) Missionary Argument #2 () Judaism’s Response

• Isaiah uses ה ָמ� ְל� to remove ַע� ambiguity and add precision

• The omitted reference proves Isaiah knew how to apply ה תּוְל� ְּב�

- Isaiah applies ה תּוְל� four (4) times ְּב� in reference to a nation

• Jeremiah uses ה תּוְל� 15 ְּב� times, eight (8) of which refer to a virgin/virgins

- Jeremiah applies ה תּוְל� seven (7) ְּב� times in reference to a nation

• A study of all 50 instances of ה תּוְל� ְּב� leaves no doubt it means “a virgin”

Claim: The word ה ָמ� ְל� ,"means "virgin [almah] ַע�therefore, this prophecy foretells the miraculous birth of Jesus.

Conclusion: ה ָמ� ְל� ה & ַע� תּוְל� ְּב� are not interchangeable nouns. The female in Isaiah 7:14 is about a (very) pregnant young woman.


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(†) Missionary Argument () Judaism’s Response

• “1st fulfillment” - Immanu’el born in 8th century BCE

• “Dual prophecy” & “dual fulfillment” are unbiblical concepts

• “2nd fulfillment” - Jesus born at the turn of the Era

• If there were two “virgin births”, what makes the 2nd one more special?

• Does Isaiah 7:15-16 apply to Jesus?

(†) Missionary Counter-Argument () Judaism’s Response

• “Dual prophecy” is hinted at by Isaiah’s use of singular and plural “you” pronouns in addressing Ahaz - Singular pronoun aimed at Ahaz and his personal current crisis - Plural pronoun aimed at the House of David and its future

• Both King Ahaz and the House of David were threatened by situation - Reference to House of David and plural “you” pertain to military crisis - Ahaz addressed both in singular and plural “you” to signify he and Davidic dynasty will be preserved

Claim: This is a "dual prophecy“ with a “dual fulfillment” – a prophecy that was fulfilled on two separate occasions.

Conclusion: The ideas of “dual prophecy” and “dual fulfillment” are unbiblical notions that were born out of desperation.


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Prophecy Fulfilled

The Siege:

The Prophecy:

Contemporaneous Fulfillment of the Prophecy:

1. Damascus, the Capital of Aram, is conquered and Retzin, the King of Aram, is slain -

2. Parts of the Kingdom of Israel are conquered, and Pekah, the King of Israel, is slain -

Isaiah 7:14-16 - (14) Therefore the Lord will Himself give you a sign: Here! The young woman is with child, and she shall give birth to a son; and you [young woman] shall call his name Immanu’el. (15) Cream and honey he [Immanu'el] shall eat when he knows to reject bad and choose good; (16) for, when the lad [Immanu'el] does not yet know to reject bad and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread, shall be abandoned.”

2 Kings 16:5 - Then Rezin the King of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah the King of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war, and they besieged Ahaz, but could not wage war [with him].

2 Kings 15:29-30 – (29) In the days of Pekah the King of Israel, Tiglat-Pil’eser the King of Assyria came and took Iyyon, Avel Beit-Ma’achah, Yanoah, Kedesh, Hatzor, Gil’ad, and Galil, the entire land of Naftali; and he exiled them to Assyria. (30) And Hoshe’a the son of Elah revolted against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and he struck him and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Yotam the son of Uzziah.

2 Kings 16:9 - And the King of Assyria heeded him, and the King of Assyria went up to Damascus and seized it, and exiled [its inhabitants] to Kir, and he slew Rezin.


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• Biblical Hebrew is an “aspectual” language without the conventional temporal tenses

• The argument is irrelevant. As was demonstrated in Part 1 (Page 7), the term ה ָר� is not a verb in Isaiah 7:14 ה�

• Context and grammatical cues determine the temporal state of a verb rather than conventional past, present, and future tenses

• Any language that is used for human communication, such as Hebrew has been over the past several millennia, needs to have at least one past, one present, and one future tense, due to the fact that human experience depends on the linear progression of time from past to present to future

• Almost all verbs in the Hebrew Bible appear conjugated in all three tenses and in the imperative

Claim: Biblical Hebrew has no tenses.

Conclusion: The fact that almost all verbs in the Hebrew Bible appear conjugated in the three tenses and in the imperative, proves the claim that Biblical Hebrew has no tenses to be false.


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• The term ה תּוְל� as applied in the ,ְּב� Hebrew Bible, is ambiguous since in some cases it refers to - females who are virgins (e.g., Leviticus 21:3,14, Ezekiel 44:22) - females of unknown sexual status (e.g., Deuteronomy 32.25, Psalms 148:12, 2Chronicles 36.17) - females who are not virgins (e.g., Ezekiel 23:3, Joel 1:8, Esther 2:17

• Once the claims regarding females who are not virgins are refuted it will be clear that ה תּוְל� ”means “a virgin ְּב� without exceptions - Ezekiel 23:3 uses the noun ים תּוְל� ְּב� (betulim), “a hymen”, the sign of virginity, not the noun ה תּוְל� ְּב� - Esther 2:17 uses the noun תּוְלֹות ְּב� (betulot), “virgins”, which, when considered in context of the nearby

passage, Esther 2:19-20, leaves no doubt that it means “virgins” - Joel 1:8 uses the noun ה תּוְל� In the context of the traditional two-phased .ְּב� Jewish marriage process, this female was betrothed to a man who met an untimely death prior to their marriage being consummated and, therefore, she was still a virgin

Claim: ה תּוְל� .is not exclusive to "a virgin" in the Hebrew Bible ְּב�

Conclusion: The claim that ה תּוְל� "is not the exclusive term for "a virgin ְּב�is not supported from within the Hebrew Bible and is false.


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• To rule out the possibility that the female in Isaiah 7:14 was a virgin who conceived of God and remained a virgin, would place limitations on what God can do

• The possibility that a woman can conceive with her virginity remaining intact is recognized in the Talmud, though it can occur only by means of normal fertilization• God is omnipotent• God is incorporeal

Claim: Ruling out a “Virgin Birth” limits the power of the Creator

Conclusion: Given the Jewish view of God, the question is not whether God is able to incarnate via a “Virgin Birth” by impregnating a virgin and fathering an offspring who is God Himself. Rather, the issue is the need for self-incarnation, the realization of which is excluded by His incorporeal nature.


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• The Septuagint (LXX) is an ancient translation into Greek of the Hebrew Bible by bi-lingual Jewish scholars

• The original Septuagint was a mid-3rd century B.C.E translation into (Koine) Greek of only the Torah

• These learned Rabbis would have known to translate this term correctly

• Extant evidence shows that today’s LXX is a Church-rendered Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible

- Works of Josephus & St. Jerome

- Errors, omissions, inconsistencies

- Koine Greek vs. Later dialect

- παρθενος not exclusively “a virgin”

Claim: ה ָמ� ְל� ַע� is rendered παρθενος (parthenos) in the Septuagint ה�(LXX)

Conclusion: Today’s LXX is not the same as the original Septuagint. The LXX is a Church-rendered translation of the Hebrew Bible, and the latter is a translation of the Torah by Jewish bi-lingual Rabbis/scholars.

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