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| Isn't a Virgin Birth Inconceivable? | |
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Of all the miracles the Bible attributes to God, it seems the ‘virgin birth of Messiah’ arouses the most controversy. But the same texts that reveal God also present the virgin birth to be a historical fact. Some question whether it can be considered a scientific fact since it can not be observed nor repeated. But then what miracle can be? By their nature miracles are singular events; in this way, they are like natural historical events and scientific anomalies. |
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Miracle
Births are Jewish Miraculous births in particular are a consistent part of Jewish history! God decided to bless the world through a people by whom the Messiah would come: "In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed" (Gen. 12:3). God chose to use Abraham and Sarah, and as the Scriptures teach us, Abraham was old, and Sarah was barren (Gen. 11:30). Thus the obvious problem is that God purposely chose to make a nation from the one couple that couldn’t have kids! Rather than this being a problem, this was the point. If the God's promise to Abraham would result in blessing the world, then it would take the power of God to make it happen. And miracle of miracles, Isaac was born. Isaac then marries Rebecca. She too was barren, but again God intervenes (Gen. 25:21). And again with Jacob, and Rachel, who was barren (Gen. 29:31) Again, God miraculously provides a miracle birth (Gen. 30:22-24). The point is clear: the existence of the Jewish people is based upon miracle births from God. So rather than being assumed as abnormal or "pagan," it should be unsurprising if a miracle birth for the Jewish Messiah is a part of Jewish tradition. After all, shouldn’t we expect the most unusual Redeemer of the Jewish people to have a most unusual entrance through His birth? His unique nature would actually require it! The
Prophecy
of a Virgin Birth In the book of Isaiah we read of this woman again in Messiah’s prophetic birth announcement:
Some object against the word ‘virgin’ as an accurate translation of the Hebrew word almah. Yet in the Hebrew Scriptures, the word almah is used seven times (Genesis 24:43; Exodus 2:8; Proverbs 30:18; Psalm 68:25; Song of Solomon 1:3; 6:8), and every time it speaks of young women who have not had sexual relations. In this light, we might consider that in the second and first centuries BCE, the Hebrew Scriptures were for the first time translated into Greek. According to some traditions, it was seventy Rabbis who did the translating, which accounts for the name, Septuagint, meaning 70. At that time they had no difficulty translating almah into the common Greek word for virgin, parthenos. This was before Yeshua’s birth, before there was any controversy over His Messiahship. Thus, these Jewish translators should be taken to be unbiased in their translation, even as this is the translation that the New Covenant utilizes in describing Messiah’s birth (Matthew 1:23). Contrary to some opinions, there are no good grounds for taking ‘virgin’ to be an inaccurate reading of the Isaiah text. It is sometimes proposed that a different Hebrew word, betulah, could have served as a closer word for ‘virgin’. However, these words are largely synonymous (for example, Gen. 24, where Rebekah identified as both interchangeably), and therefore either would make the point. In fact, there is some question whether betulah would actually have been the best choice at all since it is also used for a widow in Joel 1:8. Even the eminent Jewish scholar Cyrus Gordon states that the words were synonymous and that the word almah is actually the best word choice for virgin in this situation (“Almah in Isaiah 7:14,” Journal of Bible and Religion, 4/1953, p. 106).
The
name “Immanuel” As opposed to a given name, each of these names describe some quality of God’s nature or character. “Immanuel” means “God is with us” (Im=with, anu=us, el=God). This name is repeated twice more in the Hebrew text (Isa. 8:8, 10), and is the overall theme of the portion. “Immanuel” is also the hope of our lives. God will neither leave nor forsake us in our sins, for Messiah, the hope of the House of David, will come. We have, by faith in Messiah, the eternal relationship with God which our lives desperately need. For in Messiah Yeshua “God is with us!” Isaiah told wicked King Ahaz that “if you will not believe you not will be established” (Isaiah 7:9). The same is true for each of us. Let us have faith in the wonder-working God of Israel’s greatest miracle, Messiah, that we may be eternally established before Him. (*Yeshua is the name Jesus in Hebrew)
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