Necessity and Triumph of the Virgin Birth

At Christmas we celebrate the truth stated in Galatians 4:4-6. When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as children. 6 Because you are [His] children, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

The promise of a Messiah coming to the world through a woman is first stated in Genesis 3 when Yehovah states that the “seed” of the woman would crush satan and his works (sin and death). This is the first reference to the virgin birth. The Messiah would be the offspring of a woman but not of a man. Mary was that woman.

The best known reference to the virgin birth is Isaiah 7:14. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah’s prophecy has both a primary (short-term) fulfillment for the people of his day and a secondary (long-term) fulfillment regarding the Messiah. This pattern of short-term and long-term fulfillment is seen throughout the Old Testament.

Short-term, the son that was born was to be a symbol to the King of God’s sustaining presence in protecting His people from foreign armies. The child was a symbol of “God with us” – Immanuel.

Long term, the coming Messiah was going to be God in human flesh, literally “God with us” – Immanuel.

The Messiah would be miraculously born of a woman as evidenced by her being a virgin.

The Hebrew word Isaiah used, that is translated as “virgin” is almah. An almah was a young woman of marriageable age who may or may not be a virgin. This is import because for the short-term fulfillment of the prophecy, the son would be a natural child and did not require a virgin birth. However, the future Messiah did require a miraculous birth so the term may also be used to designate a virgin.

If almah can designate both, why do our Bibles chose to translate it as “virgin” and not simply “young woman?” The answer is found in the Septuagint. The Septuagint is the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. It was done by 70 Jewish scholars who knew both Hebrew and Greek. The Septuagint was the most widely available form of the Old Testament at the time of Jesus.

The Greek word use when Isaiah 7:14 was translated by Jewish scholars was “parthenos.” Parthenos indicates virginity in both males and females. Yehovah used the translators to add clarity to how almah should be understood as it applies to the prophecy about Jesus.

Jesus was fully God and fully man, “born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:3-4). The miraculous birth of Yeshua allowed Him to our redeemer – to die for our sins and rise again!