Behold a Virgin

 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7: 14    In Isaiah the Hebrew word translated virgin is “alma.”

“ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”   Luke 1: 26, 27

In Luke as in Matthew the Greek word translated virgin is “parthenos.”

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, ‘God with us.’” Mat. 1:23

In Matthew as in Luke the Greek word translated virgin is “parthenos.”

According to Scripture was Mary simply a young woman or a virgin?

The Greek word for virgin in Isaiah, “alma,” can be translated young woman or virgin. Which can only be determined only by context. 

Critics say it should be translated “young woman,” and it refers to Ahaz’s son. Behold, a virgin shall be with child,…. These words are rightly applied to the virgin Mary and her son Jesus, for of no other can they be understood; not of Ahaz’s wife and his son Hezekiah, who was already born, nor of any other son of Ahaz by her or any other person since she was no longer a virgin, nor of the wife of Isaiah, and any son of his, who never had any that was king of Judah. 

The prophecy is distinctly Messianic, but the sign in Isaiah is not so much concerned with the manner of the child’s birth, but with the name, and the deliverance which should happen in his infancy. Therefore, the weight of the reference is to the name “Emmanuel” and to “the true Son of David.”

Emmanuel was not used of any ordinary child born in the time of Isaiah.

Emmanuel shall save from sin. No one other than Jesus could do so.

Mary knew she was a virgin. She said, “I have never known a man.”

The angel in Matthew put emphasis on virgin and considered  Mary to be a virgin.

Discrediting the concept of Mary being a virgin is essential for critics because if their criticism is true Jesus had no divine nature, He would have been only a human like all of the race, and inadequate as our infinite savior. 

For Him to fulfill His role as Mediator He had to have a divine and human nature. To be a mediator the one has to be equal to both parties and able to represent both equally. 

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” (I Timothy 2:5)

By faith you can engage Him to be your personal Mediator before the Father. That is what He is when you pray in His name and will be in the judgment.