Isaiah 7:14 – The Jewish Translators: Virgin or Young Woman?

(Watch on YouTube for English subtitles)

In this video, we turn to Isaiah 7:14 to examine the widespread Christian claim that the Septuagint proves Jewish translators understood the Hebrew word almah to mean “virgin” centuries before Christianity.

Is that historically accurate?

We analyze:

• The semantic range of the Greek word parthenos in classical and Hellenistic literature
• Its use in Homer and Pindar
• The independent Jewish translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion
• Origen’s Hexapla and its textual significance
• The manuscript evidence (or lack thereof) prior to the 4th century

The historical and linguistic evidence tells a very different story. The claim that the Septuagint proves a pre-Christian Jewish understanding of almah as “virgin” does not withstand scrutiny.

This is a source-based, text-critical examination of one of the central arguments in the Isaiah 7:14 debate.

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