The Virgin shall conceive

#47: “The virgin shall conceive” by Brendon Wahlberg
“‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:20-23)
That’s one of the most famous passages in the New Testament. The virgin shall conceive. Generations of Christians have taken this passage to be one of many proofs that the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, predicted the birth of Jesus. But what prophecy was Matthew referring to? When Matthew mentioned “the prophet”, he was talking about Isaiah, and he was quoting Isaiah 7:14. The problem is, Matthew was taking that one line out of context. If we look at the whole passage in which that line appears, we might not think it is so obvious that it refers to Jesus.
However, taking a line out of context like this is a valid and very ancient way of interpreting the Bible. Ancient interpreters like Matthew were Jews who were trying to convince other Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. To Matthew, the writings of Isaiah were already centuries old, and it was impossible to know for sure what the prophet meant or did not mean by his words. There was a whole way of thinking that scripture could be cryptic and have hidden meanings which had to be teased out. Scripture could say one thing and really mean another thing. Scripture was not just an old story of the past – it was a book of lessons which could teach people in the present day what they needed to know. Furthermore, there was a literal way to read scripture, of course, but because scripture was divinely given, there was also a spiritual way to read it. One could take the text at face value, yes, but one could also read it while seeing the details as representative of something else. People and events in the Old Testament were seen by early Christians as representing or foreshadowing people or events in the time of Jesus. It was in this way that Matthew read Isaiah.
But what was the original passage about? Here it is for you to read. After that, we can work through what it means. I’ve added some words in brackets to clarify some meanings. “Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet [Judah’s young King] Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of [King] Rezin and [his country of] Aram and [King Pekah] the son of Remaliah [who rules Israel in its capital of Samaria]. Because Aram—with Ephraim [Ephriam = Israel] and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel [our puppet] king in it; therefore thus says the Lord God : It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of [or, the capital of] Aram is Damascus, and the head of [or, the king in] Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.) The head of Ephraim [or, the capital of Israel] is Samaria, and the head of [or, the king in] Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all.
“Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, [here’s your sign] the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey [the food of royalty] by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good [meaning, old enough to know what is edible and what is not edible]. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.” (Isaiah 7:3-16)
There you have the passage in its NRSV translation. But the exact words which Matthew quoted are not in there. Instead of a virgin there is just a young woman. That’s because Matthew was using the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and that translation gave Matthew the exact “virgin” wording which he quoted in his gospel. From Matthew’s day onwards, people have argued about the correct translation of virgin vs. young woman (Greek “parthenos” vs. Hebrew “almah”), usually for the purpose of debating whether Judaism or Christianity is the “true religion”. That is not what this article is about. Instead I want to illustrate how you can take a passage and read it literally or spiritually, and how different the results can be.
Let’s work through the passage and understand it. The situation behind it was this. There were two Jewish kingdoms, southern Judah and northern Israel. To the northeast lay the mighty military power of Assyria, where modern day Iraq lies. Israel felt threatened by Assyria, and it wanted to make an alliance with its small neighbor country, Aram, in order to become strong enough to defend against Assyria. Israel wanted Judah to join their coalition. This placed Judah’s King Ahaz in a bind. If he joined the coalition, then mighty Assyria could attack and defeat all three of the small countries! If he refused to join, then Israel and Aram would angrily attack Judah and install a puppet king who would cooperate with them. Ahaz heard that Israel and Aram had joined up in this manner, and he became very afraid of them teaming up against him.
It was then that Isaiah spoke to Ahaz on behalf of God. Don’t be afraid of those two countries with their angry but impotent kings (who are like smoldering sticks pulled from the fire - they’re just blowing smoke), said Isaiah. They may be planning to conquer you, but it will not come to pass. You have to stand firm in your faith in God or you’ll fall. Look, said Isaiah, do you need a sign to prove it? The sign is this: a child will be born and named Immanuel (which means God-with-us, because God is with us in this difficult time). Soon, before that child is even old enough to know the difference between what he can eat and not eat, things will be so good and prosperous in Judah that he’ll be eating like a king. And those two countries you’re so worried about? They’ll be gone by then. So don’t be afraid. God is with us, in Jerusalem, and we’ll be safe.
So, what happened next? Aram and Israel did besiege Jerusalem. Ahaz did not listen to Isaiah or place his faith in God. In his fear, he called for help from Assyria. “Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel came up to wage war on Jerusalem; they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. […] Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, ‘I am your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.’ Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria listened to him; the king of Assyria marched up against Damascus [in Aram], and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir; then he killed Rezin.” (2 Kings 16:5-9) So Ahaz became just a vassal to the Assyrian king.
The literal meaning of the passage would seem to have nothing to do with Jesus. The sign of the child Immanuel was a sign to reassure Ahaz in his near future, not a sign to appear about seven hundred years later, long after Ahaz was dead. The passage does not mention Jesus by name, nor does it describe a miraculous virgin birth (just a young woman, maybe a virgin, maybe not, getting pregnant in the usual way). The main meaning of the passage is that the time until the defeat of Judah’s enemies is very short, so do not fear.
But ancient readers of the Greek version of the scriptures did see the word “virgin”, and they did see the meaning of the name Immanuel, God-with-us. It seemed like enough of a reason to read the passage spiritually instead of literally. To those wise enough to see the cryptic hidden meaning, instead of referring to God-with-us in the Temple, “Immanuel” referred to God-with-us in the person of Christ. The word virgin referred to the virgin birth. The old literal words of the text were given a new meaning. The Old Testament was foreshadowing something about the way Jesus would be born, and about his divine nature.
This whole issue is an old, old debate. And if you think about it, the whole point of saying that Isaiah talked about Jesus’ birth, is to say that God knew about his own plans ahead of time. If you can accept that idea, then a spiritual reading is at least possible. Today there are still several different ways to interpret the Bible text, and many of those ways stand opposed to each other. The Bible is a living document because the people who read and interpret it are ever living and changing. How you read the Bible depends on what you see there and what you bring with you to the experience. Literal or spiritual? Or both? You decide.