English Translations Of Almah
The texts which indicate that almah can be translated as maid[en] or girl are found in six out of the seven occurrences of the word. The New American Standard Version of the Bible (considered the most literal of all translations4), translates almah in these occurrences as:
Gen. 24:43 "maiden," Ex. 2:8 "girl," Ps. 68:26 "maidens," Prov. 30:19 "maid," Sol. 1:3 "maidens," Sol. 6:8 "maidens."
Then, here at Isaiah 7:14, the passage reads:
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin [almah] will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." (NAS Isaiah 7:14)
The immediate problem that the critic sees, is that in this passage the word "virgin" translated from the Hebrew word almah does not mean "virgin." The critic will usually cite the Revised Standard Version of the Bible to make their point:
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman [almah] shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (RSV)
This translation is further collaborated by the James Moffatt Bible, the Jewish Publication Society Bible, and the Koren Jerusalem Bible (etc..) which also renders almah as "young woman" in Isaiah 7:14. The critics assertion is further backed up by reputable lexicons like the Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon. Biblical scholar Gesenius writes of the meaning of almah:
"a youthful spouse recently married...the notion of unspotted virginity is not that which this word conveys..."5
This definition of almah is by far the majority scholarly definition (see footnote6). In response to this, Norman Geisler in his magnum opus The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, writes:
"There is difficulty with the claim that almah refers to someone who is married. Not once does the Old Testament use ‘almah’ to refer to a married person."7
This same line of defense is given by Christian apologist Gleason Archer in his well known book Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, he writes:
"Yet it is also true that in the seven occurrences of almah in the singular throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the word never refers to a maiden who has lost her virginity but only to one who is in fact unmarried and chaste."8
As there are difficulties "with the claim that almah refers to someone who is married" (Geisler/Archer), there are also difficulties with the claim that almah refers only to a virgin. The critics usually cite Proverbs 30:19 in response to apologist claims. Kenneth E. Nahigian of the Secular Web is one such critic, he writes in his article "A Virgin-Birth Prophecy?:"
"...one verse does seem to use 'almah in reference to a nonvirgin. This is Proverbs 30:19, which listed four things too marvelous to understand: the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maiden ( 'almah). To say the least, "the way of a man with an 'almah" would certainly jeopardize a state of sexual purity, but more damaging than this rather obvious fact is the comparison that the writer went on to state: "Such is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats, wipes her mouth, and says, 'I have done no wrong'" (v:20, NAB). It seems odd that the author would use 'almah to denote sexual purity and then compare it to the ongoing affairs of an adulterous woman. More likely the author's point was that all these things have one element in common: they do not lea
English Translations Of Almah
The texts which indicate that almah can be translated as maid[en] or girl are found in six out of the seven occurrences of the word. The New American Standard Version of the Bible (considered the most literal of all translations4), translates almah in these occurrences as:
Gen. 24:43 "maiden," Ex. 2:8 "girl," Ps. 68:26 "maidens," Prov. 30:19 "maid," Sol. 1:3 "maidens," Sol. 6:8 "maidens."
Then, here at Isaiah 7:14, the passage reads:
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin [almah] will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." (NAS Isaiah 7:14)
The immediate problem that the critic sees, is that in this passage the word "virgin" translated from the Hebrew word almah does not mean "virgin." The critic will usually cite the Revised Standard Version of the Bible to make their point:
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman [almah] shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (RSV)
This translation is further collaborated by the James Moffatt Bible, the Jewish Publication Society Bible, and the Koren Jerusalem Bible (etc..) which also renders almah as "young woman" in Isaiah 7:14. The critics assertion is further backed up by reputable lexicons like the Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon. Biblical scholar Gesenius writes of the meaning of almah:
"a youthful spouse recently married...the notion of unspotted virginity is not that which this word conveys..."5
This definition of almah is by far the majority scholarly definition (see footnote6). In response to this, Norman Geisler in his magnum opus The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, writes:
"There is difficulty with the claim that almah refers to someone who is married. Not once does the Old Testament use ‘almah’ to refer to a married person."7
This same line of defense is given by Christian apologist Gleason Archer in his well known book Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, he writes:
"Yet it is also true that in the seven occurrences of almah in the singular throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the word never refers to a maiden who has lost her virginity but only to one who is in fact unmarried and chaste."8
As there are difficulties "with the claim that almah refers to someone who is married" (Geisler/Archer), there are also difficulties with the claim that almah refers only to a virgin. The critics usually cite Proverbs 30:19 in response to apologist claims. Kenneth E. Nahigian of the Secular Web is one such critic, he writes in his article "A Virgin-Birth Prophecy?:"
"...one verse does seem to use 'almah in reference to a nonvirgin. This is Proverbs 30:19, which listed four things too marvelous to understand: the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maiden ( 'almah). To say the least, "the way of a man with an 'almah" would certainly jeopardize a state of sexual purity, but more damaging than this rather obvious fact is the comparison that the writer went on to state: "Such is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats, wipes her mouth, and says, 'I have done no wrong'" (v:20, NAB). It seems odd that the author would use 'almah to denote sexual purity and then compare it to the ongoing affairs of an adulterous woman. More likely the author's point was that all these things have one element in common: they do not leave much of a trace."
