This is my first time reading through the book of Isis, and just wondering if all these prophesies come true. I recognize some of them as dealing with Christ and realize they did come true from reading the Gospels. But the ones dealing with the old testament?
Well, there has to be more than one fulfillment. The Gospel fulfillment is either an pentultimate, or an ultimate fulfillment.
If a prophet made false statements, even if most of his statements were true; he would be condemned as a liar. Hence, the preservation of Isaiah’s writings depends on there being a way to interpret his prophecies multiple times in history according to the Hebrew tradition.
Take for example, the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. “The virgin shall be with child” (Greek Parthenos, Hebrew Almah ) . That is a prophecy that applies both to Mary (in Jesus’ time) and an unknown woman in Hezekia’s court long before her birth. This is a royal woman, whoever she was.
usccb.org/bible/isaiah/7
usccb.org/bible/matthew/1
Matthew quotes the Greek version of the prophecy exactly.
The old testament Greek reads:
Isaiah 7:14. (LXX) διὰ τοῦτο δώσει κύριος αὐτὸς ὑμῖν σημεῖον ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Εμμανουηλ.
If you go to any new testament Greek site, you will see the exact same words “THE virgin” (not just a virgin.)
biblehub.com/text/matthew/1-23.htm
There is no reason to go to the Hebrew, for the newest Greek copy is hundreds of years older than the Masoretic Hebrew copy of that passage. Jews, not Christians, interpreted the prophecy to Hezekia as being about a specific and well known maiden loooooong before Jesus was born. That’s why the Greek texts read “the Virgin.” Matthew was not changing the Greek to suit Christian ideals, he was quoting a Jewish tradition (exactly.)
However, I’ll include a link to Hebrew for completeness.
biblehub.com/interlinear/isaiah/7-14.htm
Isaiah 7:14 (Hebrew, Masoretic.)
The hebrew says “He-almah”, eg: a young maiden that is not yet married. Therefore, she is someone who is supposed to be a virgin. Girls were not allowed to have intercourse out of marriage or they would be stoned to death. That’s the law of Moses. The point of the word “almah” is the same as the word “virgin”; If she is not a virgin, a huge scandal must be involved. (Therefore, don’t get tied up with hair splitting arguments over “young girl” or “virgin”; If she is not virgin, she ought to be dead. )
What is important to notice about the prophecy is that Isaiah gave Hezekia very specific historical outlines of when the child will be born. Those historical foot notes all require a young protected (virgin) woman to become raped/inseminated/etc. which made her pregnant. The prophet promises that God will give “you all” a sign, so that you will trust him about the war which is coming in the next two decades. (Not hundreds of years into the future.)
The sign was fulfilled, but we don’t know how.
It’s not necessary to believe that there are two completely virgin women, who became pregnant in the same miraculous way. But the Jews accepted Isaiah as a true prophet, therefore they must have believed a son was born within Hezekiah’s lifetime. The child would have been named emmanuel (as a sign.)
God has made these kinds of signs in the past. Moses, for example, took a young boy and re-named him. The boy’s original name has been erased. We only know that the boy came from a man named ‘nun’. Moses renamed the boy, Jesus. (In Hebrew, Jesus is spelled phonetically like Joshua. It literally means, saving God / saving Lord. The personal name of God is Juah. So, God named a boy after the Lord in the Hebrew dialect of his time. eg: Ye-Juah pronounces Yeshua, or Joshua. We pronounce it Jesus. BUT – it’s the SAME name! )
And “the virgin” of Hezekia’s time is a pre-figurement of Mary.
Jesus son of “nun” is a pre-figurement of Jesus son of Joseph.
Think about that for a moment. The relationship goes even deeper.
Jesus, son of nun lead the Hebrew people into the land of Israel.
Jesus, son of Joseph leads us into the promised land of heaven.
The prophecy of Moses, and that of Isaiah were both about the same thing. Saving people from death in a promised land.
What I’m trying to point out is that prophecy can (and is) fulfilled multiple times.
Isaiah had an immediate meaning to convey to the people of his time, and a latter meaning fulfilled more perfectly in Jesus (for us).
