Question regarding the prophecy of the virgin birth?

[thunderbolt94]

I had question regarding the translation of the Virgin birth prophecy from the Hebrew Bible after I stumbled upon this claim regarding the virgin birth:

"As I understand the chronology, the original Hebrew word was “almah,” which means “a young woman.” When the bible was translated into Greek, “almah” was translated into “parthenos,” a word that can mean either “a young woman” or “virgin” depending on its context. When translated into English, most (but not all) versions take the word “parthenos” and mistranslate it as “virgin.”

Is there any truth to this? Or am I missing something here? Is there any accuracy to this? Please let me know. I would love some help in the right direction.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

Yes, there is truth in this. The original word is almah and it does mean young woman. Here is an article that breaks it down further. Also, I liked this article from Catholic answers.

 

[PJM]

=thunderbolt94;7873048]I had question regarding the translation of the Virgin birth prophecy from the Hebrew Bible after I stumbled upon this claim regarding the virgin birth:

"As I understand the chronology, the original Hebrew word was “almah,” which means “a young woman.” When the bible was translated into Greek, “almah” was translated into “parthenos,” a word that can mean either “a young woman” or “virgin” depending on its context. When translated into English, most (but not all) versions take the word “parthenos” and mistranslate it as “virgin.”

Is there any truth to this? Or am I missing something here? Is there any accuracy to this? Please let me know. I would love some help in the right direction.

IMO…

The fact that Mary is a “young lady” is historically obvious. The Fact that she is EVER-Virgin is Profoundly a Gift from God; who alone can and did make it happen. It is the Sacred Tradition of the Church, and was a much debated issue and NOW, a Defined Dogma; so God Himself claims and warrants it’s TRUTH. Amen! [John 14:16-17 and Jn. 17:15-19].

God Bless you,
Pat

 

[Salvatore123]

thunderbolt,

When the NABRE was released on Ash Wednesday of this year, quite a few threads on this forum were devoted to this exact subject.

If you review the following, you will definitely get a good sense of what was done regarding bible translations and what Catholics today thought of the change:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=540853

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=533458

The gist of the matter is as follows:

1. By most accounts, the original Hebrew transcript of Isaiah 7:14 used the word “almah”. This does NOT mean simple “young woman” or “young maiden”. It was used to refer to a “hidden young woman”.
2. In the Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the original Hebrew, the word “parthenos” was used. Again, by most accounts, “parthenos” means “virgin” as used in the context of 7:14 - it did not mean anything else.
3. The Latin Vulgate used the word “virgo” and the Douay Rheims used the word “virgin”. These remained the constant until the New American Bible - Revised Edition, decided to change the word “virgin” to “young woman”. This change has caused much consternation, especially amongst “traditionalist” Catholics, as the text of 7:14 with the word “virgin” appearing in it was actually cited by the Holy Father in proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

I argued in the two threads I cited above (and don’t intend to do so again) that it seemed to me to be pretty strong evidence that if the Holy Father is going to refer to a biblical verse that uses the word “virgin” when proclaiming a dogma, then the biblical verse containing the word “virgin” was the correct translation.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

IMO…

The fact that Mary is a “young lady” is historically obvious. The Fact that she is EVER-Virgin is Profoundly a Gift from God; who alone can and did make it happen. It is the Sacred Tradition of the Church, and was a much debated issue and NOW, a Defined Dogma; so God Himself claims and warrants it’s TRUTH. Amen! [John 14:16-17 and Jn. 17:15-19].

God Bless you,
Pat

After all, it’s not much of a sign for a young woman to have a child. But a virgin… now THAT’S a sign!

 

[PJM]

=Prayer_Warrior;7874090]After all, it’s not much of a sign for a young woman to have a child. But a virgin… now THAT’S a sign!

INDEED IT IS

The the singular reason is also a sign: Because God is perfect;His Mother too had to be perfect. Their is NO LIMIT to what our Good God can do.

As a side note: being perfected is a necessary step to gain access to heaven; thus this same Loving God CREATED “a car-wash” [soul wash actually] termed Purgatory.

God Bless,
Pat

 

[AmbroseSJ]

Salvatore123:

I argued in the two threads I cited above (and don’t intend to do so again) that it seemed to me to be pretty strong evidence that if the Holy Father is going to refer to a biblical verse that uses the word “virgin” when proclaiming a dogma, then the biblical verse containing the word “virgin” was the correct translation.

Further, if the Divine Liturgy, on Marian Feasts, in the US Lectionary is using “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 (which it does,) that is another striking “sign” of the correct word.