Question: Why is Isaiah’s prophecy of the virgin birth of Immanuel unmentioned in your Isaiah Topic? The one child to refuse evil. Leaving out important scripting disturbs me about the state of Jews and their future. I did however look up your self derived version of Almah and it looks as you mention it meaning a young girl. What significance is there to a young girl giving birth, compared to a virgin? Have you ever taken this into account how meaningless or insignificant a birth of only a young girl would be? Maybe this will open your eyes and your heart.

Answer: The tone of your letter suggests that you don’t really have a question, rather you have an agenda. I chose to reply, but I will not engage you in a debate.

The actual birth of the child and his weaning is insignificant, as is his consumption of cream. The historical context of this prophesy needs to be understood properly. More than 700 years before the birth of J.C., the king of Judah, Ahaz, was under siege, and feared the decimation of his kingdom. G-d assured him triumph, and the sign would be that by the time certain young woman would give birth and wean her child, the kings of the besieging nations would be dead. That in fact did occur, and the assurances of G-d were proven to be accurate. The correct Biblical word for virgin is “betula”. “Alma” is never translated by any authoritative commentary as a virgin, of this I can be quite confident.

How anyone can say this refers to the birth of J.C. is beyond me, as this was a sign to Ahaz 730+ years before the birth of JC. That his enemies would be dead by the time a child would be born 700 years later would be of no consolation. To suggest that there was a second fulfillment years later also is impossible, because there is no recording of two great kings being assassinated at the time of JC’s weaning.

Just one question for you: If the miracle was a virgin birth, how could anyone know if she was truly a virgin? Why give a sign that is impossible to verify? If your daughter came home pregnant, and told you it was a virgin pregnancy, would you believe her? And you believe this?

Be well,
Shlomo Soroka