Bethulah vs Almah
There is a great deal of misunderstanding of the difference between two Hebrew words — bethulah and almah — in the prophecy in Isaiah 7 that causes controversy between Jewish and Christian theologians. According to the prophecy in the Christian translation KJV, a virgin would conceive and bear a son, whose name would be called “Immanuel”.
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa 7:14 KJV)
However, according to the Jewish translation of the same verse, it was a young woman who would bear the child.
Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa 7:14 JPS)
Which translation is correct: a virgin or a young woman?
Christian theologians using the Christian translation call the Jews blind not to see the obvious sign of the virgin birth in the Gospel of Matthew. They claim that because the Jews failed to see “Christ” in the prophecy and accept Him as “a personal savior and Lord”, God afflicted them with all calamities and rejected them as His people. Consequently, God chose the “Church” in the place of Israel. The rabbis, on the other hand, accuse the Christian missionaries of deliberately altering the prophecy in Isaiah to promote their agenda to convert the Jews to the Christianity. Which side of the conflict is correct? To answer this question, we will study what the Hebrew words bethulah and almah mean, and then we will draw a conclusion.
Let us begin with the fulfilling of the ancient prophecy in Matthew 1, but this time will read not from the Greek translation but from an ancient manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew: Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, translated by George Howard, Mercer University Press, 1995. We read thus in the Hebrew text of Matthew,
And she will bear son, and you will call his name Yeshua, for he will save my people from their iniquities. And all this was to complete what was written by the prophet according to Yehovah: Behold, the young woman (almah) is conceiving and will bear son, and you will call his name Immanuel, that is, ‘With us is El’. (Mat 1:21-23)
Insight: In the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, a beautiful play on words is found in Mat 1:21: you will call his name ישׁוּע (Yeshua, that is, “Yehovah saves”), for he will save (יושיע yoshia) my people. This prophetic Hebrew pun is totally lost in Greek, in which no connection is found, whatsoever, between the Greek nickname “Iesus” and “save”. For more insight on the true name of the Messiah, refer to the article His Name Is Yehoshua.
The Hebrew word in question in Isa 7:14 and in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is עַלְמָה almah. Almah comes from the primitive root verb עָלַם alam, which means to veil from sight, to conceal (literally or figuratively). Hence, almah is a young woman who is veiled. It was costumery in the ancient world that a young girl was wearing her hair loose to show that she was available for marriage, while betrothed or married woman had her head covered to show that she was under the authority of her husband. Therefore, almah is a young woman of marriageable age. We find this concept in the case of the matriarch Rivkah. When she saw her husband Yitschak at a distance, she took her veil and covered herself (Gen 24:64-65). But does almah mean a virgin, as the Christian translations render Isaiah?
That almah does not mean virgin is clearly seen in the following example.
The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a young woman (almah). (Pro 30:19 JPS)
Here and in passages, such as Son 6:8, almah can hardly be rendered “virgin” in the immediate and plain context of the texts. Contrarily, to the plain meaning of the text, KJV has again rendered almah as “virgin”), but the correct translation is of JPS, as we read,
There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and maidens (almah) without number. (Son 6:8 JPS)
Indeed, the word almah is also applied to Miriam, the sister of Mosheh, when she was a young girl, as seen in Exo 2:8. And indeed, עַלְמָה almah can be applied to a fully mature young woman who had known a man, but also to a young woman who can be still in her virginity, as seen in the case of Rivkah in Gen 24:16, where the word bethulah is used, and in Gen 24:43, where almah is used. Simply put, in such passages as Son 1:3, Son 6:8, and in Psa 68:25, almah refers to a young woman without any reference to her virginity. With this we are coming to the second word in question: בּתוּלה bethulah, a virgin.
Let us compare עַלְמָה almah, a young woman, in Gen 24:43, wherein Rivkah, who is a virgin, is called a young woman, almah, to בּתוּלה bethulah, a virgin, in Gen 24:16, wherein the same person is called bethulah. We read from the Jewish Publication Society translations, as follows,
behold, I stand by the fountain of water; and let it come to pass, that the maiden (almah) that cometh forth to draw, to whom I shall say: Give me, I pray thee, a little water from thy pitcher to drink; (Gen 24:43 JPS)
And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin (bethulah), neither had any man known her; (Gen 24:16 JPS)
The Hebrew word בּתוּלה bethulah, a virgin, is a feminine passive participle of an unused root meaning to separate, which signifies a maiden living in seclusion in her father’s house. Hence, בּתוּלה bethulah means a young girl or woman who has not been married yet, because she lives under the authority of her father, as Rivkah was. The plural masculine form of bethulah is בְּתוּלִים bethulim, and means collectively and abstractly: virginity, for male and female alike. The Torah states regarding Rivkah that she was “virgin” and “a man had not been intimate with her”. But do we not know that a virgin has not known [intimately] any man? Why then the need to for this seemingly unnecessary explanation? In response, Bereshit Rabbah 60:5 records the opinion of Reish Lakish who said that because the daughters of idolaters preserved themselves in the place of their virginity but were lax regarding their other bodily openings, the Torah tells us that Rivkah was “a virgin” and “a man had not been intimate with her” thus speaking in no uncertain terms to exclude any doubts that future wife of the promised son was indeed a virgin.
In conclusion, the word almah means a young woman, while bethulah means a virgin. If the young woman is also a virgin, the text will identify her as bethulah, as in the case of Rivkah. Therefore, the JPS translation is correct, as we read again,
Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa 7:14 JPS)
Bethulah does mean a virgin, a woman who has never known a man, but this word could be applied to a woman who is betrothed, as we read in Joel,
Wail like a virgin (bethulah) girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. (Joe 1:8)
In this case, the word bethulah is used in a sense that a woman, who wails for her lost husband in war, is pure and spotless in betrothment. Hence, bethulim, virginity means purity and spotlessness.
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