The Virgin Birth? Why It Matters
How can you believe in such a silly idea? A virgin giving birth? You REALLY believe that?
These questions are often posed to us from many in the Jewish community. It’s an odd idea that a virgin could give birth. It obviously goes against every scientific and physiological reality. A virgin giving birth would certainly have to be supernatural. Two thousand years ago the idea was just as perplexing not only to the Jewish community of Jesus’ day, but even to those closest to the event. Let’s explore how and why a Jewish baby was born in Bethlehem to a virgin 2,000 years ago.
The Setup: Biblical History
Long before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah spoke of one who would be born of a virgin, ride into Jerusalem on the foal of a colt/donkey, would be rejected, crucified, die, and rise again. Looking back on the prophecies as we do it all seems to be so logical and understandable. We’re often asked the question, “Why can’t they (the Jews) get it? It’s so clear. It’s right there in the Scriptures. Why can’t they see?” However, living through the events themselves, not everything was so immediately clear even to Mary and Joseph.
Prior to the birth of Jesus, John the Baptizer was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth. The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah to tell him of the upcoming birth of John. Zechariah was shocked, confused and a bit skeptical. He asked, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” The Angel Gabriel had to make Zechariah unable to speak in order to prove that he was telling him the truth! And we wonder how people “don’t get it” today.
During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy Gabriel ap- peared again, this time to Mary to tell her of the birth of Jesus. She was obviously troubled given the fact that she was a virgin (Luke 1:34). Joseph was also quite confused. He consid- ered divorcing Mary so as not to put her to disgrace. Another angel of the Lord visited Joseph in a dream to let him know it was ok to stay married to Mary. He did, and according to the Scriptures, “had no union with her until she gave birth to a son,” and they named him Yeshua (Jesus).
“All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet [Isaiah]: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel – which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:22-23
Not surprisingly, prior to the birth of Jesus, from the very beginning of biblical history, Satan tried to rid the world of “the seed of the woman,” the very first messianic prophecy in the Jewish scriptures. In Genesis 3:15 God says to the serpent in the Garden of Eden as he is cast out, “I will put enmity be- tween you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The serpent was told that a woman would give birth. That the child would be from “the seed of a woman.” And though the serpent (Satan) would “bruise his heel” (the crucifixion), the child would be the One to “crush the head” (eternally defeat) of Satan. King Messiah, born of a virgin, defeating the Enemy. Rabbis disagree on the messianic interpretation of Genesis 3:15 and the virgin birth is rejected by Judaism.
The Messiah being fully man and fully God is not a foreign idea to the Scriptures. For both to be the case, there would need to be a miraculous, divine intervention.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
The Scrutiny: Objections
Yet today, Judaism rejects the idea of a divine Messiah. They are waiting for a human messiah who will bring peace to the world. The idea of Messiah being fully man and fully God is rejected, as is the necessity of the virgin birth.
Not only has the traditional/religious Jewish community rejected the idea of the virgin birth, but secular scholars disagree on something so filled with mystery. A man becoming God would be seen as idolatry by the religious Jewish commu- nity and as a strange fantasy by the secular.
God becoming a man would also be considered unnecessary by the religious and another strange fantasy by the secular. The question would be, “Why would the creator of the universe need to become a man to do what he wanted to do?” Thus the paradox of the Gospel is revealed. God becoming a man is viewed as foolishness to the world.
A more exegetical (biblical text-based) argument is that Isaiah was never talking about a virgin in the first place. The Hebrew word in Isaiah 7:14 (almah) is not “virgin” at all but a “young maiden” (betulah), and the translation/interpretation is completely misconstrued in the text to say “virgin.”
The Solution: Biblical/Historical Responses
Of course there has to be answers to the questions and objections. Was Isaiah speaking of a “young maiden” or a “virgin?” The word almah used by Isaiah does unquestionably mean
“a young woman.” Isaac’s bride Rebecca was also an almah (Gen. 24:43), but she was also a betulah, “a virgin; no man had ever lain with her” (v. 16). The very first time that Scripture presents almah it speaks of this woman as being a virgin. Almah is never used of any woman who is married or who has had physical relations with a man.
Closed wombs were notoriously present in the birth of the Jewish nation (pun intended), as seen in three of the four Mothers of Israel—Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel. All were barren until the Lord miraculously gave them children. Alfred Edersheim, a famous Jewish/Christian theologian, states that the miracles of ancient Israel were a picture of what would happen to Messiah and what He would do for Israel.
If the deeds of Israel were to be reflected and amplified in Messiah, why shouldn’t we have expected Him to have come from an unmarried woman who had never been with a man? Isaiah 7:14 recognizes the impossibility of a virgin conceiving, but offsets it with the understanding that it would also be a miracle: “Therefore the Lord shall give you a sign! Behold! The virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Isaiah 7:14).
The Hebrew word for “sign” is oht (אוֹת) which means “miracle.” Now it’s no miracle for a “young maiden” to con- ceive. Young maidens who are married conceive all the time, but it’s a miracle that a young maiden who was also a virgin conceived and gave birth.
Finally, the Septuagint, a Greek version of the Old Testament, translated by Jewish sages about 250 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, is a valuable tool to understand how the Jewish people of that time understood the Hebrew Scriptures.
For almah in Isaiah 7:14, the Jewish translators used the specific Greek word for virgin (parthenos). Therefore, before any controversy about Jesus being born of a virgin existed, the authoritative Jewish version of the Greek Old Testament declared that “the virgin would conceive and bear a son, and that he would be God with us.”
We not only believe, but know, that a virgin who conceived by the Holy Spirit of God gave birth. We celebrate that divinely orchestrated miraculous conception! And the birth of the One who being fully God and fully Man was born to die and carry our sins on the cross.