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The Virgin Birth and the Messiah 15

those pro mot ing the mys tery Bab y lon godly pro cre ation teach ing of the "vir gin birth," is to con fuse
the is sue by rarely men tion ing the clear con text of the Scrip ture. It is for this rea son they pro mote
the in ten tion ally de cep tive idea that the en tire de bate hinges on the proper trans la tion of the word
they choose as "vir gin".

The trans la tion is sue is a dis tant sec ond to the far more re veal ing is sue of Scrip tural con text,
but since vir gin birth pro po nents know the con text of fers them ZERO sup port, they en deavor to
cun ningly steer the de bate clear of a con sid er ation of the con text by fo cus ing on the less cru cial and
more con fus ing word game sur round ing the "vir gin" trans la tion of al mah.

Al though the word-game re gard ing the trans la tion of the word as "vir gin" is a dis tant sec ond
in or der of im por tance, we will nev er the less ad dress the is sue, since it is so of ten raised. The facts
we will pres ent should set tle the is sue for any one that is truly sin cere in their search for truth.

Those wish ing to con sider "vir gin" as the proper ren der ing dis card the clear He brew mean -
ing of al mah in or der to claim proof for their ar gu ment. Actually, their "proof" is a zeal ous pro mo -
tion of false hood since they in ten tion ally stretch the He brew word's true mean ing to the break ing
point in their search for straws of non ex is tent sup port for the pa gan doc trine of godly pro cre ation.

The sure mean ing of the He brew word, al mah, (Strong's #5959) is a young woman of the
age to be mar ried. Whether it re fers to a lit eral vir gin or not has no af fect on its be ing ful filled in
Yeshua ex cept in a neg a tive sense, since if Mary was a "vir gin", Yeshua is NOT the Mes siah!

The New Strong's Guide to Bi ble Words shows that the word al mah can mean "a lass" or
"young woman".

The En hanced Strong's Lex i con pres ents the word as mean ing a "vir gin or young woman
of mar riage able age, a maid or newly mar ried".

The Dic tio nary of Bib li cal Lan guages with Se man tic Do mains: He brew (Old Tes ta ment)
shows the proper ren der ing of al mah to be "a young woman, i.e., sex u ally ma ture fe male of mar -
riage able age, which may or may not be sex u ally ac tive".

That the word al mah does not im ply vir gin ity is con ceded by E. W. Hengstenberg, au thor of
the pop u lar book The Chris tol ogy of the Old Tes ta ment. In his com men tary on Isa iah 7:14, he
writes,

"Here, as well as through out this whole in quiry, the no tion of a pure vir gin, and that of an
un mar ried woman, are blended to gether. The for mer is not in deed re quired by the et y mol -
ogy of the word, but the lat ter cer tainly is" (page 169).

On the same page, he writes,

"...we do not claim for the word the sense of un spot ted pu rity, but only that of the un mar ried
state".

The Berean Voice