Virgin Mary... Miracle or Misunderstanding? (feat. Digital Hammurabi)

[Music] no Christmas pageant would be complete without a Virgin Mary at the center of the scene but this familiar detail about Jesus life isn't mentioned in the eighth New Testament books scholars agree were written first seven of the letters of Paul and the Gospel of Mark the concept of Immaculate Conception first appears in writing in the Gospel of Matthew probably penned around 70 AD more than any gospel writer the author of Matthew very deliberately wants to connect the life of Jesus to themes in the Old Testament to the author of Matthew the Nativity story was prophecy fulfilling all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the Prophet the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel which means God with he's quoting Isaiah 7:14 in the NIV therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel interesting that there is a footnote associated with the word version here but let's not get distracted just yet now in isaiah 7 the Jewish nation was still divided into two kingdoms not unlike Korea is today the southern kingdom of Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel in this chapter Israel had formed an alliance with the foreign power Samaria so God sent his servant Isaiah to warn the king of Judah with a promise of a sign that God would protect them this sign of a sum that is further described in the next verses for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste we don't hear that parts and the Christmas pageants the Bible records that this sign was fulfilled a few verses later in naazia 8 verses 3 to 4 a child of very natural conception is born to Isaiah and the enemies of Judah were vanquished before he spoke his first words given that the passage is very much a self-contained narrative story that makes no mention at all of the future Messiah one might wonder why the Christians view this passage is prophetic when Jewish rabbis certainly did not indeed some Christians do enjoy citing parallels as if they are prophecies but how did this prediction that was satisfactorily fulfilled with a very natural conception in the Old Testament come to be extrapolated to require a miraculous conception in the future which brings us back to that footnote on Isaiah 7:14 it indicates that in this context virgin might actually mean young woman in the original Hebrew if this is a messianic prophecy why did the translators feel necessary to acknowledge that another interpretation while the Gospel of Matthew along with the entire New Testament was written in Greek the Old Testament was written in Hebrew as such when the author of Matthew included quotations from the Old Testament he used the Greek translation known as the Septuagint much like an English writer today would use the King James ESV NIV or some other translation rather than the Hebrew text directly in the Septuagint the noun used the reference the woman Isaiah 7:14 is Parthenos which generally though not always means virgin specifically describing a woman who has not yet had sexual relations but if one goes back to the original Hebrew source the word found there is alma which is not the specific word for virgin now I'm not an expert in ancient Greek in Hebrew but dr. Joshua Bowen from digital Hammurabi is he has a PhD from John Hopkins University specializing in Hebrew other ancient languages and the ancient Near East dr. Josh what do these words mean much ink has been spilled on the use of the Hebrew word alma in Isaiah 7:14 doesn't mean virgin doesn't mean young woman if it only means young woman why was the Greek word Parthenos virgin used to translate it as we all know words in any language have a range of meaning the word run can indicate anything from a slow jog to an all-out sprint depending on the context words in ancient Hebrew and Greek are no different the Hebrew word alma generally means young woman or girl while the word Bakula generally means virgin the Greek word Parthenos used in Isaiah 7:14 to translate Amma generally means virgin is commonly used to translate Bethel la virgin into Creek although these words generally carry these meanings context can often nuance the way they should be understood and translated there are instances when that the law cannot mean virgin and the same can be said of Parthenos for example in Genesis 24 the word Parthenos is used to translate the Hebrew words Noah young girl Petula and Alma all in the same context where it should likely be understood as simply young woman in short context must drive the meaning of a particular word it's possible of course that the translator of Isaiah 7:14 intentionally used the Greek word Parthenos to add a theological layer to the passage however given the range of meaning that Parthenos has we need not assume that this was an intentional interpretive translation thanks dr. Josh if you're not familiar with digital Hammurabi please find their channel link in the description for highly entertaining and lightning and accessible videos on all aspects of the ancient Near East so for whatever the reason may have been the Septuagint translator Oh Isaiah chose Parthenos to translate Alma he chose a word that usually means virgin to translate a word that sometimes needs version not technically wrong but perhaps a touch imprecise if Isaiah had wanted to be clear about this virgin factor he could have and should have used the fula instead jump ahead to the world to the first century shortly after the death of Jesus and the stories about him being the Messiah are spreading the Greek speakers of the day are looking at prophecies in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and innocently interpreting the plain reading of Isaiah as an unfulfilled promise of a virgin birth is it possible that in a well-meaning effort to bolster the claims that Jesus was the Messiah that the author of Matthew or perhaps earlier oral traditions exaggerated the birth story of Jesus to line up with this ambiguous Greek translation after all this idea is never mentioned by the earlier writings of Paul nor in the earlier written Gospel of Mark it has all the markings of a late addition to the story if so it wouldn't be the first time the author of Matthew was tripped up by being unfamiliar with Hebrew all four Gospels reference zechariah 9:9 in relation to Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem see your King comes to you righteous and victorious lowly and riding on a donkey on a Colt the foal of a donkey three of the four Gospels recognized the Hebrew poetic convention known as synonymous parallelism where a line of text will restate what is in the previous line with slightly different wording for emphasis or dramatic effect so if three of the four Gospels have Jesus arriving at Jerusalem on a single animal a Colt however the author of Matthew got confused and in a clear effort to make sure that Jesus correctly fulfilled the prophecy as he misunderstood it invented a second animal for Jesus to ride in chapter 21 the idea of Jesus straddling with an adult donkey and a Colt at the same time must have made for a humorous but the author of Matthew would stop at no lengths to ensure that he could make these connections not only does it seem he invented a whole animal in Matthew 27 the author quotes zechariah 11 3 while mistakenly attributing it to the prophet jeremiah this is an author more interested in connecting the dots between Jesus and the Old Testament than he is about being accurate imagine there was an old document that said in Spanish in that town lives a yellow haired woman who makes delicious bread and there was also a later translation this document which colorfully phrased it in that town lives a blonde chick who makes delicious bread then far in the future with current slang out of vogue a new author wanted to affirm this tale of his understanding of the blonde chick and so elaborates with the story of a miraculous chicken who despite having no hands could not only bake bread but this chicken prepared bread was the best in the whole kingdom should future historians look at these documents and conclude that in fact a literal chicken was an excellent Baker or should they at least consider the idea that something had gone awry in an interpretation look it's possible that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth but if you're honest isn't it at least equally likely that early highly motivated Christians exaggerated a story to help explain a poor translation think about it if you'd like to spark some interesting conversations with friends and family this season why not share this video with someone who may not be aware of this Virgin Mary controversy where do you land miracle or misunderstanding let me know in the comments Merry Christmas

Channel: Paulogia

Views: 38,215

Rating: 4.9438877 out of 5

Keywords: paulogia, paulogetics, virgin mary, was mary a virgin, was mary a virgin when she gave birth, mary was not a virgin, was mother mary a virgin, almah, bethulah, parthenos, betulah, virgin, young woman, bible, matthew, jesus born to a virgin, isaiah, jesus, baby jesus, digital hammurabi

Id: hZClwmSYo2E

Length: 9min 17sec (557 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018