Messianic Prophecies of Christ
He Shall Be Called Immanuel
Isaiah 7:14/Matthew 1:23
The Text
• Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall
give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel……Mighty with us is God
• Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and shall bring forth a son, and they
shall call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is, God with us.
The Virgin Was To Birth A Son
Matthew 1:23 quotes the 2nd century BC(E) Greek
Septuagint text of Isaiah 7:14:
The virgin shall be with child
and shall bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanu-El.
The Greek word for "virgin" in both the Greek
Septuagint and Matthew is parthenos, which means a
virgin female.
The House of the Arthena or Maiden
or Parthenos is The Parthenon
Doric is a simple, unadorned style characterized by plainer columns
Virgin In O.T.
The Hebrew word in Isaiah 7:14 is almah. This rare noun (used 7x in
Hebrew Bible) signifies a young woman, a girl, or an unmarried maiden
Gen 24:43 – Abraham’s servant sought a “virgin” for Isaac
Exod 2:8 – Pharaoh’s daughter instructed Miriam the “maid”
Psalms 68:25 – The damsels playing the timbrels were “maids”
Proverbs 30:19 – 1. the path of an eagle, serpent, ship, and a man with
a “maid” are beyond amazingly wonderful.
Song of Solomon 1:3 “maids” loved Solomon/Wisdom
Song of Solomon 6:8 Solomon /Wisdom has plenty of “maids”
The focus of almah is on youth, not virginity.
But the spiritual and moral ethos in Hebrew culture assumed that young
unmarried girls had no sexual experience. It was assumed that an almah
was a virgin….1 Timothy 5:1 and vs. 14
Genesis 24:16 Parsed
And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her:…..
In Hebrew there are semantic differences between the
three words used for Rebekah:
• girl (na'arah) — relates to gender
• virgin (betulah) — relates to sexual experience
• maiden (almah) — relates to marriage status
In describing Rebekah they are conceptually identical: a
na'arah is a betulah is an almah — and is (in Greek) a
parthenos.
The Bride Is Feminine and The Head Is
Masculine
Just after killing Goliath, the shepherd boy David is
called an elem, the masculine form of almah (1 Samuel
17:56).
English Bibles render the word "young man, youth,
young fellow, stripling [adolescent]."
Whether the word, in the case of males, denotes
virginity is not clear.
It connotes a measure of innocence or lack of adult
experience, perhaps even in battle.
Three Points About Immanuel
Matthew 11:3 - 19
• A. Never Become Obsolete
• B. Is Always Approachable
• C. Desires Intimacy
"Acro" means "high" and "polis" means "city" – literally the "high city"