Isaiah 7:14 - He will be born of a virgin and be called Immanuel

There are two Christian claims associated with this verse. I will begin with the first claim. 

The KJV has the text read as follows:''

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel"

Now here is an accurate translation (mine):

"Therefore my Lord, it will be He who will give you [Achaz] a sign: "See that [already] pregnant woman who has come into view? She will give birth to a son and will call his name "God-is-with us".

Even without looking at the grammar, if one would look at the few verses around this verse, you would see that the prophet is telling king Achaz about an upcoming war that Achaz was avoiding. The prophet told Achaz that God will help. Achaz wasn't convinced. So the prophet asked the king if he would like a promise, a sign, and again Achaz refused. 

And that is the setup for:

"I will tell you anyhow! This fight will be so easy that, in the short time that it will take that woman's child to be born, your victory will be so miraculous that the nation, that is currently in fear, will proclaim "God is with us", so do it!"

And king Achaz refused, and this promise, which was directed only to king Achaz, never happened, and this conditional promise failed to ever manifest.

It wasn't a prophecy, but a promise that "if you do this, then that will happen". But Achaz never invaded. 

If one would simply read a few verses before this one, it would be obvious that this was an attempt to influence king Achaz who refused to be a pawn, and not about the birth of someone named "Immanuel" who Christians believe would be born many centuries later and referred to Jesus.

What about Jesus being called "Immanuel" (Matthew 1:23)

Practically nobody claims that the Christian texts claim that Jesus was ever known as "Immanuel", but use it as an expression for "God walks among us" rather than the original of "Even though you don't believe that God will help you win this war, you see that pregnant woman who has com into view? Well, this war will end so fast that when her son is born, one will call her son "God is with us" in opposition to Psalms 14 and 53, where the downtrodden Jews declared the opposite."

In context, the name given is about declaring that God had not abandoned them during their time of need.

The Christian use has none of those elements, and uses it in a way that is foreign to the Tanach.

So it's definitely not about Jesus.

What about the word translated as "Virgin"

"Alma" (עלמה) has the root עלם which means "hidden", and EVERY TIME that a woman is called that (or a man is called an "Elem", the masculine form), they were hidden from view and then are noticed.

Now, the Greek word "parthenos" which was used in the Greek version, means "maiden" who may or may not be a virgin. And since she is pregnant in this verse (present tense), she obviously isn't a virgin, but a pregnant maiden. This Greek term is also a term used to describe Dinah in Genesis AFTER she had been raped.

We see that "alma" is used in several places where the woman is obviously not a virgin, such as in Song of Songs 1:3 which identifies that almah as a prostitute. We also see in verse 6:8 that "almah" (in the plural form) is referring to lovers. And in Proverbs 30:19, we see "almah" referring to a possible adulteress who has secreted herself away with her lover. 

Finally, the fact that there's a masculine form should be a clue that עלם isn't "virgin".

It is because the word means "she who wasn't seen and has come into view" that I translated it as such in my version, above.

Because this was a promise about winning a war and was directed to king Achaz, it was not a prophecy, never mind a messianic prophecy, and it certainly doesn't apply to Jesus.

So this prophecy style is: "Out of context, non-prophecy, non-messianic, unrelated to Jesus"

The Memes: