At the dawn of history, in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, God promised them that one day they would be reconciled to Him through “the seed of woman.” That statement clearly implies a Messiah who would be virgin born. You can find that statement in Genesis 3:15 —
And I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.
Thousands of years later, the prophet Isaiah specifically stated that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. In Isaiah 7:14 we find these words: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
Some liberal theologians argue that the Hebrew word for virgin used in this passage can also mean “maiden,” but they overlook two facts:
- When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek about 280 years before Jesus, producing what is called The Septuagint, the 70 Jewish sages who made the translation used a Greek word in this passage that can only mean virgin, because that was their interpretation of the meaning of the passage.
- And that word, parthenos, is the word that Matthew used in his Gospel when quoting the prophecy. Again, it can only mean virgin.
We’ll end the last installment of this “Truth of the Virgin Birth” series with some thoughts on Mary.