THE HOLY BIBLE

 “Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

41 …. In Matthew 1, 23, we find a reference to Isaiah’s prophecy, six hundred years before it did take place:

“Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son,  and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted means, ‘God with us’ “

In the original text, in Aramaic, the prophecy does not explicitly refer to the virginal birth of Ghimmanu-El. In fact the word used is “almah”  which means a young woman, and not necessarily a ‘virgin’.

So how did we get the idea of ‘virgin’?

IN the Greek translation, the Aramaic word ‘almah’ was translated as  ‘parthenos’ which means ‘virgin’. In this fact, translation, we should note the mysterious orientation of the Holy Spirit, using Isaiah’s word or meaning as an introduction to the fact of a virginal birth of the Messiah.

So, the next sensible and natural question would be, ‘Why was ‘almah’ translated to mean ‘virgin’ ?

Yes, this is explained in this way; Isaiah was preparing the way for an extraordinary announcement, Annunciation, in a most solemn way, because he wanted to present it as a ‘Divine sign’ (Is,7, 10-14), to create a sense of awareness and expectation in this extraordinary conception.

Now the fact that a young woman conceives is nothing extraordinary, YET, the prophecy makes no reference to any man. And it was THIS fact that influenced the Greek translators to interpret the word ‘almah’ as meaning ‘virgin’.

Now, the next step is to confirm the ‘validity’ of this translation.

The confirmation comes from Matthew himself in his version of the Gospel. When the Angel appeared to Joseph and told him not to fear from taking Mary as his wife, he also assured him that what was conceived in her was the work of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew gives a Christological and Marian meaning, interpretation, to the prophecy, in fact he concludes: “Now all this was done so that it might  be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying:

“Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son,  and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted means, ‘God with us’ “   (Mt.1, 22-23). When he quoted the prophecy translated in this way (virgin – young woman), the Gospel according to Matthew was  proclaiming  the perfect fulfillment of the Conception of Jesus, in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

From this we conclude that whilst the Old Testament only, simply hints at, indicates the Mystery of Mary’s maternity, the New Testament proclaims that with the Birth of Jesus, the prophecies were fulfilled.    /42

Certain Information taken, with kind permission, from the book “Who is Mary” by H.G.Mons. Sylvester Magro ofm, Bishop of Benghazi. A very dear friend.