Isaiah 7:14

From Textus Receptus

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.

Isaiah 7:14 “A” or “The”

In order to see if making seemingly trivial changes to the scriptures really makes a difference, let us look at the two articles “a” and “the”.

I will present to you the effects of this change.

By using the article “the” in conjunction with an item, it implies that the item discussed must be known; we must know the exact item in which we are discussing.

On the other hand, if we used the article “a” in conjunction with an item, it would imply any item; an item that is not defined or known; any item will suffice.

For example, if I asked you to please mail me “the” book, then without hesitation you would grab “the” book from your shelf, pack it in a box, and ship it promptly as you would know which book to send.

However, if I asked you to send me “a” book, you would do one of the following:

1. You would ask me which book I would like you to send. 2. You would send me any book which you saw fit.

Those are the options.

With that being said we will now look at Isaiah 7:14.

(KJV) Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;

The beginning of this verse states that the Lord will give you a sign, doesn’t explain which sign, just states a sign and then is followed by a semi-colon [;] which means the explanation will now be given.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel H6005.

As we can read from the second part of this verse:

1. A virgin shall conceive a son. 2. His name will be Immanuel H6005.

This second portion of the verse clearly places emphasis on the fact that a virgin, who is unknown, will bear a son and shall call him Immanuel which is pre-defined.

Again, the verse does not state which virgin will bear the child, but rather it focuses on the fact that you need to watch for a sign where a virgin will bear a son with the predetermined name of Immanuel H6005.

BDB Definition

Immanuel = “God with us” or “with us is God”

1) symbolic and prophetic name of the Messiah, the Christ, prophesying that He would be born of a virgin and would be ‘God with us’

The issue with some of the modern translations is that they soften the focus of the virgin birth by elevating the emphasis of “the” virgin mother. By changing the article from “a” to “the”, it elevates the virgin herself to be on the same prophetic term as the child.

(NKJV) Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Not only do some of the modern versions of the Bible twist the scriptures, they also causes contention by forcing the reader to ask:

1. Which virgin? 2. What is her name? 3. Who is Isaiah referring to?

By using the article “the”, this implies that at the time of writing Mary would have had to be known, which is not the case. The only known absolutes with this prophecy is that a child will be born of a virgin who will bear the name Immanuel.

Contention Causing

(ESV) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

(NIV) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

(NKJV) Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Agrees with prophecy

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

We need to remember that this verse is not about defining who the virgin is, but rather that a virgin will bear a son with a predefined name, a child who is the Messiah.

Miracles are for the unbelievers to believe, not for the believer to be convinced.