I will not neglect your word. (Psalm 119:16, NIV)
My eyes read the headline and my fingers followed the link: “Mistakes in Your Bible Translation.” Maybe this time the writer would actually uphold the Scripture. What I found was the same old ado about a very little something.
The author, a reputed expert in translation, was “revealing” for us all that the Hebrew word broadly translated virgin in Isaiah 7:14 may not actually mean that. Before we go any further, let’s stand reminded of this passage and its importance to the Jesus story: “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.”
Now here’s another important bit of information in case this argument is new to you: it’s new to no experts, no theologians, no translators. All these folks have long known that the same word (almah) that is translated virgin may also be simply translated young woman.
The question then is, what do we do with this information? And it’s an important question because many contemporary Bible critics would say that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was quite possibly no virgin at all when she gave birth to Jesus. She was just a young woman. Indeed, the author of the article in question was making such a case, saying that almah in Isaiah 7:14 was rendered virgin only so that it would line up with Matthew’s explanation of Jesus’ birth in Matthew 1.
What such an interpretation ignores is that Matthew’s account includes the angelic appearance to Joseph, wherein the carpenter—who had every intention of ending the engagement with his fiancée because of her apparent infidelity—was told that Mary’s pregnancy was the product of the Holy Spirit.
Could Matthew have concocted this whole story to make Jesus’ birth come off as entirely miraculous? Yes, he could have. But where would his motivation have rested in doing so? The deadly persecution of followers of Christ was well in force when Matthew set down his words—that is, he may as well have been writing his suicide note in affirming Jesus as Messiah. Moreover, we have the account of Luke, where Mary asked specifically of the announcing angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” What sense would this question have made if she had asked, “How can this be, since I am a young woman?”
Like a trial attorney bent on blowing up a witness’ fine testimony on the basis of nuances and semantics, we can undo virtually any piece of writing, ancient or contemporary. But in doing so, we kill the true intent. In the case of Scripture, that intent is to capture our heart.
Pretending to revere and follow the Word of God while casting doubt its way is like trying to swing a golf club with no faith in your technique—a recipe for trouble. The best way to make sense of Scripture is not to read it “literally” (for it doesn’t always call for that), but to trust the intent of the Master Author and those he chose to write down the words he has for us, then to take them at face value and make a life of living them out.
—
Jeff Hopper
January 14, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.