HUIOS TAU THEOS /SON OF MAN, HUIOS TAU ANTHROPOS (Lesson 3)
VALIDATING THE VIRGIN BIRTH: THE NAMES OF JESUS
IMMANUEL (NT:1694, HEBREW, EMMANOUH/L EMMANOUEL (EM-MAN-OO-ALE'):[1] GOD WITH US.
THE WORD OF GOD ACCLAIMS THE VIRGIN BIRTH:
John 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Because Jesus is God in human form, He is the physical reflection of the expression of God. He is God’s Word in skin. Christ’s life and teachings are a living expose of the plan of God for man.
Why did he choose to call Jesus “the Word”? “In the beginning was the Word.” My answer to that question is this: John calls Jesus the Word because he had come to see the words of Jesus as the truth of God and the person of Jesus as the truth of God in such a unified way that Jesus himself—in His coming, and working, and teaching, and dying and rising—was the final and decisive Message of God.[2] – John Piper
THE OLD TESTAMENT PROCLAIMED THE VIRGIN BIRTH:
Isaiah 7:14 presents this truth when the prophet says, “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.” The Old Testament prophet Isaiah, long before the event itself, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, prophesied in His oral and in the written word that a virgin would give birth to a son and He would be called Immanuel which means “God with us.” That Son is Jesus.
We do know that the prophecy has its fullest meaning, and its divinely intended fulfillment, therefore, in the birth of Jesus. The Davidic royal family was almost non-existent (Herod was not even a Jew); Rome was completely dominating the political scene. And in the middle of all this, a sign was given, which was a fulfillment of the ancient sign of Isaiah: there would be an actual virgin birth in the lineage of David. Any partial fulfillment in Old Testament times would merely have been a foreshadowing of the true fulfillment in Jesus. We shall see this pattern of the way prophecy works again and again.[3] – Allen Ross
In his original pronouncement in 7:14, Isaiah used the Hebrew word alma for “virgin.” That is a significant term, and it’s important to understand why the prophet used it.’ Alma occurs six other times in the Old Testament (Genesis 24:43, Exodus 2:8, Psalms 68:25, Proverbs 30:19, Song of Solomon 1:3, 6:8)), and in each instance, it connotes or denotes “virgin.” Until recent times, both Jewish and Christian scholars always translated the word that way.
It is interesting that in modern Hebrew either ’alma or betula can mean “virgin.” However, Isaiah did not use betula because in Old Testament Hebrew it can refer to a married woman who is not a virgin (Deuteronomy 22:19, Joel 1:8). It’s apparent, therefore, that he used ’alma in 7:14 with the clear, precise conviction that the woman who would bear the Messiah would indeed be a young woman who never had sexual relations with a man.[4] – John MacArthur
[1] New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Ibid.
[2] John Piper, In the Beginning was the Word, , © 2016, Desiring God, All Right Reserved, desiringgod.org/messages/in-the-beginning-was-the-word.
[3] Allen Ross, 2. The Birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25), © 2016 Bible.org, All Rights Reserved, bible.org/seriespage/2-birth-jesus-matthew-118-25.
[4] John MacArthur, The Virgin Birth and Prophecy, © 2016 Grace to You, All Rights Reserved, gty.org/blog/B111223/the-virgin-birth-and-prophecy
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