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NASB | Matthew 1:19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 1:19 And Joseph her [promised] husband, being a just and righteous man and not wanting to expose her publicly to shame, planned to send her away and divorce her quietly. |
Bible Question:
Is the Virgin Birth of Jesus a myth? I have recently been investigating the point of view that Matthew made up the story concerning the virgin birth due to his misunderstanding of Isaiah 7:14 meaning young women instead of a real virgin. This and the investigation of this issue has really shaken my faith. I hold on to my belief because I have no where else to turn. But just the same, this discovery is startling. |
Bible Answer: Hi, schimc; I'm not sure what "discovery" you are referring to. There is certainly no reason to believe that Matthew made anything up. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all refer to Isaiah 7. I doubt that all three misunderstood Isaiah's prophecy. I do, however, think that we may misunderstand what it means to fulfill prophecy. If you read Isaiah 7, it is pretty clear that this was not a direct reference to Jesus. The boy named Immanuel was to be a sign to King Ahaz during his lifetime. But that does not mean that Matthew and the others are wrong. A New Testament scholar and seminary professor whom I have the utmost respect for (conservative, evangelical) offered his explanation to a class I was in. In the Hebrew world, the fulfillment of prophecy meant that a prior word or event was brought to perfection. We tend to think of prophecy as a kind God-ordained forecast - the prophet says thus-and-so will happen and when it happens we say that the prophecy has been fulfilled. We can also say that the prophet's words were brought to perfection. For exmaple, if I say the drought will end because it's going to rain tomorrow, that's nice; it may remind someone to take their umbrella, but it won't water the crops. When it does indeed rain, those words are brought to perfection and the crops are in fact saved. The words have been made perfect in physical reality. But an event can also be prophecy. The birth of the boy Immanuel is an example. His name was to be Immanuel ("God with us") because his birth was a sign to King Ahaz that God would be with him in an upcoming battle. But the idea of a boy being born who would embody the promise of "God with us" was brought to perfection in the birth of Jesus. There can be no more perfect example of "God with us" than Jesus, who was God and was (and is) with us. Given the ancient Hebrew understanding of what it means to fulfill prophecy, we can see that it was proper for the three Gospel writers to refer to Isaiah 7, even though the boy named Immanuel had been born and died long before. As others have mentioned, the Hebrew word that Isaiah used to describe Immanuel's mother does not necessarily mean a virgin in the modern sense. Assuming she was just a young, unmarried woman, we can see that Mary, who truly was a virgin in the modern sense, was the perfection of the idea of a pure young woman bearing a son who would fulfill God's promise. Sorry to be so long-winded. Peace and grace, Steve aka Indiana Jones |