Messianic Prophecies
The Virgin Shall Conceive (Isaiah 7:14)
30-second summary
Isaiah told King Ahaz that a young woman (Hebrew almah) would conceive and bear a son, Emmanuel, 'God with us' (Isaiah 7:14). By the second century BC at the latest, the Septuagint translated almah as parthenos, 'virgin.' Matthew 1:22-23 cites that Greek wording as fulfilled in the virginal conception of Jesus, the sense the Catholic Church has held since the apostolic age (CCC 497).
Scripture
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
Propter hoc dabit Dominus ipse vobis signum : ecce virgo concipiet, et pariet filium, et vocabitur nomen ejus Emmanuel.
And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Hasten to take away the spoils... For before the child know to call his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria shall be taken away.
Et accessi ad prophetissam, et concepit, et peperit filium. Et dixit Dominus ad me : Voca nomen ejus : Accelera spolia detrahere... quia antequam sciat puer vocare patrem suum et matrem suam, auferetur fortitudo Damasci, et spolia Samariae.
Now all this was done 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 is, God with us.
Hoc autem totum factum est, ut adimpleretur quod dictum est a Domino per prophetam dicentem: Ecce virgo in utero habebit, et pariet filium : et vocabunt nomen ejus Emmanuel, quod est interpretatum Nobiscum Deus.
Prophecy & Fulfillment
- Given
- c. 735 BC, Isaiah to King Ahaz during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis
- Fulfilled
- c. 4 BC, per Matthew's Gospel, the virginal conception of Jesus Christ
Matthew 1:22-23 cites Isaiah 7:14 in its Septuagint wording ('parthenos') and presents it as fulfilled in the virginal conception of Jesus by Mary through the Holy Spirit, whom the angel names Emmanuel, 'God with us.' The Catholic Church holds this as the fulfilled sense of Isaiah's sign to Ahaz (CCC 497).
Why this level?
This entry's claim rests on two converging elements: a pre-Christian textual anchor and the interpretive identification the entry itself makes. By the second century BC at the latest, Jewish translators producing the Septuagint rendered Isaiah's almah as parthenos, 'virgin' - a reading in circulation centuries before Christ and independent of the Gospels. Matthew's citation of that Greek wording, and the Catholic Church's Christological identification of Isaiah 7:14 as fulfilled in Mary's virginal conception (CCC 497), supply the interpretive step that connects the sign to its fulfillment. A solid pre-Christian textual anchor joined to an interpretive identification of fulfillment is the standard for level 2.
Dig deeper
A sign given to the House of David
Isaiah delivered this sign during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis, around 735 BC. King Ahaz of Judah faced invasion by two allied kings, and the Lord offered him a sign through the prophet: a child named Emmanuel, "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14). Isaiah ties the child's growth to Judah's deliverance and to the fall of Damascus and Samaria (Isaiah 7:16; 8:3-4), rooting the sign in the real events of Ahaz's reign, while its language - a child called God with us - carries a weight that reaches beyond a single court prophecy.
Almah becomes parthenos
The Hebrew word Isaiah uses, almah, names a young woman of childbearing age. By the second century BC at the latest - centuries before Jesus was born - Jewish translators producing the Septuagint rendered it into Greek as parthenos, "virgin." Made by Jews translating their own Scripture with no Christian agenda to serve, this choice shows the virginal reading of Isaiah 7:14 was already in circulation in pre-Christian Judaism, not invented after the fact. (Elsewhere in the same translation parthenos can describe a young woman more broadly; almah and parthenos were the translators' standing equivalents for one another, a point of translation history worth knowing.)
Matthew's fulfillment and the Church's teaching
Matthew 1:22-23 quotes the Septuagint's parthenos directly and presents Isaiah's sign as fulfilled in the virginal conception of Jesus by Mary through the Holy Spirit, whom the angel names Emmanuel. The Catholic Church has read Isaiah 7:14 this way since the apostolic age: the Catechism teaches that "the Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine promise given through the prophet Isaiah" (CCC 497). Writing in the mid-second century, Justin Martyr already defended this Christological reading in debate with a Jewish interlocutor, showing the Church's interpretation of the verse reaches back to living memory of the apostles.
What the passage shows
Isaiah's sign to Ahaz, given about seven centuries before Christ and already carried into Greek as "virgin" well before his birth, finds in the New Testament the fulfillment the Church proclaims as the prophecy's deepest and truest sense: Emmanuel, God with us, born of the Virgin Mary.
Keep digging
- Douay-Rheims + Vulgate, Isaias 7 and 8 (drbo.org) — https://www.drbo.org/drl/chapter/27007.htm
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 497 — https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_two/artcile_3/paragraph_2_conceived_by_the_power_of_the_holy_spirit_and_born_of_the_virgin_mary.html
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 67 (New Advent) — https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01285.htm
- Septuagint — translation and dating (Wikipedia) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint
- Ask Magisterium AI about CCC 497 and typological prophecy — https://www.magisterium.com
Citations
- Scripture
Douay-Rheims + Vulgate, Isaias 7 (drbo.org)
Isaiah 7:14-16
Supports: Provides the exact Douay-Rheims English and Clementine Vulgate Latin text of Isaiah 7:14-16, including the sign and its timeframe.
- Scripture
Douay-Rheims + Vulgate, Isaias 8 (drbo.org)
Isaiah 8:3-4, 8:8, 8:10
Supports: Provides the exact Douay-Rheims English and Clementine Vulgate Latin text of Isaiah 8:3-4 and the later Immanuel refrains in 8:8 and 8:10.
- Scripture
Douay-Rheims + Vulgate, Matthew 1 (drbo.org)
Matthew 1:22-23
Supports: Provides the exact Douay-Rheims English and Vulgate Latin text of Matthew 1:22-23, showing Matthew's citation of Isaiah 7:14 as fulfilled.
- Church Father
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 497
CCC 497
Supports: States the Catholic Church's teaching that the virginal conception of Jesus fulfills Isaiah 7:14.
- Church Father
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 67 (New Advent)
Dialogue with Trypho 67
Supports: Attests that by the mid-second century the Church was already defending the Christological reading of Isaiah 7:14, showing the interpretation's roots in the apostolic era.
- Source
Septuagint — translation and dating
Wikipedia, Septuagint
Supports: Confirms the Septuagint's Prophets, including Isaiah, were translated into Greek by Jewish scholars by the second century BC at the latest, establishing the pre-Christian date of the almah-to-parthenos rendering.