The Septuagint Got It Right When Everyone Else Was Wrong!

My favorite book on the Septuagint: https://amzn.to/48Ztg2l (affiliate link) In this video, we examine Isaiah 7:14 through the lens of the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint (LXX), and we explore how one translation choice had enormous downstream consequences for Jewish–Christian interpretation and Christian theology. The Hebrew word ʿalmāh (עַלְמָה) used in Isaiah 7:14 most naturally means “young woman” or “maiden”—a woman of marriageable age. It does not explicitly denote virginity in the way that betûlāh often does. That said, in ancient Israelite culture, a young unmarried woman would commonly have been presumed to be a virgin, which explains why the term could function with some ambiguity. When the Septuagint translators rendered Isaiah into Greek (3rd–2nd century BC), they chose the word παρθένος (parthenos). In Koine Greek, parthenos most commonly means “virgin,” though it can on occasion refer more broadly to a maiden or unmarried woman without explicit reference to virginity (for example, Genesis 34:3 in the Septuagint). Even so, in Isaiah 7:14 as rendered in the Septuagint, the term most naturally conveys virginity, especially given that Greek had other available terms (such as νεᾶνις, “young woman”) that were not used. The Gospel of Matthew 1:23 explicitly follows the Septuagint wording when applying Isaiah 7:14 to the birth of Jesus: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive…” This reliance on the LXX, rather than a fresh translation from the Hebrew, played a decisive role in how early Christians understood the prophecy and articulated the doctrine of the virgin birth. In the second century AD, later Jewish Greek translators—Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion—revisited Isaiah 7:14 and deliberately avoided parthenos, instead using νεᾶνις (“young woman”). This shift reflects a different interpretive choice in a post-Christian context, amid growing Jewish–Christian disagreement over how the passage should be read. While the immediate historical context of Isaiah 7 likely refers to a sign given in the time of King Ahaz, Christians came to read the passage typologically or as having a fuller, forward-looking fulfillment. The Septuagint’s rendering proved foundational for this reception history. As a result, one translation decision did not merely reflect interpretation—it helped shape it, influencing New Testament usage, early Christian theology, and the long-standing divide between Jewish and Christian readings of Scripture. For a deeper dive see how Dr. Greg Lanier handles this verse here: https://youtu.be/s0cYEkCqNzk?si=1MStE_HhwVgroY1p This video explores: What the Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 does—and does not—say Why the Septuagint’s wording mattered How Matthew’s use of the LXX shaped Christian doctrine