Does Isaiah 7:14 say "virgin"? The translation behind the virgin birth

The passages

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Isaiah 7:16

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Matthew 1:23

The problem

The Hebrew word in Isaiah 7:14 is almah. It refers to a young woman of marriageable age, and the Hebrew word for a virgin in the strict sense is betulah. Almah does not exclude virginity, but it does not require it. The Greek Septuagint, which Matthew quotes, renders it parthenos, which usually means "virgin" but can also mean a young woman. Many modern versions (the RSV, for example) translated it "young woman" in Isaiah, while keeping "virgin" in Matthew.

Context adds to the question. Isaiah is speaking to King Ahaz around 735 BC, when two kings are attacking Judah. The sign is that before the child is old enough to know right from wrong, the threat will be gone (7:16). That seems to place the child in the near future, which does not obviously fit a birth centuries later.

What believers and scholars say

The Septuagint shows how Jews read it. Jewish translators in Alexandria, a century or two before Jesus, chose parthenos for almah. Defenders argue that this shows the word could be understood as "virgin" before any Christian read it that way. Oswalt argues that a sign from God should be extraordinary, and that "virgin" fits.

A double fulfillment. Many scholars hold that the prophecy had a near fulfillment, perhaps a child born to the royal household in Ahaz's time (Hezekiah or a son of Isaiah), and a later one in Jesus. Wildberger and Brown consider the "young woman" reading the better account of the Hebrew, and see Matthew as reading the Greek text in light of what he believed about Jesus.

The belief came first. Brown observes that nothing in pre-Christian Judaism expected a messiah born of a virgin. So the idea of virgin birth probably arose from the Christian tradition, and Isaiah 7:14 was then found as a supporting text.

The doctrine does not rest on Isaiah. The virginal conception is stated in Matthew and Luke independently of Isaiah 7:14 in Luke's case. The translation question affects the prophecy, not the narrative.

Where this leaves it

The Hebrew word is open, and the Greek word is narrower. A reader who trusts Matthew's reading can say he was guided to see more in the text than the original author did. A reader who does not will say that the claim of prophetic fulfillment depends on a translation. The birth narratives themselves make the claim separately.