Behold, the Virgin Shall Conceive…

Last updated on: December 27, 2017 at 4:33 pm by Mark Shea

Behold, the Virgin Shall Conceive… 2017-12-27T16:33:17-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So last week, just as I was about to post a followup to this piece on Matthew, Isaiah, and the Virgin Birth my old computer suffered a devastating myocardial infarction and died. Since then, I have been struggling to get the new system online, reconstruct my data, and salvage what is left of my old hard drive. Also, Christmas happened, bringing with the attendant goofoffery that makes Christmas so wonderful. Every time I have thought to myself “You should post something on the blog” the better angels of my nature have said, “Better still, you should enjoy some Irish Cream and open a gift or have a snowball fight with a kid or take a walk or take a nap or go to Mass or snuggle with your wife or watch It’s a Wonderful Life or work on your novel.” So I’ve done these things instead. But duty calls and so I’m back with my followup explaining why Matthew bothers quoting Isaiah 7:14, because it’s good to talk about holy things at Christmas, which it still is, by the way:

Last time, in this space, we chronicled the confusion of my friend, who discovered that the prophet Isaiah did not write “Behold, the virgin shall conceive” in Isaiah 7:14, but “Behold, the almah shall conceive”. Almah, as we saw last time, means “young woman” (an idea that certainly can encompass a virgin, but which need not be limited to that). We saw that it was Jews a couple centuries before Jesus who translated the Hebrew almah into the Greek parthenos (virgin) and thereby provided Matthew with the passage he quotes in his gospel (Matthew 1:23). We also saw that this passage from Isaiah is not the source of the tradition that Jesus was born of a virgin, but rather that this Tradition can have only one possible source: the Blessed Virgin herself.

So the question arises: why does Matthew bother quoting this passage from Isaiah at all?

The answer takes us far into Israel’s past and into a way of reading Scripture that is both deeply Jewish and deeply Christian.

First, an important rule of thumb about the New Testament.

When a New Testament writer quotes a passage from the Old Testament, he is assuming you know the Old Testament as well as a modern teenager knows the scripts to all the Star Warsmovies.

My oldest son is named Luke. When his friends are visiting I will sometimes walk into the room, breathing heavily, and point at him saying, “Luke! I am your father.” I don’t need to laboriously explain to everybody the context of my remark. Everybody in the room instantly recalls the scene from The Empire Strikes Back and can, indeed, tell you the whole story of Anakin Skywalker’s humble origins, rise, fall, and redemption. What I am doing in quoting that line is alluding to all of that and making a joke that everyone will get.

We can make use of allusion in all sorts of ways other than jokes. If I say of some cutback to medical care for the poor “If the poor be like to die they had better do it and help decrease the surplus population”, I need not elaborately explain the whole tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Most literate people will understand the reference.

Matthew is doing the same thing. He expects us to understand the entire context of Isaiah 7:14 and not simply read it in isolation. So what is that context?

To find that out, we must go back in time a thousand years before Christ to a moment that is the source of the entire Jewish messianic tradition. David has recently become king and is thinking about the Ark of the Covenant still being housed in the tent Israel used for it during the centuries in which they first wandered in the wilderness and eventually conquered and settled in the Holy Land. He goes to Nathan the prophet and says, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” (2 Samuel 7:2). So he proposes to build a “house” (i.e., a temple) for God to replace the tent. But Nathan, after consulting God, returns with God’s reply:

“Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ’ Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men; but I will not take my merciful love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.’ ” (2 Samuel 7:5–16)

There is a pun at the root of this exchange. Instead of David building a “house” in the form fo a temple for God, God will build David a “house” in the form of a dynasty: the House of David. This is the origin of the Israelite conviction that the “Son of David” would rule over Israel forever and that God is with (Emmanuel) the House of David forever.

So we now fast forward from the time of David to the time of Isaiah (about three hundred years)….

Much more here…

Uncategorized

Exalted Felicitations of the Day

Previous Post

December 21, 2017

The US Now Runs the Largest Gulag on the Planet

Next Post

December 27, 2017 In Praise of Materialism at Christmas

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz