Almah

,עלמהHalma. Isaiah vii. 14.ALMAH. This Hebrew word signifies properly a Virgin, a young Person unacquainted with Man, one who is not married. In this sense we meet with it in the famous passage of Isaiah; the words whereof are these, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. The Hebrews have no term that more properly signifies a Virgin than Almah; but it must be confessed without lessening however the certainty of Isaiah’s Prophecy, that sometimes by mistake any young woman whatsoever, whether a Virgin or not, is called Almah¹. In like manner in Latin the name of Virgo is sometimes given to a young woman who has not her virginity. See our Dissertation before the Prophecy of Isaiah upon this passage of the Prophet, Ecce virgo, &c. vii. 14. St. Jerom in his Comment on it remarks, that the Prophet declined making use of the word Bethulah, which signifies a young Woman or young Person, but employed the term Alma, which denotes a Virgin who was never seen by Man. This is the proper signification of the word Alma², which is derived from a root that signifies to conceal. It is very well known that young Women in the East do not appear in publick, but are shut up in their houses, and their Mothers apartment, like Nuns³. The Chaldee Paraphrast and the Septuaginti translate Alma Virgin; Akiba⁴ the famous Rabbin, a great enemy to Christ and Christians, who lived in the second Century, understands it thus. The Apostles and Evangelists, and the Jews of our Saviour’s time, explained it in the same sense, and expected a Messiah born of a Virgin. Mahomet and all his followers acknowledge the Virginity of the blessed Mother of our Lord.

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