DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
'Almah' means a young woman of marriageable age, often implying she's unmarried. When the Hebrew was translated into Greek (the Septuagint), 'almah' became 'parthenos' — usually 'virgin,' though that Greek word has range too; the Septuagint uses it of Dinah at Genesis 34:3. Matthew 1:23 quotes the Greek and reads it as pointing to Jesus.
Why it’s interesting
So the famous 'virgin' comes through the Greek, while the Hebrew says something more general — and both words carry more range than the English suggests. Hebrew does have a term that more specifically means virgin, betulah, and Isaiah 7:14 doesn't use it.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.