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or any one else who wants to answer or comment:

Please explain Isaiah chapter 7 to me. Please explain the historical setting and what Isaiah is writing about.

OMG - I forgot William S and bcspace. - please feel free to respond.

While not an expert I'll take a stab at it:

Syria and Israel had formed an alliance for protection against Assyria. Judah refused to join the alliance and the alliance moved against them. The opening verses of the chapter speak of this and say they have no strength to conquer. In verse 8 Isaiah tells the king that within 65 years Israel will be broken (by Assyrian deportation).

He then says that a virgin will bear a son and before he knows good from evil (i.e. young) both the kings of the alliance will be dead (killed by Assyrians). Then there is mention of the coming Assyrian invasion and that it is going to be bad. While they were largely defeated Jerusalem held out against the siege.

There is debate about the virgin passage with Jews from the First Century on arguing that it meant only a young woman, not necessarily a virgin. I'm not an expert but from Irenaus on I think it's clear that the Jews thought it meant virgin until the passage became troubling. The word in the Septuagint translates best as virgin.

In any case, to be a revelation of Christ the passage has to be in some sense dualistic.

At that point, my knowledge runs much deeper into speculation and is of less worth then my musings above.

karl61 wrote:or any one else who wants to answer or comment:

Please explain Isaiah chapter 7 to me. Please explain the historical setting and what Isaiah is writing about.

Nehor got the context right. In the immediate context the child mentioned in 14 is most likely Hezekiah, who defended Jerusalem from Sennacherib's assault shortly before Sennacherib's own death. Hezekiah was kind of a proto-Josiah vis-a-vis Deuteronomistic-like reform.

If you think it really has nothing to do with Christianity do you speak up when it is taken out of context. sort of pounding a square into a circle.

The Nehor wrote:While not an expert I'll take a stab at it:

Syria and Israel had formed an alliance for protection against Assyria. Judah refused to join the alliance and the alliance moved against them. The opening verses of the chapter speak of this and say they have no strength to conquer. In verse 8 Isaiah tells the king that within 65 years Israel will be broken (by Assyrian deportation).

He then says that a virgin will bear a son and before he knows good from evil (i.e. young) both the kings of the alliance will be dead (killed by Assyrians). Then there is mention of the coming Assyrian invasion and that it is going to be bad. While they were largely defeated Jerusalem held out against the siege.

There is debate about the virgin passage with Jews from the First Century on arguing that it meant only a young woman, not necessarily a virgin. I'm not an expert but from Irenaus on I think it's clear that the Jews thought it meant virgin until the passage became troubling. The word in the Septuagint translates best as virgin.

In any case, to be a revelation of Christ the passage has to be in some sense dualistic.

At that point, my knowledge runs much deeper into speculation and is of less worth then my musings above.

do you agree with this statement:

Th Old Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures paragraphed Isaiah 7: 14 and heightened the miraculous element in the oracle by translating the world 'alm'ah with the Greek parthenos.
In the Hebrew text Isaiah looked at a pregnant young woman and knew the child's gender and future name; in contrast; the Greek translation has him looking at a young women who has not even had intercourse yet and foretells her pregnancy as well as the gender and the name of the child to be born. This quirk of translation allows the Greek-speaking author of Matthew's Gospel to look at this verse (in Greek) and see its "fulfillment" in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, whom Matthew and Luke regard as the only son of God from his conception in his mother's womb, hence being "of virgin born".

from Anthony A. Hutchinson Prophetic Foreknowledge: Hope and Fulfillment in an Inspired Community.

karl61 wrote:If you think it really has nothing to do with Christianity do you speak up when it is taken out of context. sort of pounding a square into a circle.

I do speak up. If it's brought up in Sunday School I will point out the immediate fulfillment was the birth of Hezekiah, but that messianic interpretations were common well before Christianity entered the picture.

maklelan wrote:

karl61 wrote:If you think it really has nothing to do with Christianity do you speak up when it is taken out of context. sort of pounding a square into a circle.

I do speak up. If it's brought up in Sunday School I will point out the immediate fulfillment was the birth of Hezekiah, but that messianic interpretations were common well before Christianity entered the picture.

Thank you. I'm glad to hear this.

karl61 wrote:do you agree with this statement:

Th Old Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures paragraphed Isaiah 7: 14 and heightened the miraculous element in the oracle by translating the world 'alm'ah with the Greek parthenos.
In the Hebrew text Isaiah looked at a pregnant young woman and knew the child's gender and future name; in contrast; the Greek translation has him looking at a young women who has not even had intercourse yet and foretells her pregnancy as well as the gender and the name of the child to be born. This quirk of translation allows the Greek-speaking author of Matthew's Gospel to look at this verse (in Greek) and see its "fulfillment" in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, whom Matthew and Luke regard as the only son of God from his conception in his mother's womb, hence being "of virgin born".

from Anthony A. Hutchinson Prophetic Foreknowledge: Hope and Fulfillment in an Inspired Community.

Not entirely. The Hebrew says the 'almah will "conceive and give birth," meaning the putative prophecy is chronologically prior to conception, and so we can't say for sure the woman was visibly pregnant at the time the prophecy was written. It could have happened at any time before or after conception and birth. At the same time, other Semitic literature treats betulah as a synonym for 'almah, which supports a rendering of "virgin." We can't know for sure exactly when the author was writing or exactly what he meant, so I generally refrain from absolutes when I talk about it.

there is no betulah in Isaiah - isn't that in reference to Rebeka.