Isaiah 7:14 — virgin, or young woman?
Isaiah 7:14 is rendered as virgin in the Septuagint and as young woman in the Hebrew witnesses. The question concerns an ancient Greek translation and the word Matthew 1:23 quotes.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
What a blind committee did here.
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.
The blind committee’s printed text at Isaiah 7:14 reads the young woman shall conceive and bear a son. No rationale note matches this crux. The pericope audit verdict is recorded as "flagged". The record supplies the committee’s rendering, but not an explanation for that wording.
The case for each reading.
If “virgin”
Reading A begins with the Septuagint, a translation dated c. 2nd century B.C. Its wording is ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει, and its row glosses this as the virgin shall conceive. The packet identifies παρθένος as the word Matthew 1:23 quotes. Thus the case for A is not a dispute over a Hebrew manuscript reading: it is the ancient Greek translator’s choice and the later quotation named in the packet. This reading gives the sign a rendering with virgin.
If “young woman”
Reading B rests on the Hebrew wording itself. The Masoretic Text reads העלמה, glossed as the young woman, and the Great Isaiah Scroll, dated c. 125 B.C., reads the same word. The packet therefore describes the Hebrew text as not in doubt at this point. Its lexical note says that עלמה denotes a young woman of marriageable age and that Hebrew has a separate word, בתולה, when virginity itself is asserted. The case for B is that the Hebrew witnesses preserve this wording, while the disagreement arises in the ancient Greek rendering of it.
The listed witnesses establish a Hebrew wording and an ancient Greek rendering, but they do not by themselves settle every question about the translator’s intended sense. Matthew 1:23 is identified as quoting the Greek word. No doctrinal conclusion follows from the evidence listed here alone; doctrines rest on many passages, while this crux isolates one wording and its translation.
Asked plainly.
Does Isaiah 7:14 say virgin or young woman?
The Hebrew witnesses listed here read העלמה, glossed as the young woman. The Septuagint reads ἡ παρθένος, glossed as the virgin.
What does the Great Isaiah Scroll read in Isaiah 7:14?
The Great Isaiah Scroll reads העלמה. Its row says that this oldest complete Hebrew Isaiah agrees with the MT's word here.
Why is Matthew 1:23 part of this question?
The packet says the Septuagint chose παρθένος, the word Matthew 1:23 quotes. That links the ancient Greek rendering to the later quotation.
More places where the manuscripts argue.
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.
Weigh it yourself.
The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.