> Actually, I'd like to add that the word used that is
> translated as "virgin" can also mean simply "young girl."
> There is little indication, according to a number of biblical
> scholars I've read (including some who were still
> religionists), that the word was meant as "virgin,"
Honest Bible translations admit it. For instance, my NRSV (_The New Oxford Annotated Bible_, 1994) translates Isaiah 7:14 as:
". . . the young woman is with child and shall bear a son. . . ."
Notice that this translation is also honest enough to say "is with child" instead of the common "shall conceive." The latter phrase serves Christians by making Isaiah appear to be prophesying a future pregnancy, when he is merely acknowledging an existing one.
Rick Shumaker