whose words were fulfilled when the birth of Jesus took place?

Answer 1

A:

There is no prophecy of the birth of Jesus anywhere in The Bible. However, Matthew's Gospel says that Isaiah 7:14 was a prophecy that Jesus would be born of a virgin, and we should consider that. Matthew relies on the Septuagint, a flawed early Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. Although not actually mentioning Jesus or Mary, the Septuagint does say: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

However, what the prophet Isaiah actually wrote in the original Hebrew was, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." The 'prophecy' was for a young woman about whom Isaiah was speaking and about a child to be called Immanuel. The young woman in question did have a child just a few verses later in Isaiah's book, and Isaiah never wrote of a virgin or of the virgin Mary.

No one can satisfactorily explain why a reference to a child called Immanuel should be a prophecy of Jesus some six centuries later, but the words of Isaiah are now widely considered to be a prophecy fulfilled by the birth of Jesus. This is now so central to Christian belief that hymns even use 'Immanuel' as an alternative name for Jesus.