Almah (עַלְמָה ‘almā, plural: עֲלָמוֹת ‘ălāmōṯ), from a root implying the vigour of puberty, is a Hebrew word meaning a young woman ripe for marriage.[1] Despite its importance to the account of the virgin birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, Marvin Alan Sweeney states that scholars agree that it refers to a woman of childbearing age but that it has nothing to do with whether she is a virgin or not. H.G.M. Williamson states that that precise etymology remains unclear, and that there is widespread agreement that almah may refer to a virgin but not necessarily so. Brevard S. Childs states that, apart from one controversial reference (Proverbs 30:19), all the occasions of almah do actually appear to denote virgins, but while it is very unlikely that a married women would be referred to as an almah yet translating it as virgin focuses too much on virginity versus sexual maturity.[2][3][1] It occurs nine times in the Hebrew Bible[4] and in every usage the word is either used for a woman who is indicated to be a virgin or as indeterminate.[5]
Almah derives from a root meaning "to be full of vigour, to have reached puberty".[1] In the ancient Near East girls received value as potential wives and bearers of children: "A wife, who came into her husband's household as an outsider, contributed her labor and her fertility ... [h]er task was to build up the bet 'ab bearing children, particularly sons" (Leeb, 2002).[6] Scholars thus agree that almah refers to a woman of childbearing age without implying virginity.[7] From the same root, the corresponding masculine word elem עֶלֶם 'young man' also appears in the Bible,[8] as does alum (used in plural עֲלוּמִים) used in the sense '(vigor of) adolescence',[9] in addition to the post-Biblical words almut (עַלְמוּת) and alimut (עֲלִימוּת)[10] both used for youthfulness and its strength (distinct from post-Biblical Alimut אַלִּימוּת 'violence' with initial Aleph, although Klein's Dictionary states this latter root is likely a semantic derivation of the former, from 'strength of youth' to 'violence'[11]). In the original Hebrew language an unrelated word, betulah (בְּתוּלָה), best refers to a virgin,[12] as well as the idea of virginity, betulim (בְּתוּלִים).[13] However, while betulah occurs 51 times in the Hebrew scriptures, some scholars only see some occurrences as clearly meaning a virgin, and with Joel 1:8 being the most unlikely case.[14][15]
The word almah occurs nine times in the Hebrew Bible:[4]
The Septuagint translates most occurrences of almah into a generic word neanis (νεᾶνις) meaning 'young woman' however, two occurrences, one in Genesis 24:43 and one in Isaiah 7:14, are translated as parthenos (παρθένος), the basic word associated with virginity in Greek (it is a title of Athena 'The Virgin Goddess') but still occasionally used by the Greeks for a unmarried woman who is not a virgin.[19] Steve Moyise states that most scholars agree that Isaiah's phrase (a young woman shall conceive and bear a son) did not intend to convey any miraculous conception, yet, considering other uses of almah, Moyise allows that context can sometimes suggest that virgin is an appropriate translation.[20] In this verse, as in the Genesis occurrence concerning Rebecca, the Septuagint translators used the Greek word parthenos generically to indicate an unmarried young woman, whose probable virginity (as unmarried young women were ideally seen at the time) was incidental.[4][21][22]
