The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A

The Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year A

Isaiah 7: 10-16
Romans 1: 1-7
Matthew 1: 18-25

We were taught in college, and many repeat in the pulpit, that the word ’almah' in Isaiah 7.14 doesn’t mean ‘virgin’, but ‘young woman’. It’s not that easy, actually: the word is rare, and the other uses, all compatible with virginity, don’t finally settle the issue. Nor does the more
common word bethulah necessarily mean ‘virgin’. In Genesis 24.16 Rebekah is described as ‘a bethulah, neither had any man known her’. The Greek translation of Isaiah 7.14, which makes...

Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year A by N T Wright

Published by SPCK