Jewish folk find it difficult to reconcile New Testament texts with people and events recorded in the Tanakh (which we call the Old Testament). This is especially the case with Isaiah 7:14 and its prophetic fulfillment — as distinct from its historical application — in Matthew 1:23.
Bible prophecy is empirical, in that it is not so much arrived at by theory, calculation, or projection as it is by observing its fulfillment in the experiences of people living later in history.
From this perspective, many prophecies that appear as having been fulfilled in Old Testament history can be regarded as having been fulfilled spiritually in the people and events in the time of the New Testament.
For example, Jews reject the application by Christians of Isaiah 7:14 to the conception and virgin birth of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1:23. Isaiah uses the Hebrew word “almah” when referring to the virgin maid’s sign-child. Jews regard this prophecy as having been fulfilled historically, but Christians interpret it empirically; that is, as fulfilled in a greater way in the virgin Mary’s experience; that is, as greater than its historic context.
The word empirical is not derived from “empire” but instead owes its existence to the Empiric School of physicians in England, which relied on practice and on observation rather than medical theory or science.
The sign in Isaiah 7:14 was not just that the virgin would conceive and bear a child but that by the time her child would know right from wrong the kingdom of Syria would have ceased its oppression of Israel. Syria was conquered three years later by Assyria, the first world power, and its role as Israel’s oppressor then ceased.
So, Isaiah’s prophecy was thus fulfilled in Jewish history. Or was it?
Almost seven hundred years later, Matthew was inspired to apply Isaiah’s prophecy to Mary and to use the Greek word “parthenos”, which translates as “virgin birth”. Isaiah had not used the Hebrew word “bethuwlah”, which indicates a virgin, but “almah”, one used for a maid who happened to be a virgin (as maids were in those days).
“Almah” means “hidden from sight” and is also found in Song of Songs 1:3 and 6:8. Isaiah used “almah” because the prophecy of the child that would be born to the virgin maid living in his time did not require a virgin birth.
Matthew, who translated “almah” (maid) as “parthenos” (virgin) was a Greek-speaking Jew who was familiar with the meaning of both words. He was inspired because “all scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). Three centuries earlier, the translators of the Septuagint, the translation of the Jewish Bible in Greek (commonly referred to as the LXX) had already translated the “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 as “parthenos”.
Isaiah’s sign was fulfilled in the Christian view when Mary conceived after receiving God’s word through Gabriel and in time gave birth to Jesus. Christians attribute Matthew’s application of Isaiah’s prophecy empirically, but Jews regard it as incapable of future fulfillment, because they restrict Divine inspiration to the Tanakh.
On this ground they also reject the application to Jesus Christ of Isaiah 53, which they interpret as their own sufferings as a people. We apply the words “by whose stripes we are healed” to Christ’s sufferings, and so experience the great truth of the Atonement. We see Isaiah’s “we are healed” in the light of the apostle Peter’s “you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Jews limit Isaiah’s prophecy to the sufferings they were enduring – and continue to endure.
The inspired writers of the New Testament see people and events in the Old Testament as the “shadow” of greater things to come (1 Corinthians 10:6; Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5). The inspired apostle Paul identifies Israel’s Passover lamb as “Christ our Passover…sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
In the Christian view, the great “types” of the Old Testament have their “antitypes” or fulfillments in the New Testament. However, from the Jewish perspective, those were not “types” of things to come but actual historical events that formed links in the chain of Israel’s history.
Jews and Christians view Old Testament texts from different perspectives. Christians have a New Testament perspective on prophecy. But the first Christians, who were Jews, understood Old Testament texts not only historically but also empirically because they observed them as having been fulfilled in Christ’s life and sufferings.
Psalm 22 is considered the most detailed of all Messianic Psalms. In verse 22, David prophesies: “I will declare your name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise you.” The word “congregation” is descriptive of a large number of Israelites assembled for worship. The writer of Hebrews uses “church” (eklesia) rather than “congregation.” The Greek word defines a gathering of persons called out for a particular purpose – religious, political or whatever.
A Jew might well ask by what authority the writer of Hebrews quotes the suffering figure in Psalm 22:22 as a prophetic reference to a song of praise by Messiah in the church congregation. The answer: The same Spirit of God that inspired David’s prophecy also inspired the writer of Hebrews to apply it to a song of praise to God by Jesus Christ in a future assembly, one composed of both Jew and Gentile believers.
Empirical Christianity sees things from a non-Jewish perspective. Yet the word empirical should not be confused with the word imperial, which would indicate that the whole of Old Testament history is to be explained in the light of the New Testament. Such a view would rob the Jewish people of their history.
The empirical view preserves the integrity of both Jew and Christian viewpoints. This view might not be acceptable to those Christians who identify culturally with the Jewish people, but if there is a more satisfying solution to the application of the texts quoted above -– and others like them –- I’ve not yet heard it.