'almah

Entry for 'almah in the Hebrew language dictionary Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti libros by Ludwig Kohler and Walter Baumgartner. Published 1948-1953 by Brill. 

Lexicography is the study of what words mean. Because the Bible was written over two thousand years ago, the meaning of its vocabulary is not always certain. Some words are rare or obscure; others have changed in meaning over time. Scholars are constantly on the lookout for places where previous understandings of particular words might be mistaken.

This famous example is the Hebrew word ’almah in Isa 7:14. The ancient Greek translation rendered it as parthenos, which usually means “virgin,” as it is cited in Matt 1:22-23. However, many scholars think that the Hebrew word actually referred to a stage of life (that is, young woman) rather than a lack of sexual experience. In fact, many words that came to mean virgin originally indicated a woman’s age: the Latin word virgo, from which we get the English term virgin; the German Jungfrau; the Greek parthenos; and the Hebrew betulah. (The latter is used for a widow in Joel 1:8, and its Ugaritic cognate is used of the sexually active goddess Anat, suggesting that in fact the word does not refer to a virgin.)