The apostolic use of the Septuagint is well-documented

The Isaiah 7:14 dispute hinges on a genuine semantic difference between Hebrew and Greek that carries profound theological weight.

The Hebrew word almah (עַלְמָה) denotes a young woman of marriageable age—a descriptor of age and social status rather than a specific claim about virginity. The language contains a more precise term, betulah, when virginity is the intended meaning. Yet the English translation renders it “the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son” (Isa 7:14). This translation choice reflects the Septuagint’s rendering, where the Greek parthenos unambiguously means virgin. Matthew’s quotation follows this Greek version (Matt 1:23), adopting the stronger claim about Mary’s virginity that the original Hebrew text does not explicitly make.

This represents a genuine translation decision with theological consequences. The Septuagint translators, working in Greek-speaking Alexandria, rendered almah as parthenos—whether intentionally to emphasize virginity or simply because the Greek word captured their understanding of the term. Matthew, writing for a Greek-speaking audience, drew from this established Greek text rather than translating directly from Hebrew.

The apostolic use of the Septuagint is well-documented. Of approximately three hundred fifty Old Testament passages quoted in the New Testament, more than three hundred align so closely with the Septuagint that it is evident the writers used that text as their source[1]. Peter, James, Mark, Luke, and the author of Hebrews consistently quote from the Septuagint; Paul does so almost always; and Matthew and John do so very often[1]. The Septuagint was the primary source for New Testament quotations of the Old Testament[2].

The historical context explains this preference: Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria produced a Greek translation of the Pentateuch in the third century BCE, with the remaining Hebrew Scriptures translated over the next two centuries, so that by Jesus’s time the entire Old Testament was available in Greek[2]. The New Testament writers routinely used the Septuagint, which was the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament[3]. Rather than representing infidelity to the original text, this practice reflected the apostles’ engagement with the Scripture available to their audience.

[1] A. E. Breen, A General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (Rochester, NY: John P. Smith Printing Company, 1908), 264.
[2] Michael Graves, The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture: What the Early Church Can Teach Us (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 99–100.
[3] Victor Vadney, Jesus Christ Fulfills Messianic Prophecies (Abilene, TX: Desert Willow Publishing, 2014), 13.