>>788111
>Virgin and young woman are synonyms to the ancient Hebrews.
Indeed.
As St. Jerome pointed out long ago, this meme has been going on for a very long time, and his point seems deliberately hidden nowadays, Almah actually signified "hidden young woman". Naarah was the proper word for "young woman".
Jerome:
> For at the present day, now that the whole world has embraced the faith, the Jews argue that when Isaiah says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son," the Hebrew word denotes a young woman, not a virgin, that is to say, the word is Almah, not Bethulah, a position which, farther on, we shall dispute more in detail.
>
>Isaiah tells of the mystery of our faith and hope: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel." I know that the Jews are accustomed to meet us with the objection that in Hebrew the word Almah does not mean a virgin, but a young woman. And, to speak truth, a virgin is properly called Bethulah, but a young woman, or a girl, is not Almah, but Naarah! What then is the meaning of Almah? A hidden virgin, that is, not merely virgin, but a virgin and something more, because not every virgin is hidden, shut off from the occasional sight of men. Then again, Rebecca, on account of her extreme purity, and because she was a type of the Church which she represented in her own virginity, is described in Genesis as Almah, not Bethulah, as may clearly be proved from the words of Abraham's servant, spoken by him in Mesopotamia: "And he said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go: behold I stand by the fountain of water; and let it come to pass, that the maiden which cometh forth to draw, to whom I shall say, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of this pitcher to drink; and she shall say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed for my master's son." Where he speaks of the maiden coming forth to draw water, the Hebrew word is Almah, that is, a virgin secluded, and guarded by her parents with extreme care. Or, if this be not so, let them at least show me where the word is applied to married women as well, and I will confess my ignorance. "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son."
In other words an almah is girl kept away from society (hidden, residing with parents), not presented to others as anyone you can court. Our society is especially a mess nowadays because we don't even understand this concept whatsoever. Just a hundred years ago, even "Victorian" society understood what it meant for a young girl to be hidden away by parents until the time she was "presented to society" and met suitors. Many of those famous Jane Austen era type novels are about young girls like this being opened up to a wider world of society.
Where I grew up, Mexicans were still like this. You couldn't even talk to a girl without getting bullied by her brothers.. and meeting her dad would cause dread at the very least. It would be even more the case in 1st Judaea in the Torah based society the NT takes place in.
In effect, Isaiah is actually not just calling her "virgin", but "Virgin +++". As in, "this girl has watched with extreme care and isn't out of the sight of anyone… and behold, she is somehow with child! Who could do such a thing? God can. God is with us."