"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel,"
-Isaiah 7:14
This is a somewhat heavily disputed verse in the Holy Bible. Why? The word for "virgin" in Hebrew is "almah", and this is the word that appears in the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Documents. The problem with this is that "almah" in Hebrew can also mean "maiden", "girl", or even "young woman." In fact, the Jewish Tanakh reads that a young woman or maiden will conceive.
An important part of Christian theology is the idea that Yeshua was conceived in Miryam's womb by the Holy Spirit, and that she birthed the Messiah as a virgin. Many atheists and non-believers, however will say that while she was an "almah", she wasn't necessarily a virgin, and this wasn't necessarily a prophecy.
It's important, however, that we look at the context surrounding the verse. The prophet Isaiah says that the Lord will give them a sign. I don't need to tell you that if something is a sign, it will almost definitely be something out of the ordinary. So how is a maiden or a young woman getting pregnant a sign? After all, millions of young women conceive every day!
A pregnant virgin, however, is something out of the ordinary. If God were to show the world a sign of the Messiah, then he would conceive a virgin. Context clearly supports the idea of the Virgin Birth, otherwise it wouldn't be a prophecy. Signs and wonders are the message here, so something as simple as "A maiden will conceive" just doesn't fit the verse.
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