# G3933 - parthenos **Strong's:** [G3933](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3933/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** par-then'-os **Part of speech:** feminine noun (occasionally adjectival) **Hebrew equivalents (LXX):** [H1330 - bethulah](/codex/h1330-bethulah/), בְּתוּלָה, "virgin"; [H5959 - almah](/codex/h5959-almah/), עַלְמָה, "young woman / virgin". **NT occurrences:** 15 (across 14 verses) ## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG) 1. **A maiden, virgin**, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse with a man; sexually inviolate. 2. **A young woman of marriageable age**, a *parthenos* by social position rather than strict biological state, though the cultural assumption of pre-marital chastity made the two senses largely overlap in NT usage. 3. **(Adjectivally / metaphorically) Pure, chaste, undefiled**, applied to males in [Revelation 14:4](/codex/revelation-14-4/) ("these are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are *parthenoi*"), where the term cannot mean biological virginity in the female sense and is used metaphorically of spiritual purity. The Greek word, in classical and biblical usage, **technically and unambiguously means "virgin"**, a sexually inviolate young woman. Unlike Hebrew *almah* (which has more semantic latitude), *parthenos* is the precise Greek term for sexual virginity. ## Theological force, the LXX rendering of [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) The word's theological weight rests almost entirely on its **deliberate use by the pre-Christian Jewish translators of the LXX** to render Hebrew *almah* in **[Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/)**: > *Idou hē parthenos en gastri lēpsetai kai texetai huion*, "Behold, the *parthenos* shall conceive and bear a son (LXX, c. 250 BC) The translators had a choice. *Almah* in Hebrew is sometimes rendered into Greek as *neanis* (young woman), and in fact later Jewish revisions (Theodotion, Aquila, Symmachus) all changed [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) to *neanis* precisely because *parthenos* had become a Christian-apologetic tool. But the original LXX translators, Jewish, ~250 BC, with no Christian agenda, chose *parthenos*. This is the strongest single argument for the virgin reading of [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/): the pre-Christian Jewish translators understood the verse to require a virgin. [Matthew 1:23](/codex/matthew-1-23/) then cites the LXX directly: > BEHOLD, THE *PARTHENOS* SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL ## The virgin-birth doctrine The virgin birth (more precisely the *virginal conception*) is grounded primarily in: - **[Matthew 1:18-25](/codex/matthew-1-18-25/)**, Mary "found with child by the Holy Spirit" before "they came together"; cites [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) in *parthenos*. - **[Luke 1:26-38](/codex/luke-1-26-38/)**, Annunciation; Mary's question "how can this be, since I am a *parthenos*?"; angel's answer "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." The doctrine asserts that: 1. Mary conceived Jesus while a virgin, by the Holy Spirit's miraculous action, without male agency. 2. This miraculous conception is a fulfillment of OT messianic prophecy. 3. The virgin conception is connected (in classical Christian theology) to: - The sinlessness of Christ (sometimes, though the connection is theological, not lexical-textual). - The unique Sonship of Christ, the Father is His "Father" without Joseph's biological agency. - The full deity AND full humanity of Christ, divine origin (no human father) + true human flesh (true human mother). The virgin birth is one of the four credal essentials in the Apostles' Creed and Nicene Creed, denied only by liberal-critical Christianity (Bultmann, etc.). All historic Christian traditions (Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Lutheran, evangelical) affirm it. ## Notable verses ### Of Mary specifically - **[Matthew 1:23](/codex/matthew-1-23/)**, citing [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/): *hē parthenos* - **[Luke 1:27](/codex/luke-1-27/)** (twice), "to a *parthenos* engaged to a man whose name was Joseph… and the *parthenos*'s name was Mary" ### Other female *parthenoi* - **[Acts 21:9](/codex/acts-21-9/)**, Philip's four daughters, *parthenoi*, who prophesied - **[Matthew 25:1-13](/codex/matthew-25-1-13/)**, the parable of the ten *parthenoi* (wise and foolish virgins) - **[1 Corinthians 7:25-38](/codex/1-corinthians-7-25-38/)**, Paul's counsel to *parthenoi* concerning marriage / celibacy - **[2 Corinthians 11:2](/codex/2-corinthians-11-2/)**, Paul presents the church as a "pure *parthenos* to Christ" ### Metaphorical / male application - **[Revelation 14:4](/codex/revelation-14-4/)**, "these are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves *parthenoi*; these are the ones who follow the Lamb" ## Patristic / scholarly note The patristic tradition was unanimous on the virgin birth from the earliest extant texts. Ignatius of Antioch (*Ephesians* 19, c. AD 110), the earliest extra-canonical witness, treats Mary's virginity as one of the "three mysteries shouted in silence." [Justin Martyr](/codex/justin-martyr/) (*Dialogue with Trypho* 43, 67-68, 84, c. AD 160) and Tertullian (*On the Flesh of Christ* 17-23, c. AD 210) develop the virgin-birth defense extensively against early heretical denials (Cerinthus, Marcion, the Ebionites all denied it). The patristic apologetic against later Jewish counter-translation (Symmachus, etc., shifting *parthenos* to *neanis*) is robust: the original LXX choice, pre-Christian, made by Jewish translators with no apologetic motive, established *parthenos* as the Greek understanding of *almah* in [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/). The later shift to *neanis* is documented as polemically motivated. The Reformation preserved the doctrine universally. Luther (*The Magnificat*, 1521; the Large Catechism, 1529) and Calvin (*Institutes* II.13-14; *Harmony of the Gospels* commentary) both defend the virginal conception with vigor. The Westminster Confession 8.2 affirms it. Modern conservative scholarship, J. Gresham Machen's *The Virgin Birth of Christ* (1930) is the foundational 20th-century treatment, defending the doctrine against Bultmann-style demythologization. More recent: D. A. Carson and Douglas Moo (*An Introduction to the New Testament*, 2005); Andreas Köstenberger and Alexander Stewart (*The First Days of Jesus*, 2015); Stephen Davis et al. (*The Incarnation*, 2002). ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ ## See also - [H5959 - almah](/codex/h5959-almah/), Hebrew "young woman / virgin", the [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) source word - [H1330 - bethulah](/codex/h1330-bethulah/), Hebrew "virgin", the technical Hebrew term - [Isaiah 7.14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/), the prophecy - [Matthew 1.23](/codex/matthew-1-23/), the NT citation - [G3439 - monogenes](/codex/g3439-monogenes/), the unique Sonship related to virginal conception - [G4151 - pneuma](/codex/g4151-pneuma/), the Holy Spirit's role in the conception