Joe,Kenneth, it does make a big difference, as I would have thought you would realise if you are interested in "messianic mistakes" as suggested by your domain name. If the article in Isaiah 7:14 implies that the young woman or virgin was someone personally known to Isaiah (as I think it probably does), then any exegesis or translation which implies that this some kind of a reference to the birth of the Messiah is a "messianic mistake". That is not to suggest that later writers were wrong to claim this as somehow prophetically prefiguring the birth of the Messiah, but only that the primary referent about whom Isaiah wrote was not the Messiah's mother but a woman in his own time.
What exactly are you trying to prove by discussing the definite article in Isaiah 7:14? I don't see how it makes a big difference if it means "the" or "a" young woman or virgin or whatever people want to think it means.
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