- Of course, Jews! Isaac answered.

- Did they know their Hebrew language well? What do you think?

"Of course, they knew Hebrew and Greek perfectly, for they translated from one language into another," Isaac answered.

"How did they translate the word Alma?" I asked him. We opened the text of the seventy interpreters and read:

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son," etc.

"You see, the word Alma is translated by the word Virgin. Were the translators interested in distorting the text?

- Of course not! my friend exclaimed, for there were Jews and remained faithful to the original source. However, you promised to show me various passages in the Old Testament where the word alma is synonymous with betula.

"With pleasure, Isaac. This is what I also desire, in order to reveal the truth. Take the Torah, please. I will show you parallel verses, and you will find them yourself and read them in the language of the original source, and then we will translate them together. Please find verse 43 of Genesis chapter 24. Read!

Isaac began: "... Hine anohi nitzav al ein hamaim ve haya ha alma" and immediately translated: "Here I am standing at a spring of water and a maiden who will come out to draw"..., etc.

"Who are you talking about here, Isaac?" I asked him.

"We are talking about Rebekah. Eliazar, Abraham's servant, prays to the Lord to arrange for the first maiden (alma = maiden) he meets to be appointed to be Isaac's wife.

"Here," I asked him, "does the word alma refer to the unmarried Rebekah, or to a married woman, such as the prophetess's wife of Isaiah?"

"Of course," said Isaac, as if in amazement, "the word alma means virgin, for Rebekah had not yet become Isaac's wife. Strangely! How can I not have noticed it yet! he exclaimed. Why did the rabbis never show me this place? Now I am beginning to understand something... My god! How strange! Are we still in error?

Then, turning to me, he asked, "Is this the only place in the Bible where the word alma is synonymous with betula, or are there similar ones?"