Isaiah 66:7

"Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith Jehovah: shall I that cause to bring forth shut the womb? saith God."

The student should not be confused with the profusion of Old Testament terminology throughout the remainder of this chapter. Such things as the temple, animal sacrifices, new moons, sabbaths, etc., clearly concerned the Old dispensation; but, "Isaiah 66:7-9 clearly concern the end-time."[12] Such expressions as "Who hath heard such a thing"? stress the newness of what is being revealed here.

The rapidity of the rise and expansion of Christianity "Will mock the slow processes of history."[13] This is prophesied by the metaphor of birth without travail. This was fulfilled, "By the far-flung commonwealth of the Christian Church springing up all over the Roman empire in a single generation."[14]

"She was delivered of a man-child ..." (Isaiah 66:7). The oldest Christian understanding of this passage identifies it with the birth of the Christ. "This was the position of Jerome";[15] and we have never seen any improvement on that view. The New Testament quotation of the word man-child (Revelation 12:5) from Isaiah 66:7 requires our understanding of this as a reference to this designation; but the New Testament references have a double emphasis on the masculinity of the child, "a son, a man child." Alexander Campbell translated it, "She bore a masculine son."[16] Albertus Pieters rendered the words, "A son, a he-man, a fierce assertion of the virility of Christ."[17] The words give the lie to the pretended artistic representations of Jesus Christ, always showing our Lord as a weak, effeminate-looking homosexual! The mother in this analogy is the Jewish race, fulfilling God's promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3), as proved by Matthew 1:1.