A snow covered statue of the Mother Mary and baby Jesus. (Anuja Tilj/Pixabay/Creative Commons) "Lo, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." Every December, this verse from the prophet Isaiah is featured in Messiah Sings and splashed across Christmas cards. It's a beloved text for Christians the world over. One problem, or at least a complication: That's not what the Hebrew says. In their new book The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Story Differently, biblical scholars Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt University) and Marc Zvi Brettler (Duke University) say that in the original Hebrew, Isaiah's prophecy reads, "Look at the pregnant young woman." Had Isaiah wanted to say "virgin" or predict a miraculous birth, he would have used different Hebrew words.