Who is the “prophet” (Matthew 1:22)?
Isaiah, who prophesied,
“Behold, the virgin shall be
with child, and give birth to a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel”
(Isaiah 7:14).
Is it “Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14) with in “I” or “Emmanuel” (Matthew 1:23) with an
“E”?
“Immanuel” is the English transliteration of
the original Hebrew עִמָּ֥נוּ (Immanu), which means
“with us”
and אֵֽל׃ (El), which means “God,” while
“Emmanuel” is the English transliteration of
the original Greek word Eμμανουηλ (Emmanouel),
which means “God with us”; the Old Testament was written in Hebrew,
and the New Testament was written in Greek.
Why did the angel of the Lord tell Joseph to name
the Son to be born “Jesus” instead of “E/Immanuel”?
“God with us” is whom the people - “they”
(Matthew 1:23) - including Mary -
“the virgin”
(Isaiah 7:14) - will/shall recognize Jesus as, but Joseph was to name
Him for what He will do for them:
“You shall call
His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins”
(Matthew 1:21). It should be noted that
“Jesus”
is the English transliteration of the original Greek word
Iησους (Iesous), which itself is a
transliteration (Greek adds the “s” at the end to indicate the name
belongs to a male) of the Hebrew name ישוע (Yeshua),
which is what Jesus actually was called and which originated from the
older Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshua),
whose direct English version is “Joshua” and which literally means “Yah
saves” (“Yah” is the first syllable of God's name identified to
Moses and also found at the end of “Hallelujah”
which literally means “Praise” (Hallelu)
“Yah.” It should also be noted that a name sounding different in
different languages is more the norm than the exception. For example, we
call “Christopher Columbus” the man who discovered the American
continent for the Spanish king, but his name was
Cristóbal Colón in Spanish and Christoffa
Corombo in his native Ligurian language of northern Italy.
Likewise, we know the man who conquered England in 1066 as “William the
Conqueror,” but he was born in France, not England, and his name was
Guillaume (pronounced “ghee-yohm”), the
French equivalent of “William.”